complains whether mccabe's in the room or not, the president complains on a near daily basis about andy mccabe. he seems to have a bit of fixation and it seems to again, we're told by people who speak to him, intensely dislike andrew mccabe. that frankly, has really bothered a lot of people in the fbi. >> do you have any sense of what mccabe's reaction was to this happening? >> well, i think he's uncomfortable. he's concerned about it. he's uncomfortable about it. anyone who has been in government for any significant period of time will tell you this is not the way conversations are supposed to go in the government. that's one of the questions you know, who you voted for that you're not supposed to ask of people in almost any situation. and you know, i also think, frankly, at that particular moment, it's particularly challenging because mccabe is the acting director, his boss has just been fired by the president and there's obviously a lot of tension about that. >> right. >> and about where the russia investigation may go. >> ben, you talked about picking your jaw off the floor. i think someon

he then again talked to andy mccabe, permanent job and andy mccabe did not get the job. what were you able to learn, conversation created some reverb races at the fbi because it was unusual for the president to ask a civil servant and investigator officer his political leanings and affiliations. my colleague who cover this more intimately than i do, i cover the white house, really were able to discern and in this case that these are not questions the president normally asks to an acting fbi director. >> stick around if you will. as for the president's reaction, what we're hearing from the white house, kaitlyn, what has the reaction been. >> reporter: the white house was asked if the president would be willing to sit down with special counsel robert mueller and ough the psident himself has said in the past he would detely be willing to sit down with him and happy to tell him what he's telling us of us in the media, the white house has since backtracked on that and will no longer definitively state he would be willing to sit down with him. only that they are fully cooperat

why didn't donald trump replace andy mccabe when jim comey resigned? >> so, it's interesting, nicolle, because i do think the world is watching what happens at that podium inside the briefing room, but probably for a different reason than it used to be. in your days in the white house. i think that what you've seen and what you saw from sarah sanders is an insistence, an insistence. we went down the front row every reporter asking a variation of the question what did donald trump know about andy mccabe's departure. the white house is insisting publicly the president did not even know that mccabe was leaving the fbi until the reports first started coming out about it. i will tell you that when this news start today break when internally at nbc we heard this first, i spoke with sources inside the white house who had not yet heard that this was happening. and so i think that that is reflected at what you saw publicly. that said, the president clearly has a problem with andrew mccabe. that is undeniable. you showed the tweets, right. you have this carol le

this news that andy mccabe, the news that the president asked andy mccabe directly who did you vote for in the last election? you talked about firing james comey in and of itself may not be grounds to prove obstruction, but other things have happened that make the case more robust. is this one of those things that gets to that issue? >> it's another piece of -- as we just said, the jigsaw puzzle on this. you're corroborating, strengthening a consistent story that the president is acting not just what he thinks is in the best interest of the executive branch, but to protect his own team and himself from legal problems. so it adds to the story about motive. he seems to be an individual who just at no level understandshe independence or professionalism of law enforcement. he thinks they're his instrument. >> and on rick gates, laura, if you want to answer this quickly. the idea that rick gates who has been indicted in this case may have a lawyer now that cnn is reporting is talking to the special counsel, maybe to work out some kind of plea deal in his case. what does that tell you? >> it

we understand christopher wray, one of the reasons he pressured andy mccabe to go out or maybe move toob that mccabe wouldn't take is because of concerns about the outcome of this investigation. if this investigation comes out, patty, and says mccabe acted improperly, is it justified then to move him? >> i want to wait for the inspector general. that's the vehicle where all this information should come t out. i have problems with what happened in 2016. clearly comey reopening the investigation ten days before the election? i had a problem with that. not making the active investigation into the trump campaign while the campaign was going on public like they did the clinton investigation? i have a problem with that, too. let the inspector general do their investigation, let's find out what they have to say. that's the proper vehicle. not this -- we know the nunes memo, we know the motivation. it's to lay the groundwork to discredit whatever conclusion mueller comes up with at the end of his investigation. that's been going on for months. trump started it with his tweets, echoed by republ

