>> ari: i have no problem saying they are radical islamic extremist. what's more important is what we do to them. i want to see the government play permanent offense. if it's a citizen, i want a warrant. this is where we have to fight this as a military operation. we need to be far more aggressive than we've been. call it whatever you want. >> kat: political correctness has played a role in making it harder for you look at something like san bernardino where the neighbors saw things and they were afraid to say because they were worried about calling -- being called islamaphobic. >> eric: allow me to read from "usa today," not a right-wing or conservative publication. "u.s.-led coalition has increased number of bombs dropped on the islamic state by 50%, saying the increase comes as president trump has given battlefield commanders more authority to approve air strikes and raids." you call it what it is, you can attack it and go after it and kill it. if you play pc, you're never going to do is. >> neil: the child in texas who made a project in class and s

good evening, lawrence. >> good evening, ari.f, by the time you're on sunday, there is going to be more breaking news on top of all of tonight's breaking news. >> i believe it. >> thanks, ari. >> thank you, lawrence. >>> it has been a night, as we just said, a night of breaking news on top of breaking news. the latest report comes from reuters saying that president donald trump's son-in-law jared kushner had at least three previously undisclosed contacts with the russian ambassador to the united states during and after the 2016 presidential campaign. seven current and former u.s. officials told reuters.

and ari, remember, there could be a lot of different outcomes here. it may be that there was some illegal activity. the fbi, of course, will focus on that. it may not be. it may simply be tt a transition team engaged one possible outcome, that the transition team engaged in some really weird behavior that raises all sorts of questions. if that's what our committee investigation produces, maybe the answer here is that we'll come up with best practices and good protocols for how a transition should occur in ways that doesn't cause confusion and questions to be raised. >> congressman, i mean -- that's restating it, right? the best practices seem to exist that involves the national security council not having the russians handle the security of the conversations. which is again the possible outcome that was proposed in the "post." i think the question really for congress is what to you do if those so-called best practices aren't being followed? the other thing i want to ask you -- >> remember the purported contact took place prior to this administration,

ameriprise >>> hi, i'm ari melber. welcome to "the point." the big story this weekend, a powerful person of interest inside the white house as the russia inquiry picks up steam. meanwhile, president trump takes the world stage with a promise not to lecture. how did he do? >>> and a special look at the no apology president. it is bad for america to have a leader that never says i'm sorry? now our lead story is this russia inquiry, a topic president trump avoided in saudi arabia tonight but which is heating up against two revelations. a white house official is a person of interest in the fbi inquiry while trump's own words continue to cause problems. he reportedly assured the russians that he could tamp down pressure from this fbi inquiry by firing jim comey who he also called a nut job. this is an odd fight for the president to pick. comey announcing heading into this weekend that he will now testify in public under oath after memorial day. let's get right it to with my guests. david, i kept a lead short because tonight i think people know the

and ari, remember, there could be a lot of different outcomes here.t may be that there was some illegal activity. the fbi, of course, will focus on that. it may not be. it may simply be that a transition team engaged one possible outcomethat the transition team engaged in some rely weird behavior that raises all sorts of questions. if that's what our committee investigation produces, maybe the answer here is that we'll come up with best practices and good protocols for how a transition should occur in ways that doesn't cause confusion and questions to be raised. >> congressman, i mean -- that's restating it, right? the best practices seem to exist that involves the national security council not having the russians handle the security of the conversations. which is again the possible outcome that was proposed in "the post." i think the question really for congress is what to you do if those so-called best practices aren't being followed? the other thing i want to ask you -- >> remember the purported contact took place prior to this administration, appa

ari, you still there?i was curious, as this progresses forward and the legal authorities question comey about the meeting and maybe inevitably question the president as well, then you have a he said/he said. fbi director versus the president. where does that ultimately land? >> let me add to the question, ari. if it's he said/he said but this he has notes from the meetings, does that strengthen one's case over the other? >> contemporaneous notes always help. fbi memos to file are even better because they generally get some deference, not automatic, but some deference because they're law enforcement memoranda. what is different than a traditional he said/she said is the justice department doesn't take the position that it should prosecute a president for even, shall we say, normal crimes. so the entire obstruction discussion, if the evidence continues to pile up, and boy, donald trump seems insistent on creating that public evidence in record, almost like someone with a legal death wish at this juncture giv

