the attorney general, jeff sessions, pressured christopher wray, to make staffing changes, including his deputy director andrew mccabe. wray reportedly threatened to quit if that pressure continued. he has been a frequent target of the president and of the president's allies and these are just a couple of tweets president trump has sent out since july specifically about deputy mccabe. jessica schneider is with me now on this. and so did sessions explicitly call for mccabe to be fired? >> according to attorney general jeff sessions he did put this pressure on christopher wray, who then pushed back, threatening to resign. this is the narrative coming from republicans, the white house, you saw from the president's own twitter feed. it's part of their contention, and has been for many weeks now, that the fbi is politically motivated. what's interesting to note is that when this news broke, fbi director wray felt so much pressure to make those staffing changes at the highest levels, the white house did come out with a statement where they praised fbi director wray, but then they turned par

he also says christopher wray did not threaten to resign. let's go right to kristen welker, in the white house. kristen, the president is trying to push back on this, obviously, but these two stories are pretty big. jeff sessions, a member of his cabinet, being interviewed by the special counsel. jeff sessions, who the president did not want to recuse himself, being interviewed by the special counsel and also, this idea that the administration is trying to meddle in the fbi, trying to remove agents within the fbi as the fbi is investigating the president. >> reporter: couple of points. let me pick up on your first point about jeff sessions. we know that he was interviewed last week. it's not a surprise that he was interviewed, but it is notable. of course, he is the first cabinet member to be interviewed by the special counsel. i asked the president if he's concerned about what jeff sessions told the special counsel. he said no. i'm not concerned about it. i also asked him if he had discussed the conversation with his attorney general. he sa

christopher wray as fbi director still would have knowledge as what's going on.arly, unfortunately, there's a concerted political effort to damage their credibility, both as an institution and in terms of the russian investigation. >> final question, the president said yes, i would be delighted to but i'll listen to my lawyers. his lawyers seem to say -- and by cnn's own reporting -- that the special counsel hasn't met the standard for the president to sit down. for our viewers and myself as well, is the president required to sit down with special counsel by law? >> there are arguments his lawyers are making to perhaps delay his being interview bid the special counsel's office. the special counsel can interview the president being interviewed by other special counsels or independent counsels. >> thank you very much for clearing that up for us. more on other breaking news. we now know that, in fact, two lawmakers were injured when that train carrying them to a gop retreat collided with a garbage truck the a crossing. there is more live coverage coming up after thi

andrew mccabe sat down hours after his boss christopher wray made a trip to the house intel vault. wray took a look at that controversial memo that was touted by republicans as proof of government surveillance abuse during and after the 2016 election. according to reports, the memo directly names mccabe and others including james comey. the house intelligence committee voted to release the fisa memo. it's been described by some as revealing kgb tactics by the obama administration and even as a watergate party ii. here's the back story. >> critics of the president are paintball andrew mccabe's ouster as part of the pattern of the president attacking people who investigate him. also mccabe may have seen the hand writing on the wall himself about his own conduct during the obama administration that may be about to spill out because of that memo. we learned chris wray came up to capitol hill on sunday to view that republican memo about the obama administration surveillance of trump officials. republicans suggest mccabe and others like the number 2 at the justice department rosenstein u

the other big story is the threat of resignation from the fbi director christopher wray. we learned that wray was on the brink of quitting after pressure from deputies, that pressure coming from attorney general jeff sessions himself, former fbi director james comey weighed in on this late-breaking development tweeting, among other things, quote, good to read reports of people standing up for what they believe in. meanwhile press secretary sarah sanders said this morning that the president has full confidence in director wray at the fbi. our crime investigator is following the story for us. what more can you tell us about how close the new fbi director actually came to quitting? >> well, wolf, certainly it was a big concern and came close enough to the point where it appears, at least reportedly, that sessions backed off of the demands. now, these demands that he fire andrew mccabe or reassign andrew mccabe coming from sessions, it's been reported possibly from the president putting pressure on sessions to have the current fbi director make changes at the fbi to sort of cl