agent andrew mccabe stood tall over the last eight months when small people were trying to tear down an institution we all depend on. he served with distinction for two decades. i wish andy well. i also wish continued strength for the rest of the fbi. america needs you. now, the white house, john, has not really commented on mccabe's exit other than to say they did not play a role in the decision. >> all right, kara covering that angle, thank you so much. as we await speaker paul ryan, i'm joined by republican chris stewart of utah, a member of the house intelligence committee. great to see you in person. i know you're surprised how tall i am when you finally meet me. we did hear -- reporters heard earlier from house speaker paul ryan who is in favor of releasing the memo from your committee. i don't think it is a surprise. it wouldn't have been released without his support. other thing is more nuanced, doesn't want it used as a means to criticize special counsel robert mueller's investigation. the two need to be kept separate. how is that possible? >> they should be kept secret -- i'm sorry, separate, i think they will be kept separate. robert mueller is continuing his

what did andy mccabe do to deserve a tweet like this from the commander in chief of the united states of america? from the president's twitter account, "how can fbi director, deputy director, andrew mccabe, the man in charge, along with leakin, james comey, of the phony hillary clinton investigation including her 33,000 illegally deleted e-mails be given $700,000 for wife's campaign clinton puppets during the investigation? racing the clock to retire with full benefits. 90 days to go." what words can we even find to articulate the disgrace that is the president speaking of a public servant like andy mccabe like that? >> yeah, so i'm completely biased here, nicolle, because i worked with andy. vy enormous respect for andy. me sitting here and telling you that doesn't convey the depth of my anguish when the commander in chief goes after individuals in his executive branch. andy is principled, he's wise and smart, which are two different things. he's exactly the guy you would want living next door to you. but more than that, you know, he's come up through the ranks of the fbi. he has the

donald trump clear thinks he will write andy mccabe's story, one tweet at a time.ll these new leaks this week show that just as with the attacks on jim comey and other public servants, there are people who are speaking up and perhaps the final history has yet to be fully written. i'm joined now by a former federal prosecutor, paul butler who's worked closely with fbi agents over many years. your view of andy mccabe and of these kind of attacks on a high ranking fbi official? >> so, ari, asking the fbi director who you voted for is not a crime, but it's more evidence of a corrupt mind state by president trump. the list of law enforcement agents who the president has tried to pressure is long and dishe distinguished. james comey, sally yates, jeff sessions, chris wray and now andrew mccabe. so trump wants their loyalty. he's trying to rig the system, that's investigating collusion and corruption, obstruction of justice. when you try to derail an investigation so that it's not objective, there's a name for that, it's called obstruction of justice. >> on that point, in

andy mccabe was eligible to retire on march 18th. he was 49 years old. he worked for me as a young s.w.a.t. agent. he had to get to march 18th to have a full 20 years on the job and be age 50, whichever comes later. what happens is you build up vacation days. he probably had a month, two months, maybe three months that he had accrued. listen, in light of everything that's been happening, whether you agree with what mccabe agree or you didn't, who would want to stick around and deal with this kind of just daily badgering. so the new fbi director was going to pick a new deputy director. the deputy director had no place to go. there's no lateral transfer. he was never going to be the fbi director. he's probably got a nice offer from a private sector company and probably decided i'm going to go ahead and go out on terminal leave and leave today. >> julia, that kind of makes sense. >> yes. and i would align myself with that. i think we have to view this sort of maybe there are different narratives simultaneously. you can believe, as i do, that the white house

julia, what do we know about the reasons why andy mccabe may have left in some fashion before he was scheduled to? >> so he stepped aside about seven weeks before his scheduled retirement. we learned all that yesterday and there was a lot of hubbub that this must be because of pressure from the president. it's in part that. but the way chris wray laid it out last night in a memo to all employees said that he had just learned about details coming out in a justice department inspector general investigation about the way the investigation into hillary clinton's e-mails were handled. we know of course mccabe was there with comey at the time. the two of them would have had a strong role in that. the letter is so weird, ali, it talks about this investigation and then right under that it says and now mccabe will step aside, we thank him for his service. >> so we don't know why. we heard reference to this other memo. >> they're making it very clear that there's some detail in this forthcoming report that's going to make mccabe want to leave this position for some reason and that's why he's s

there is word that the attorney general put pressure on chris wray to get rid of andy mccabe, and chris wray was so staunch in support of mccabe, i will quit if you make me do that, or i'm going to do that beyond me i quit. do you know that to be true or false? >> look, the president has got, as i just said a great deal of confidence in director wray. he put him there for a reason. he wants him to lead the fbi, clean up some of the problems of the past leader of the fbi, director comey, and i think, we have full confidence in his ability to do that and we're going to leave some of those big decisions to him. brian: do you have confidence in mccabe? >> look, i haven't had that conversation and my understanding he is up for retirement anyway but the president has put director wray in charge to look at those things and make those decisions and we have full confidence that he is going to do exactly that. this is a man of great integrity, that had a great deal of support from across the aisle, bipartisan support and the president is glad that he is there leading his top law enforcement agenc