real quick, ari. your thoughts jared kushner? >> on this investigative team, if this is their top style -- bob muller will not put up with this. i think these are holdovers, doing the work. if they continue to unfairly name who they are talking to, muller will put an end to it. >> i agree. >> kimberly: put an end to the witch hunt. let justice prevail. thank you for being on "hannity." awaiting results in the montana special election. a live update, plus the g.o.p. candidate greg gianforte allegedly body slammed a reporter. last night. you won't believe who the mainstream media is now trying to blame for it. charlie heard and jessica tarlov will be here with reaction. and later, sara carter and john solomon are out with another explosive report tonight about the government violating your privacy rights. they will both be here to share the details. all that and much more as "hannity" continues ys it does.. ...they're not all the same. turns out, they're really... ...different. who knew? i had no idea. so, she said look for... ...o

i am ari melber in for lawrence tonight. tonight donald trump just releasing the short list of candidates to lead the fbi. it is the opposite of nonpartisan. >> trump has created a nightmare for himself. >> did trump record his conversations with former fbi director comey? >> i assume you're referring to the tweet. >> james comey better hope that there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to press. >> the president has nothing further to add on that. >> i won't talk about that. >> he left it as a very, very serious and very real possibility. >> the president of the united states willfully courting the most radioactive elements to richard nixon. >> the story gets more bizarre every day, we have to find out if tapes exist. if they do exist, we have to see them. >> president trump is dangerous. >> i would like to know if the president ordered mr. comey to end the investigation. >> he is a showboat. he is a grandstander. >> he is a showboat? if your evenigo is any bigger, would start putting your name on yo

>> well, they do, ari, absolutely.lockbuster statement by the president, in my view, given the federal statute on obstruction and interfering with any agency's official proceedings. joyce can elaborate on this. but she knows. and i know joyce. and we work together. and i would be in her office early in the morning arguing that we needed an aggressive investigation on this set of fax. look, you have the president saying he fired the director of the fbi for the only reason on earth that he could not fire the director of the fbi. he could have had any other reason on earth, any reason but that reason, because that reason obstructs the investigation which he knew existed, which they discussed, which he -- there is talk of maybe loyalty that would have to be flushed out. and now the minute the director left the fbi, he was a witness in the case. and the president is still tweeting at him. so this thing needs a very aggressive investigation. it cannot proceed in my view the way it is. i think that the deputy attorney general

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. >> i talked to aris and he said he joined are you one of the engineers here aris? >> come here. come here. >> come here. aris is from madrid and he sgloypd gal ofes ton. what did you do on this s ship. >> i'm volunteer. and it's very funny. oshlingts wow it's eye long way up there. yeah. >> soys listen give me a story about being on the ship the last couple months right. >> very funny story. 10 days ago we were sailing and a lot of water come inside the boat and the main deck and it was like -- >> like the real deal right? >> boscoe howell is the ship and what do they expect to see when they comma board, $10 for adult and $5 child. >> people under five don't pay they're free and ship is years old and we host ar around,000 visitors a day -- this weekend so we hope visitors will be around 1,000. >> visitors are coming on and doing a self guided tour. you're here to help them and not speed ago lon. i saw some dressing up and taking pictures do you offer that. >> yes the people that want to look like pirates can come to the wheel. we have of the fun. >> how long will be the ship be

. >>> hi, i'm ari melber. 6:00 p.m. on the east coast. a look at the white house intrigue in the wake of the firing of james comey. hunger games in the west wing. reports tonight from nbc news that trump might follow firing comey by firing white house aides. meanwhile, democrats say they need a special counsel in the russia case. few republicans ready to jump on board. which raises the question if this isn't a special case, what is? and we will continue to bear down on the facts when it comes to the future of the russia inquiry, because it's clear now more than ever this ain't over. it is an unusually busy weekend with the justice department working overtime, interviewing the candidates for fbi director, which range from acting director andrew mccabe, a conventional and nonpartisan option to the trump administration's partisan decision to float the idea of politicians taking over the fbi, including republicans like senator cornyn and former congressman mike rogers. picking corn nan ining cornyn w equivalent of obama firing asking dick dur