christopher wray threatened to quit. sessions specifically he referenced deputy director andrew mccabe who the president has been openly attacking on twitter for months, as well as top attorney james baker. though it is under clear if sessions meant they should be reassigned or outright fired. baker was reassigned late last year. and plans to move to the private sector in a statement, write a thanked roy for his years of service writing jim lbl dearly missed by the fbi family and by me personally. >> write a testified that he -- >> i would try to talk him out of it. if that failed, i would resign. >> and the fbi is under republican fire once again over private communications between peter strzok and the lawyer. an apparent reference to the e-mail investigation, known in the fbi as the mid year exam. i personally have a sense of unfed business. i unleashed it with nye. now i need to fix it and finish it. and there are approximately 50,000 texts between the pair. it is probe yg more than five months of text messages are mi

jeff sessions at the public urging of president donald trump has been pressuring fbi director christopher wraybi director andrew mccabe. but wray threatened to resign if mccabe was removed, according to three sources with direct knowledge. wray's situation under those circumstances would have created a media firestorm. the white house decidedly gunshy didn't want to scene so the. so mccabe remains. don mcgahn told sessions this issue waor

number one, christopher wray, the fbi director ultimately did look at the memo.c chair of the intelligence committee adam schiff says christopher wray wanted to talk to the whole committee. that was not permitted according to adam schiff. i want to make clear, the scenario i offered of the democratic memo released at the same time, the republicans don't want that to come out. they say sure, they care about the russia investigation, but in their view this memo raises questions about whether that investigation was fair at the beginning. >> let's that a moment when you suggest perhaps this investigation isn't fair. are they alleging it's unfair that the highest levels of the trump campaign and trump's former national security adviser have all been either indicted or have taken guilty pleas? is that unfair? are they suggesting it's unfair to have uncovered this meeting at trump tower between the president's son, jared kushner, and agents of the russian military? please. the real issue here is not to call into question the fairness. it's to look at the facts and prote

the reporting was centered around the private conversations with jeff sessions and christopher wray and wray responding by saying he would resign if this pressure continued rather than fire mccabe. >> shepard: it's an interesting line of reporting and follows a pattern. katelyn owens. nice to see you. best to jonathan. >> thank you. >> shepard: we're waiting to hear from the white house. we guess they will weigh-in on this. sarah sanders scheduled to speak to reporters right after ten minutes from now. first, shots fired in the hallways in a high school in kentucky. students were running and screening after someone pulled a gun and started shooting. now students are dead and more than a dozen people are hurt. our reporters are on scene and we'll go there live next. ♪ your heart doesn't only belong to you. bye grandpa. and if you have heart failure, entrusting your heart to entresto may help. entresto is a heart failure medicine that helps improve your heart's ability to pump blood to the body. in the largest heart failure study ever, entresto was proven superior at helping people stay a

of course the man in charge of the fbi, christopher wray has his own conflicts. he shared the same chief of staff as james comey until today. wray was tied to comey and mueller through their justice department careers that span more than a decade and a half. nonetheless, the white house today said the president has 100% confidence in wray to make any nes tear changes a necessare fbi. it is obvious to all that what is needed is not mere change but reform. it's time to investigate the investigators and to hold the corrupt accountable. and the president, in my opinion, should appoint someone respected and honorable. there are such people left in public service. like former attorney general michael ma kay disi to oversee the justice department until it can be cleaned up and the american people once again assured that the department and the fbi are again worthy of the public trust. the quotation of the evening, quote, power does not corrupt men. fools, however, if they get into a position of power corrupt power >>> up next, exposing the deep state anti-trump fbi offici

fbi director christopher wray threatened to resign because he felt pressured by the president. this is another case of president overreach. we have it all. what do we know? >> well, good morning, chris. the government is back in business this morning after president trump signed a short-term spending bill here at the white house late last night. but there's little to suggest why the dynamics have changed. lawmakers could be set for another showdown in just three weeks. president trump touting the end of the government shutdown as a big win for republicans. in signaling a willingness to broker a deal on d.r.e.a.m.ers and border treaty, tweeting, see you at the negotiating table. he's eager to rebut criticism that he did little to help end the shutdown. >> the great deal-making president sat on the sidelines. >> aides say mr. trump's low profile was intentional, the white house insisting the president had an impact, but offering little clarity about mr. trump's position about the path forward for d.r.e.a.m.ers. >> status versus pathway to citizenship or does that not matter to th