i know andy mccabe personally. when i served at the fbi for four and a half years, andy i would say was one of the better officer is saw in terms of integrity, brains. but there is a different question. regardless of what hi think of him personally, if you're in the federal service, you're required to take steps every year to certify that you're not involved in the political process. in other words, that you don't participate in campaigning for any particular candidate. if you're a federal official, don, i got one question for you. does that mean that your spouse, in this case andy mccabe's spouse, because that's the issue here, is not allowed to campaign for democratic office if you serve the president? does that mean you have to tell your family that you can't participate in the american democracy because you chose the federal service as your career path? i don't understand why you would ask him to be fired. tell me one thing andy mccabe has done in this investigation that is wrong beyond his spouse participating

you've been very vocal if your support for andy mccabe. sterpd down surprisingly early this week. now "the washington post" is reporting that the inspector general who is looking into the handling of the clinton e-mail investigation says that when mccabe was notified that there may be additional hillary clinton e-mails between her and huma abedin on anthony weiner's laptop, he essentially sat on that for three weeks, he found out in late september, early october before the election and sat on it. did nothing. the question this morning is wausz he slow-walking this investigation leading up to the election, and that would matter a lot? do you have any concerns given this new reporting about how mccabe acted. >> i think the inspector general will make that determination. >> hold on, congressman. i'm asking you as someone has been effusive in your praise. you said he's been accused of bias improperly, et cetera. knowing this reporting, and "the washington post" is generally pretty spot on in its reporting, do you have any concerns about it? >>

this was about acting fbi director andy mccabe. let's watch. >> did you ask mccabe who he voted for? did you ask him that? >> i don't think so. krong i did. >> you did not? >> i don't know what's the big deal with that. who did you vote for? [ laughter ] >> i don't think it's a big deal. but i don't remember that. i saw that this morning. i don't remember asking him that question. >> is it possible you did? >> i don't remember asking him the question. >> steve schmidt, we should remind our viewers who andy mccabe is. he's the acting director of the fbi. he's someone donald trump has smeared in a series of tweets that he sent from his twitter feed which the white house deems official white house statements of policy. he has served under democratic and republican administrations and we know that bob mueller is interested in andy mccabe's account that he found it very troubling that donald trump asked him who he had voted for. your thoughts? >> well, there are tua expects to it, nicolle. the first is the smearing of this credi-buareer

on the circumstances around andy mccabe's departure. i expect the fbi director just came to the conclusion this was too much of a distraction for the bureau and unfortunately andy mccabe needed to go. for those reasons, so i'll give him the benefit of the doubt, but he's going to be asked under oath in congress very soon about whether the president specifically asked him to do this, whether rosenstein asked him to do this. and so we're going to find out the truth in coming weeks about the circumstances around his forced departure. >> i want my panel to weigh in. chris wray has not been shy about speaking his mind. and not going against the president but defending the fbi. why do you think we would see this departure a month ahead of time. when they don't need more negative optics. >> look, the biggest issue is simply the president is attacking -- the president and his loyalists are attacking the special investigation and the fbi. anyone who's attempting to hold the president accountable who has responsibility for that, the president is

and so you know, i don't know whether or not that is andy mccabe.haven't in the course of our investigation yet been able it determine who that is. there is question whether or not the fbi has determined who that is. david: right. >> you mentioned jim comey, i will tell you this, david. one of the other things come out of this text, i think jim comey has a problem. he testified very clearly he made the decision not to prosecute hillary clinton for handling or mishandling of classified information after her july 2nd interview. these texts along with other emails that we've seen and other documents and other testimony are inconsistent with his sworn testimony under oath. david: right. >> so, you know he either has to have the opportunity to come back and clarify that or assert his fifth amendment rights. david: very interesting stuff. john radcliffe, thank you for coming in, sir appreciate it. >> thank you. you bet. good to be he with you. melissa: more news from corporate america in anticipation of big tax cuts. what jpmorgan and disney are announcin