i am ari melber in for lawrence o'donnell. we begin with the question many intel officials are posing. how do you stop leaks to adversaries if they're coming from inside the oval office itself? >> the story that came out tonight as reported is false. >> president trump revealed highly classified information to the russian foreign minister and the russian ambassador last week during a meeting at the white house. >> what donald trump stands accused of in this article is something he ran against. >> the president did not disclose any military operations that were not already publicly known. >> i think the credibility of this administration is shattered. top down. >> sean spicer once again refusing to confirm or deny whether or not the president of the united states was taping the fbi director. >> let's hear what he says. >> i think they're trying to shift the narrative. they're trying to punt this discussion. it's not clear if sean spicer knows whether or not there are actual recordings. >> there are indications that comey would

ari melber sitting in for lawrence. hello, ari. >> hello, rachel. i thought there was supposed to less news on friday. >> i can get drunk on thursday. i can be hung over on friday. nothing to do on friday. no, friday is the busiest, busiest, busiest news day of the week. >> okay, rachel's rule, no hangover fridays. have a good weekend. >> it's true, i'm ari melber in for lawrence o'donnell. the breaking news is big. you may have heard, it's happening again. a massive election hack to benefit a right wing candidate in france. an apparently brazen move as the u.s. continues to investigate the criminal hacking of our own recent election. more on that story in a moment. we also have fallout from the health care vote and why. it's not just an obamacare vote and why independent experts say it's helping democrats in the next election. all of that straight ahead. >>> but first, the biggest political story in europe tonight is also the biggest geopolitical story in the u.s. this massive and coordinated hacking of the top candidate in the french election. all

joining us personnel is ari fleischer. monica crowley. good to see you both. let me start with ari. way beyond the hypocrisy, we have played this so often. there has not been -- since the russia conspiracy theory has started, not a single shred of evidence. that there was any collusion with the trump campaign. at that any vote was impacted at all by any actions that russia was involved in -- as a matter of fact, just the opposite was told. how is it these major networks -- you dealt with all these press outlets. how do they keep reporting one big lie conspiracy, night after night, day after day? >> you can add the accusation that the deputy attorney general threatened to resign. he said he did not threaten to resign. add that to the list of false reporting. i think there are several levels to this. let's start with the democratic hypocrisy. that is what is appalling. they should name the democratic party the hippocratic hypocrit. the hyperventilating that has made people like me who are open-minded and want to see things a little more towards the middle totally turning against what

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and that's ari melber. good evening to you both. >> good evening, brian. >> good evening. >> richard, as a follower of yours on social media i wanted to have you on for so long. you basically pick one perceived ethics violation per day to highlight. often, they are about business entanglements by members of the trump family. this will now be the story we are covering tonight its own huge distraction from what you are usually talking about. and that's the business side. >> well there have been a lot of problems. and some days we've had more than one. this is a tragedy, what's happening right now. the russia investigation is the most important priority at this point.

you don't see steve mnuchin and guerre ary cohn on the hill working on this and that's what the markets are dependent on. they're losing confidence they're going to see that agenda. if that republican agenda isn't pushed forward, why are the markets going to have this accentuated boom with trump? it was based on promises and those promises at this point, there's no sign of them being kept. i spoke to a republican earlier that said, well, remember, president trump put forward that tax reform bill. do you remember that -- i mean, that was one piece of paper that looked like it was written on a school bus ride. >> it might have been, steph. i've waited my whole life to say this, stephanie rhule, come on down. >> the price is right. >>> hello, everybody, it's 4:00. we are on deadline. president trump just returned from a short day trip to connecticut where he delivered a commencement address making his first public comments since the bombshell report of the comey memo. >> look at the way i've been treated lately. especially by the media. no politician in history, and i

host: from new jersey, charles millville, ary independent line. go ahead, charles. caller: hi, how are you today? you. fine, thank caller: yeah, i just, you know, democrat, but really always been independent, i take it every time i vote much. i just don't understand why the ouse and the senate and the democrats and the republicans just can't get it together. donald trump is, you know, a good guy, i think a fine job, the talks n saudi arabia and israel and palestine, considering making amends, i think the man is doing a good job. what are your thought? host: you talked about issues, what did domestically, do you think doing good job, as well? don't think he's had enough time or cooperation to do what he could do if he could get democrats and republicans to agree on a few things. that n't been in office