that the fbi director is responding to the president's own pressure. >> i spoke to a friend of christopher wray's who debated that point. he said chris wray has every right to surround himself with his own people. but as you point out, the optics of being pounded by donald trump near daily on twitter and in two press avails last week certainly don't make it look like this was just chris wray putting his stamp on it. can you tie together the departures of andy mccabe and the two other individuals who were close to jim comey, neither of them household names, but one was a well respected general counsel who served under the mueller regime, under the comey regime, mr. baker, and another close aide to comey? because it looks like -- to the president's critics like a purge of people who can corroborate comey's account of his firing. >> exactly. and so, look, a new fbi director comes in and he has every right to surround himself with who he wants. so, when wray came in, anybody who pays attention to the fbi, who is as dorky as i am, sorry, he's probably going to get a new fbi deputy. a new deputy direct

jeff sessions at the public urging of president donald trump has been pressuring fbi director christopher wray to fire fbi director andrew mccabe. but wray threatened to resign if mccabe was removed, according to three sources with direct knowledge. wray's situation under those circumstances would have created a media firestorm. the white house decidedly gunshy didn't want to scene so the. so mccabe remains. don mcgahn told sessions this issue wasn't worth losing the fbi director over, according to a source familiar with the situation. just yesterday jonathan swann also reported this, quote, attorney general jeff sessions has adamantly urged fbi director christopher wray to make a fresh start with his core team, including replacing deputy director and trump bete noire andrew mccabe, according to a senior administration source. according to this source and two other sources briefed on the conversations, sessions has been strongly urging wray to do this for some time. another person sessions thought should be cleared from the core team, the fbi's top lawyer james a. baker who was reassigned in d

saying that christopher wray has threatened to resign because of this pressure. >> look, i don't have any independent knowledge of whether this is true or not. but if true, and that's the if, if true, it would really be disturbing. president trump has asserted a right against the fbi director, the right to remove an fbi director for any time, any reason. that's a new right. the last time an fbi director was removed in the clinton administration, he was removed with process for cause and the knowledge of members of congress. now this is moving deeper into the agency and removing the next layer of management. if this is true, it represents a profound attempt to plit size the agency. >> tim o'brien, we seem to see in the story an inability of donald trump to learn, he cannot learn from what happened with the comey situation. >> this is how he rolls. you know, i agree with david to a certain point we're in danger of politicizing the agency, i think we did once comey got fired. trump has spent his entire career reaching into regulatory processes, strong arming politicians, police officials

fbi director christopher wray went up on hill on sunday. this time to see a republican staff memo about these alleged abuses with government surveillance. then within less than 12 hours, mccabe is not resigning but he's basically removed from that position. >> one of the questions that eric holder former attorney general tweets say, this guy is a wonderful public servant. he's been amazing for his country. he was run out of town and this was all partisan. another question she got, she says on the record, that the president had nothing to do with this decision. it refers everything to the fbi. it is no secret. president trump tweeted several time about mccabe and thinking he should be out based on whatever he thinks it is that he did. >> the president's primary objection with mr. mccabe has been the handling of the clinton e-mail case. whether he a conflict on the surface. whether he had a real conflict on the perception of a mcclint with his wife taking money from the money from the democrats in 2015. the president's position is very well k

that didn't happen. >> did christopher wray threaten to resign? >> not at all. not even a little bit. he's going to do a good job. >> let's go to jim scuitto, national correspondent. first on the story of the fact that we now know mueller's team interviewed comey at some point last year and the key here are those memos, contemporaneous memos comey kept prior to his termination and that is what he handed over to mueller, which is key in the obstruction case. >> clearly, the special counsel is looking at obstruction of justice. he's interviewing all the key players on that question. cnn now confirming this is where comey recounted conversations with the president in which, one, he asked for a loyalty pledge and also indicated that he want ed, or seemed to indicae that he wanted the investigation into michael flynn to go away, which gets to, certainly raises the question as to whether this was undue influence by the president in an ongoing investigation. and then you look at sessions, of course, who would have been another player in this path and the likely questio