report and andy mccabe's decision to step down. i wonder if you have anymore insights since we talked at this hour yesterday about what went into that decision, because since his news of his departure, i have had more people from republican and democratic administrations weigh in on his integrity, on the way he supported and had the backs of field agents that often what becomes political inside the fbi, i don't know why i'm saying this to you, you know better than me, is when the field agents have a case and they take it to maine doj, sometimes that's where things get political. mccabe always had the agents' back. can you tell us if you have any more clarity on what led to yesterday's news of his resignation? >> well, look, it's no surprise -- it's going to come as no surprise there's an inspector general investigation that is close to issuing a report. that is not going to be kind to the fbi of 2016. i mean, we anticipate, obviously, that it's going to be very critical of senior fbi officials including jim comey and mccabe's decis

one thing andy mccabe and peter struck were known to work on is counter intelligence. so, how, if an interview set up by andy mccabe's office and peter struck was going down, did mike flynn not know he could be the target of a counter intelligence investigation? >> he had to know if the fbi was engaging him on a specific thing, they had cards and knew a lot more about it. the thing is the fbi, it's a very chaotic period of time there. they have this russia investigation. it hasn't really come out public publicly yet. there's been some reports in the press about it. there are different strands of intelligence they're looking at. they're trying to figure out if there is a there there. they're dealing with a president who is incredibly difficult to deal with. it turned out to be what they thought. >> and it continues. carol lee, jennifer rogers, thank you for helping us understand it. carol, thanks for your incredible reporting. when we come back, the gop and the fbi have a price of loyalty to donald trump risks breaking up the very coalition that elected him. >>> and a c

, but to andy mccabe. so there is that frustration there is also a sense i have to say within the fbi that this is just how trump thinks of mccabe. he is never going to like him, and he is always going to have an issue with him. >> and mccabe has been the focus of a number of president trump's tweets? >> well, right. you saw -- we did a story back in december that mccabe was planning to retire in march, and almost immediately after that story posted, the president was tweeting angrily about mccabe. so it's clearly someone that -- we're told that trump often just in conversation in the white house criticizes mccabe, calls him a democrat, says he doesn't trust him, things like that. >> and has mccabe commented for this story at all? >> no. the fbi declined to comment. mccabe, as much as this stuff has been swirling around him and at him, he has actually tried to keep a fairly low profile. he's only got what's expected fob a couple more months on the job. >> deflynn barrett, thanks for reporting from "the was

he also apparently has tried to lean on jeff sessions to push out andy mccabe. i would like to know what attorney general session's olro, if any, deputy director mccabe is leaving. he has testified he's been a credible witness. he's a lifelong law enforcement official. he is not partisan. "the washington post" reported he didn't even vote in the 2016 election. so it was wholly inappropriate for the president to ask him who he voted for. mr. mccabe didn't even participate in the election. so i think a lot of unfair attacks have been volleyed at him by the president. i'm just afraid what this means for other career law enforcement officials who just want to put their head down and do their job without political interference. >> are you going to want him called in to be questioned by your committee or others? >> i believe it would be best if he was pushed out by the president or attorney general sessions that there would be individuals who should come before the judiciary committee including the attorney general and anyone else who would be a part of it and mr. mcca

the white house has not backed off the suggestion he said that to andy mccabe. mccabe hasn't said it didn't happen. if you say that in front of these investigators, you expose yourself to questions that can lead you into a trap. they are concerned about that, yes? >> yes, correct. that is 100% correct. that answer that he gave yesterday was very similar to one if you look at the videos and transcripts of his depositions over the years, those are similars to answers he's given in the past. i don't recall. so what. i'd ask you the same thing. i really don't remember that. it's worth noting to your point, not only has the white house backed off the idea he did it, white house officials were confirming the night before the president said this that he did indeed ask that. it's the kind of question he would ask of many settings, which is what i was told. thoost how he talks which is true. that is how he talks. the problem is the law didn't necessarily make exceptions for that. that is why they are concerned about what he will say when he goes before the federal investi

he could have reassigned andy mccabe to a field office to another position at the fbi, but as we've been reporting, mccabe has been saying he's going to retire come march. he plans to retire given all the political backlash that he has received because of his connections to the hillary clinton e-mail investigation, to the fact that his wife was running for state office in virginia. all of that probably weighing heavily on him as he approaches perhaps the last month as the deputy director. >> and he's going to retire in march because he'll then become eligible for his retirement benefits and pension. he served in the fbi all these years, right? >> that's exactly right. that is when he becomes eligible. he could have left earlier because of accrued time, but it seems, at least among everything we've been told, that he chose to stay on. keep in mind, wolf, andy mccabe has been involved in many investigations at the fbi. it's been close to 20 years that he's now been there. other political investigations against democrats, and he still has a hand in the day-to-day activity, the day-to-day op