ari, let me start with you.s reported that director comey in this memo, at a meeting with president trump, said that he was -- >> does that constitute obstruction of justice based on what we know right now? >> alone, probably not. it is, however, the kind of thing that is bad, that if you add other bad things, intent and action, it could make a strong case for obstruction. this is in the context of the white house getting negative information about mike flynn, including the view of the justice department that he was blackmailable by the russians. and what is the response? first to keep him on. then to fire him reluctantly. then to ask for all of this to be quashed. a more reasonable fact finder would look at that information and say gosh, let's get to the bottom of it. not gosh, let's go after the investigation of the bad behavior. so all of this coming together could look bad. the question is why was jim comey terminated? if the white house has other good reasons, they might be able to say it's not obstruction,

ari melber is still here with us, i know you have a show coupling up "the point" at 5:00.? >> we have a former watergate prosecutor who says that nixon withheld his tax returns because of a potential crime. we'll dig into that. we have a look at the no apology president, president trump won't apologize, others say it makes a crisis of legitimacy when he won't own up to them and we're digging into the russian controversy. >> things don't stick to him. at least as of yet. >> at least according to his supporters. >> thank you so much, ari melber. >>> we have been asking you on "pulse of america," agree or disagree, race has played a role in the sexual assault claims against bill cosby. 73% of you disagree, 27% agree. thank you for participating on our pulse question of the last segment. >>> next for you, for more than a century it has delighted children of all ages. now the greatest show on earth taking its final bow. and not without some criticism. stick around. mom, i have to ll you something. dad, one second i was driving and then the next... they just didn't stop and then

>> well, ari, i think it's really mystery. what we know is we have confirmed that jonni iadinisi was paid to do work for the trump campaign. that work was not disclosed to a venture capital firm with a stake in his company was paid for social media wk which perhaps was the condutinu condi. at the same the contract flynn was forced to disclose more details after he stepped down. so there is a strange confluence of activities here that just raises questions. and we tried repeatedly contacting everyone involved, mr. iadinisi, his coworkers, general flynn, the venture capital firm, and no one would answer our questions about what was going on here. >> david, when you look at this kind of action, people going into the weekend not necessarily expecting another bombshell, international piece of political intrigue, with at least some evidence and some allegations that it ties back to russia, is there the beginnings of a lesson here about what lessons russia has drawn from their recent activities? >> well, the lesson they have to draw

ari? >> well, he's right. but russia didn't listen, of course, to the obama administration, did they? i long for the day where people hesitated to do something like this to america because the consequences would be severe. once president obama had thought that russia was doing this, we should have hurt the russians where it would hurt the most, financially or involving some people close to putin to send a signal. you mess with us, we'll mess with you and raise you one. that's how you deter aggression. that's what ronald reagan would do. that's one of the reasons this happened is because they knew barack obama, who said i'll have more flexibility after the election, called for a red line and didn't enforce it. it was an open door they could push and walk through. >> sandra: i have got to leave it there, but i can't let you leave without asking you, the president's on this trip. hasn't been tweeting this much. we talked so much about the messaging from this white house. could you tell me briefly, is it getting b

ari, so many things to talk about. but let's start with this conversation that happened inside the oval office. and i think one of the things we didn't touch on was that this is not something that we saw before where, for example, where a nversation came out because it was recorded by james comey. this was something that apparently was written down within the white house and circulated among a very small group of people. >> that's right. reading from "the new york times" account which is not disputed by the white house at this hour, the president reportedly saying, quote, i fired the head of the fbi, he was crazy, a real nut job. i face great pressure because of russia, that's taken off. i'm not under investigation. the headlines saying that it's easing the pressure. this is donald trump drawing the length that his own aides so strenuously tried to deny to protect them and doing it to the very subjects of the inquiry who were told a counter tell and mixed criminal inquiry, him telling these people, these russian repres

thank you, paul butler and ari melber. >>> the flynn factor.dent trump appears to be so insistent on protecting his former national security adviser. their experience is coveted. their leadership is instinctive. they're experts in things you haven't heard of. researchers of technologies that one day you will. some call them the best of the best. some call them veterans. we call them our team. adult 7+ promotes alertness and mental sharpness in dogs 7 and older. (ray) the difference has been incredible. she is much more aware. she wants to learn things. (vo) purina pro plan bright mind. nutrition that performs. [customer] have you ever walkedp into the paint store feeling like you should really know more than you know? satin versus semi-gloss, and...i don't know! [team member] yes...i know the feeling. [customer] that's how i feel right now about all the financing options for this project i'm doing. i feel like i should know more than i know. [team member] don't sweat it. we have this new tool--my credit options guide-- that gives you a customiz