of frustration as been expressed to me within the fbi about the way trump talks not just about andy mccabe him. there is also a sense in the fbi this is how trump thinks of mccabe. he is always going to have an issue with him. >> and mccabe has been the focus of a number of president trump's tweet. >> right. we did a story back in december that mccabe was planning to retire in march. and immediately the president was tweeting sang grilly about mccabe. calls him a democrat and says he doesn't trust him. >> and mac kaccabe commented fo story? >> no. as much as this stuff is swirling around him and at him, he has tried to keep a fairly low profile. >> appreciate the reporting. thanks very much. from "the washington post." with me now is john dean, and phillip mudd. talks about his wife's political believes and history and what do you make of that? >> this is painful and let me confess up front. i know andy mccabe personally. i joined in 1985. and then president bush the son, and then president obama. i served under all of them. what are you supposed to do every time we change president? i did

this is the exchanging about andy mccabe. take a listen. >> should mccabe go, mr. president? should mccabe go? >> well, mccabe got more than $500,000 from essentially hillary clinton and is he investigating hillary clinton? should he go? >> did anybody hear many of my speeches where i talked about mccabe? he was the star of my speech. this isn't now. and i said a man who was more or less in charge of -- the wife got $500,000. terry is hillary. >> do you regret having him at your acting fbi director. >> you know what, i keep out of it. you find that hard to believe. that's the way it fell. he's been there. it's one of those things. but he was the star of many of my speeches. >> bob, i've heard that the president and other people reported the presidents is obsessed with andrew mccabe and he sounds it there. >> there's a clamor on the right about this entire federal probe about the investigations on capitol hill and mr. mccabe has become a target of a lot of that criticism. it has not been denied by the president, at least in that exact exchanging about whether he asked mr. mcca

the president complains, we're told, on a nearly daily basis about andy mccabe. he seems to have a bit of a fixation on the point, and it seems to -- again, we're told by people who speak to him -- intensely dislike andrew mccabe. >> now to what more we have learned about the special counsel's investigation. the "washington post" also reports mueller is looking to question the president about his decisions to get rid of national security adviser michael flynn and the aforementioned fbi director james b. comey. trump said, quote, trump's attorneys have crafted some negotiating terms for the president's interview with mueller's team. the president's legal team hopes to provide trump's testimony in a hybrid form, answering some questions in a face to face interview and others in a written statement. there are other new revelations about who mueller's team has already spoken to. but michael schmidt of the "new york times" who happens to be standing by to speak to us said the mueller team has spoken to jeff sessions and james comey. the interview with sessions is the f

that if and when andy mccabe retires at the end of march when he becomes eligible, that will be seener pressure and in some ways we're creating a situation where chris wray may want to keep andy mccabe around for longer than he would have normally. >> swrosh and garrett, thank you so much. >> they time. >> on chris wray. the fact that we've now confirmed that comey did sit down with mueller's team last year. we'll take that briefing live in as soon as it begins in a couple of minutes. >>> senate minority leader chuck schumer is yanking the offer he made for funding the president's border wall. those details coming up. don't wait until february. walk into a jackson hewitt, day or night, and you could get up to $3200. so why wait? you could get up to $3200 with a no-fee refund advance. go to jackson hewitt today. with a no-fee refund advance. dad! dad! can you drive me to jessica's house? (groans) ♪ "welcome to my house" by flo rida ♪ this is what our version of financial planning looks like. tomorrow is important, but so is making the most of the house before they're out of the house.

. >> first of all, andy mccabe's answer is interesting. he didn't vote in the election, which is consistent with an unwritten norm amongst prosecutors in public corruption investigators which oftentimes they forego their personal right to vote so they maintain an appearance of being objective in a particular investigation. so with respect to potential obstruction, it's not just the firing of fbi director comey that special counsel's office might be looking at. they also could be looking the a whole range of activities including pressure that the president or the white house plays on the attorney general, other investigators, some of the president's tweets could be interpreted as trying to influence or intimidate potentially witnesses. and so i think his conversation, as it has been reported with andy mccabe, falls into that category. >> remember, this is part of an overall point of view the president has, which is the as president of the united states, he can inspectly control the justice department, the fbi. they shouldn't have any indepe

reference to a conversation they had in andy's office, so we've already interviewed andy mccabe. we need to interview peter strzok and lisa page to figure out what insurance policy, keep in mind these two fbi agents, these fbi agents who are immune from bias, one of them said the election result should be 100 million-0 so someone investigating clinton and trump could not think of a single solitary american citizen who would vote for donald trump for president and we're supposed to have confidence in the objectivity of that particular agent? that's why we need to talk to them that's why we need the text that's why we need the e-mails and we shouldn't have to wait six months to get it. maria: that's exactly right. americans want to see the rule of law. if we cannot trust the fbi, the cia. by the way the irs, we know what the irs did a year ago or two years ago. then what is the point of the freedoms of america? let me ask you this, because we've been watching this russia probe. how long is this going to go on because we still haven't had any evidence of any collusion when is it app

the president tweeted about jim baker and andy mccabe and that is a remarkable thing for the president to be tweeting about by name, about members of the bureaucracy, you know, not the cabinet level, but these are not even sub-cabinet. these are sort of senior level career bureau kracrats in the justice department. for them to be named by the president is an unbelievable breach of every protocol we thought we knew about the way the president interacts with law enforcement. it also reflects, and let's just be frank about this, it reflects the fact that the president believes that the fbi should do his political bidding. and there's a group of people that run the fbi who actually have this quaint notion that the fbi should be an institution that enforces the law and protects the national security of the united states in certain types of domestic national security investigations, and that it should do that without reference to political favor. and this seems to be an idea that the president is not capable of getting his hands around and i think we should be candid that is what is going on

they think they're talking about discussions about trump in andy mccabe's office. a few have come out and we at cnn have not seen them. these have been released by republican lawmaker rob johnson, and here are some of them. lisa paige saying unbelievable that the 2016 presidential race would come down to clinton versus trump. now the pressure is the mid-year review about hillary clinton's e-mail investigation. another series of texts, you say we text on that phone when we talk about hillary because it can't be traced. those are just a few. >> so what? what does that tell you? i mean, yes, the fact that this investigation was going on in the middle of a presidential campaign, everybody knew that. obviously, they had to resolve it. this idea that fbi agents can't acknowledge what's going on in the real world. i read those text messages and i think so what? >> there's also this new revelation that some six months of texts, they can't find them and is that in any way suspicious to you? >> let there be an investigation of why they'ves did appeared. >> stuff gets lost, a

the world is watching how andy mccabe's fate is handled under this new director of the fbi. he has to march a very, very, very careful line between appearing to be not loyal to donald trump but on the trump team while also keeping the trust and maintaining what you just described as the independence and integrity of the fbi. >> not only has he sort of decapitated the fbi by getting rid of comey but the president's now apparently leading a sort of vigilante raid against the fbi. republican allies of the president stepped up their attacks on the fbi and the justice department claiming bias and corruption on a large scale. at issue text messages sent between two fbi employees some of which criticize president trump. one of the employees peter strzok worked on mueller's team before being reassigned last july by bob mueller because he shouldn't it be being political. this week the fbi acknowledged they were missing some messages between those two employees from december of 2016 through may of 2017. according to trump's allies this adds up to a deep seated conspiracy. let's watch?

popped up his remember, and he was reference and it is to be believed that this was referencing andy mccabew stepping down of the bureau. i want to believe the path for consideration in andy's office, the two lovebirds exchange in the text messages. there's no way he could get elected. remember, trump tweeted about that. he says this is the fbi we are talking. that is treason. called it treasonous. >> kennedy: i want to add to that because if you remember, they were also talking about recusal and the fact that mccabe didn't recuse himself from this investigation until the very end and they were senior official at the fbi who wanted him to step aside from this and those lovebirds who brought up the point of the story and whether or not that was going to get traction and whether that was going to have some impact. >> harris: his wife getting all that money for people who are just tuning in a didn't see it previously before the commercial break, getting all that money to run for office. >> kennedy: they reference recusal great >> harris: who really quickly before you talk about that dialogue b