ari's fans are my fans and my fans are ari's fans.e're just all loving on each other and we should just stay loving on each other. we need to unite as people. >> what happened last night is why we have to have big, fun concerts. >> well said, canthey >>> another star expressing his emotions james corden. he ended his show last night with a very special message. >> it shocks me every time we hear this kind of news, attacks like this can happen especially when there will be so many children. >> also last night, james aired his primetime car karaoke speci. with katy perry. ♪ ♪ karma's not a liar she keeps receipts ♪ >> there's taylor beef. when are we gonna clear that beef up? >> honestly, it's really like she started it and it's time for her to finish it. ♪ swish swish >> finally, katy confirms the catfight. katy's side of the story, taylor believes katy stole there of her backup dancers while she was in the middle of her red tour. but katy claims the dancers wanted to go, so taylor's team fired them. >> i tried to talk to her about it

ari melber, thanks.have just been handed a comical account of an encounter between a producer for the pbs "newshour quht "newshour" and senator john mccain. mccain was asked about democrats saying joe lieberman may not have enough law enforcement experience to head the fbi. with a reminder of how many years john mccain spent happily in the u.s. navy. here is the quote from john mccain. "joe lieberman has more experience than all of my democratic colleagues combined. so screw them. and you can quote me." so senator mccain is on the board at this hour as we pass into the 4:00 p.m. hour eastern time. andrea mitchell, chief foreign affairs correspondent, "a," save us, "b," has been standing by listening to this. andrea, let's talk about the general flynn aspect and if you have time as we watch the front of this room load up, just set the stakes, give us the briefest biological sketch of the colombian president that the president of the united states is hosting today. >> reporter: sure thing. first of all, on

the panel is here ari, elise, and jonathan. you just heard him talking about the meeting that the senors had with rod rosenstein saying that he wasn't very forthcoming on how the recommendation process came the other week when donald trump asked the a.g. to layout the case for firing deputy a.g. -- the case for firing comey. there is a potential political obstruction case there, ari. >> look, there's three categories here. there's what they were originally investigating, if there were any crimes committed. then there's whether there was any inappropriate conduct in covering that up. and everyone knows watergate was more about the cover up than the original bungled burglary. and because the way donald trump has spoken in public and what comey has appeared to release through contemporaneous documentation, there is a wider question apart from all that to shut down the investigation. with today's news we don't have any reason to believe mueller and the special counsel will be focused on the third door. >> if mueller only focuses on

including ari melber, our chief legal correspondent, ari, the impropriety of this question and answer that the president is accounting, recounting, we don't know jim comey's side of it but for jim comey to give him a status report three times, when he's in the process of talking about keeping his job, if it is as the president has described it, is pretty amazing. >> it's amazing and it's concerning for the independence of the investigation which remapes open and andrea you put your finger on it when you emphasized this was not any normal meeting but a meeting by the president's own account to discuss whether jim comey would stay on in his job or not. so, the notion that you would ask a question that's already unusual and disfavored not illegal, we are not reporting that there's any violation of federal law, in asking the unusual question, but disfavored to say the least is in addition according to the president's own account, not his critics, but trump's narrative this was done while he was discussing the future of jim comey's tenure in the administration. that puts over it not quote/

for more, i'm joined by arrest are re ry ari melber.brennan saying he knew about this, the important paul are the part viewers didn't hear, he knew about it well before the election. he briefed the gang eight from both sid the american people never got to hear it because it was classified fil. is that a disservice. >> >> let's not forget that january 2nd that the united states issued more sanctions against not only russian individuals, but entities as well. and this is above and beyond the sanctions that are already in place because of russia's invasion of ukraine. so we've already known that the russians are not friends of democracy, they use this idea of cyberwarfare to soften the ground and maintain their own objectives in foreign countries. and that is part of what the cia has been examining. unfortunately, the country wasn't caught up in a different type of investigation on the fbi side, but the cia and even john brennan is trying not reveal their tactics and sources while also trying to make the case for having additional actions

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and ari melber. jill abramson with us.everest, former democratic congresswoman from maryland. bringing the girl power in remote. thank you, ladies, for being with me. i want to go back to this idea of the tapes. ari, i know we separate out the legal from the political, but how is it possible that the white house on day six is not answering whether or not there are recorded conversations of these meetings with jim comey? >> well, there are admissions that can be damning and the refusal to admit or deny i think, itself, is damning. if you want to give sean spicer the benefit of the doubt, he may not know. he may not be getting clear guidance or facts from the president that he serves. >> that's a great point. i mean, white house staffers, even in the bush white house, were sometimes on a need-to-know basis and sometimes the press secretary wasn't read in so they wouldn't be in that situation of having to lie, but this seems like a pattern, not a strategy. >> yeah, and in a sentence, you know who should know? white house coun

ari melber thank you. you two please stay with me. also on president trump's schedule for today his first trip back to his hometown in the big apple, as commander in chief. he's going to be meeting with australia's prime minister, the same world leader the president had a testy phone call with shortly after taking office. he's not going to be going to trump tower but we're going to have a preview of today's face to face meeting next. ♪ ♪ ♪ i'm dr. kelsey mcneely and some day you might be calling me an energy farmer. ♪ energy lives here. when this guy got a flat tire in the middle of the night, so he got home safe. yeah, my dad says our insurance doesn't have that. what?! you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. liberty mual insurance. ♪ everything your family touches sticks with them. make sure the germs they bring home don't stick around. use clorox disinfecting products. because no one kills germs better than clorox. >>> back with a look at this morning's headlines. prince philip the husband of queen elizabeth is re

we'll have more on the voting commission after headlines with the nation's ari i berman. attorney general jeff sessioions has released a memo telling justice department prosecutors to pursue the most serious charges for drug offenses. he also rescinded two obama-a-ea memos that encourageged prosecutors to avoid seeking inordinately harsh sentences for low level drug offenses. sessions has long backed lengthy prison sentences and the use of mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes, including for marijuana use, which is now legal for either medical or recreational purposes in many states. the senate has approved robert lighthizer to be u.s. trade representative. he served as deputy trade representative during the reagan administration. he's a proponent of trade tariffs and has been a a vocal critic of china. angry town halls are contitinuig around the country, , includingn iowa, where republican congressmaman rod blum faced for straight nights of packed, angry town halls this week as hundreds , of people showed up to events in dubuque, cedar rapids, cedar falls, and mars

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ari melber is here with me. break down the arguments for us. >> we were just hearing is neil who argued on behalf of hawaii against the travel ban, former doj official under obama saying the president in his argument made anti-muslim statements on the campaign, echoed them in various ways during the administration and he is hitting on -- the president never with drew them. so he is going back and forth to say you can't just look at the text of this travel ban and whether it was written by some good lawyer to sound okay. it's not okay when you look at the wider context and he also quoted something we have reported many times and i know you have reported it on the campaign trail that donald trump makes his life harder with his statements. this lawyer quoting donald trump saying the new ban is a watered down version of the old ban. that is problematic because we know courts did block the old ban. this court is either going to leave this ban blockage in place meaning no travel ban or potentially they can remove it i

ari melber, terrific to have you here. thank you for your careful and thorough reporting today. richard painter, what a pleasure to finally bet you on the broadca broadcast tonight. up next, our presidential historian, michael beschloss, weighs in. we're taking our first break at 51 minutes past the hour. our coverage continues after this. ♪ let your reign begin. evony, the mobile game. download now. >>> we are back at 55 1/2 minutes after the hour. a couple of things to show you coming out of this extraordinary story we're covering tonight having to do with tomorrow morning's newspaper front pages. notable here in the newspaper business is the amount of white space "the new york times" is devoting. the importance they attach to that letter from donald trump because he clears himself in the body of the letter. but you see their big headline. washington post goes even bigger where, of course, this is an enormous local story having to do with the machinery of government as it is a national story. you look back to the historical parallel. more on this in a moment -- that a lot of p

let me bring in ari melber, chief legal correspondent. ari, these are two remarkable, remarkel developmeable developm have unfolded. never mind the calling of jim comey a nut job by the president if he said that, the idea that he told the russian s by gettin rid of comey it takes pressure off the investigation then the "washington post" reporting a senior official in the white house is a person of interest, and may be under investigation for ties to russia. >> that's correct. "the new york times'" report is striking because, again, it contradicts the white house story line that jim comey was removed for his own conduct, and it further reinforces, according to american officials who spoke to the "times" out of the president's own mouth the idea that he did this to end or impede the russia inquiry. that kind of conduct, as we've reported, and i say conduct, the termination of jim comey for that reason, not just words, is the kind of thing that traditionally would be a grounds for an obstruction charge. so that is very serious and it seems -