brian: how does that relate to what andy mccabe's firing last night? ekend and andrew mccabe steps down? not a coins dink, folks. steve: so mr. wray went up to capitol hill. went in the scif, read it on sunday. came out, next day removed andrew mccabe. we heard from sara carter. she said that her sources said it sounded like some agents were asked by mccabe to change their 3 302s which is obstruction of justifiable. >> if you are in the secret service. you didn't have to do this. in the fbi if you interview a subject you have to do a report afterwards called 302. can you do it in the secret service but not obligated. if you are asked to change 302s, the greatest irony of this whole thing former deputy director mccabe now you have an obstruction of case, ironically against them. now you have collusion. yeah that happened with the democrats and fux g.p.s. and obstruction but not with trump but with them. ainsley: how would that get out, the individuals that did the investigation that interviewed the individuals they would have said. >> let me proudly tell

do you think he wants to talk to andy mccabe? and this is all happening on a day when the president want to be talking about his big speech and this is what the discussion is, rightfully when your deputy fbi director leaves and you have to reporting we have. >> it's classic trump administration problem. when they have good news, they're always stepping in it, when they have a big announcement and probably a speech that he's been working on for days instead we're talking about this. the other point that is stunningly clear is everything is personal for trump. doesn't matter if you're a politician or civil servant or ceo of a company. he is willing to trash you in public, behind the scenes if it's for his own benefit. >> that's alarming because of how well the strategy is working. in the election he made hillary clinton appear like an enemy of the state. she ended up losing. according to trump and now with the republicans the media is the enemy of the state now he's paving the fbi and andrew mccabe as enemy of the state. that's set

>> well, andy mccabe, i think, is a patriot. he was a hard-working, experienced, particularly in counter terrorism investigator and manager and executive. i think he worked hard for the organization. it is disappointing. he certainly became a lightning rod. i think we all know that whether you're a public servant or in some other industry your spouse is, you know, completely entitled to run for public office. >> sure. >> that seemed to have certainly garnered some attention that the notion that she got hundreds of thousands of dollars from terry mcauliffe or democratic organizations raised eyebrows as andy ascended to the deputy director position. i do believe that a lot of folks thought at that time he in effect put on a blue jersey instead of a striped jersey. >> let he be cleme be clear, th people thought that, sure. you say he became a lightning rod. i think donald trump and others made sure he was depicted as a lightning rod. you say he was a patriot. are you aware of any evidence at this juncture that any of that activity,

and a third thing when asked about andy mccabe. the president was asked did you ask andy mccabe who he voted for, the president said i don't think so, i don't really remember. i don't remember, i don't know, i don't think so. how far will that go beyond closed doors when the special counsel's team is interviewing him when your former colleague, andrew weissman is interviewing him? is that going to satisfy investigators? >> they're going to have to take whatever answers he gives them. then the question for them is going to be how does that compare against the other evidence they have? what is mccabe's testimony likely to be on that? if it has the kind of rich detail we got from comey about his conversations with trump and the sort of strangeness of those conversations and the weird almost creepy kind of pressured context, if that's the sort of story that mccabe is telling and it's a credible one, it's not going to be very believable for the president to say, oh, this was an off-the-cuff remark. i'd ask that to anybody. it's going to

it is running way behind schedule maybe having to do with this prize revelation that andy mccabe, thehe fbi is leaving. we are there when they're there. in the meantime let's go to philip wegman. before any of this mccabe news, talk was about what the president was going to talk about tomorrow night, the economy going his way, more bipartisanship, what you think happens now. >> i think andrew mccabe is gone but he's not going to be forgotten. he is expected to be named in the memo that house republicans are pushing to be released so it wouldn't surprise me if the administration or republican critics of the department of justice would point to his early retirement and say it's tantamount to some sort of admission that he got wrapped up in the wrong thing. i think this is more evidence that the administration is going to used to bolster their case that there is something that needs to be looked at more closely at the fbi. >> i suspect as well that this is going to be, for the white house, a distraction it does not want. whatever the thoughts are mccabe, this takes the attention away fro

andy mccabe's old boss, james comey, is now weighing in on his abrupt departure. >> overnight comey tweeting special agent andrew mccabe stood tall when for the last eight months when small people were trying to tear down an institution we all depend on. he served with distinction for two decades. i wish andy well. i also wish continued strength for the rest of the fbi. america needs you. as serena mentioned, president trump is now just hours away from delivering his first state of the union address and expected to discuss the economy, immigration, infrastructure while promoting unity. but at least eight democrats are refusing to attend the speech citing remarks by the president viewed as racist or divisive. the first lady, melania trump,, is expected to be there. she'll be joined by a number of special guests including a family that just bought their first home and two couples who lost children to gang violence. meanwhile, new york senator kirsten gillibrand will be joined in the audience tonight by the mayor of san juan, puerto rico, who has repeatedly clashed the president over hurricane

andy mccabe is foremost among them. let them do their work. >> so this investigation has been going on for over a year, this investigation between the trump administration and whether or not they had any coordination or collusion with the russians, but also potentially any obstruction, and james comey testified about the memos that he wrote right after meeting with donald trump, his contemporaneous memos of his interactions with donald trump. here's what he said last summer, we believe last summer to congress. >> i created records after conversations that i think i did it after each of our nine conversations. if i didn't, i did it for nearly all of them, especially the ones that were substantive. i knew that there might come a day when i would need a record of what had happened not just to defend myself, but to defend the fbi and our integrity as an institution and the independence of our investigative function. that's what made this so difficult is it was a combination of circumstances, subject matter and the particula

we know that the president is demanding andy mccabe's head because he tweets about it on a regular basis. he evidently hates andrew mccabe, and the reason seems to be that it is because he is married to a democrat. i am also married to a democrat. >> who once stood next to terri mc, cauliff. >> i have never seen -- it is mccarthyism. >> it is appalling how the president reaches down in the bureaucracy to attack a career fbi agent. it is an astonishing thing. it is astonishing that it is not more scandalous. >> it's astonishing that more people are not astonishes. >> i think we learned something very important about chris ray last night when axios broke the story. that is that this is someone who at the end of the day is working to protect the institutional indi integrity of the fbi. i'm not going to sit here and say i support everything he has done, but i think that was a very encouraging thing. >> how do you view these text messages that feel like they're becoming a mythical holy grail of missing information that some of the president's supporters are hoping it will prove that it's the

piece of it is unseemly and we have an inspector general looking at it and looking at very likely andy mccabe'snections to it as well as james comey's. andy has proven to be a lightning rod. there's the presidential tweets. there's legitimate concerns about his wife who has every right to run for public office, but getting $700,000 from clinton acolytes in virginia and that will raise perception issues about andy's ability to lead the fbi in an apolitical direction. so i think there were legitimate concerns internal and external. maybe this is a way, whether chris wray, decided something after seeing the four-page republican memo, whether he got a whiff of the inspector general's report, a determination was had and andy is on terminal leave. >> neil: you know, ron, having worked at the fbi and you're all human beings, smart human beings with passionate positions. you'd be brain dead if you didn't have a political viewpoint. what disturbed some among the republicans looking into this, it was so blatant. now maybe it is and people put the blatant disregard for a individual like donald trump aside

the funny thing is when you talk to them about the way the president talks to andy mccabe and about andy mccabe. none of them are particularly surprised at this point. but it is a sense of siege. and it's also a sense of isolation. think about one of the stranger things that the whole thing has created is that the fbi is very isolated from the white house. and the white house is very estranged from the justice department. and the doj and the fbi are actually pretty disant from each other right now. that's a bad environment for the government to be operating in. but that is the environment we are in. and that is the kind of thing that frankly worries folks at the fbi, at the justice department. and you know, they're frustrated, i would say. but i think they've gotten used to it at this point. >> yup, desensitized. and there are a lot of republicans and lawmakers on capitol hill who should be a lot more worried about this. i don't understand why they're not. >> and mika, if you look at what andrew mccabe has done in serving this country, he was in the new york field office and the s.w.a.t.

it seems as though they're talking about andy mccabe. the deputy fbi director expected to retire soon. i think that tells you something. >> it certainly does. she ran to the studio to fwet to us. so we know you're out of breath. let's be transparent. thank you for get. this is new reporting to get on the air. you're the best person to do it. listen, the white house are they worried about the optics of the second fbi director being fired and trumps first year? was that a big concern? >> according to to the reporting there was concern of pressuring wray. and concern that perhaps wray would loef. that he would leaf the job. and the optics of an fbi director two trekt directors loefing within the same year. they were gun shy after james comey was fired. and the media fire storm that caused. the white house doesn't want another one of those. and the optics aren't good for the white house. the idea that the second fbi director under president trump's administration has felt political pressure. is not a good thing when you think about the fbi d