the first group nad their case monday night and included fbi director christopher wray and rod rosenstein they spoke to the white house chief of staff, john kelly. however, after those meetings, the president was overheard saying this at his sioux state of the union speech. >> you need to release that document. >> don't worry. 100 100%. >> i have with me jeff zeleny, shimon, over grave concerns over not just accuracy but several issues. can you talk to me about that? >> very rare public statement. their sish the accuracy of this memo. the only person that's seen this memo has been the fbi director, christopher wray, clearly at odds with the president's decision to release this memo. what he saw in this memo has given him concern in that they have sort of picked information, put information into this memo that favors their message, what congressman nunes wants to say, placed it in this mmemo that is inaccurate. they're saying a lot of this information does not give a full picture of what was going on at the time that the intelligence officials, that the fbi was gathering this information.

but donald trump met with christopher wray, or john kelly met with him. they said don't release this. yet last night as he was leaving the house chamber after the state of the union, he was caught on a hot mic telling a congressman he would absolutely release it. sounds like donald trump, surprise, doesn't trust his justice department. >> yeah, that's exactly right. i don't think there's been any doubt that president trump wants to see this memo come to light. he knows who it's purported to say, to highlight the justice department and the fbi and undermine the mueller investigation of russian collusion and obstruction of justice, which is the political aim of president trump. so he very much wants this memo out. i think the white house chief of staff john kelly, they're trying to adhere to a formal process to check all the boxes before they release the memo. but the president wants it out. >> phil, from your reporting, what do we think is in this memo and how can it help donald trump, i should say? >> we haven't seen the memo, but it's supposed to be a su

around the white house and distract from the russia probe. >> reporter: from what we understand, christopher wray came to capitol hill this weekend and reviewed the memo. you had conversations with mr. wray. did it satisfy the justice department's concerns? what was the rationale the committee gave for not releasing your memo? >> the review did not satisfy i think either the bureau or department's concerns and the director of the fbi asked for the opportunity to come before the committee and express those concerns. that request was denied by the chairman today. >> reporter: what was the rationale for your memo not being released publicly? >> well, mr. king made the request to release the majority memoranda. in his statement, advocating its release, said we need full transparency. so when i moved to have the minority memo released in the interests of full transparency, they evidently took the view that full transparency means only one side gets heard and not the other. so they voted down the opportunity for the country to see the minority memoranda and frankly an accurate representation of the und

we know from our own reporting that sunday night, the fbi director christopher wray took a look at the republican memo dated democrats i would assume would want that same pattern to be followed so that memo has the same sort of clout they hope. >> melissa: it's become battle of the memos and battle of the narratives pending who we are watching. we are listening to. i think that they don't have to be mutually exclusive and that's what a lot of people are missing. you can ask two questions simultaneously that are both very important. one is where anyone's civil liberties violated? that's a really important question of matter who you are by anybody in the question is, we know that rush is a bad actor. did any american help then? goes on the bottom of both sides in what they're looking at. they're both really valid questions. i want to know the answer to both, and it doesn't have to be republicans versus democrats. one narrative versus the other. i want to know what was anyone's civil liberties violated and did anyone help the russians? >> sandra: that was the point that paul ryan made dur

she instead said, look, we have confidence in christopher wray to make difficult discussions about who should be in leadership at the fbi. i asked her pointblank does the president think there's a political bias in the upper echelons at the fbi? h she side stepped that question as well, again, reiterating the president's confidence in christopher wray. >> kristen, were there any questions that she answered about the president's intention to try to satisfy bob mueller with a hybrid of written and face-to-face interviews to achbs his questions? >> reporter: we didn't focus on that too much today, nicolle. that's an ongoing discussion with sources behind the scenes who say the president's legal team is very much in discussions with the special counsel about the scope of a potential interview. will it be in person, will the president submit written questions? of course, all of the legal analysts that we have spoken to have indicated that that's something that the special counsel will not agree to. because investigators like to see someone in person, like to be able to ask follow-up questio

why the attorney generjegeneral to get christopher wray to resign?m dave briggs. >> i'm christine romans. first, tsunami warnings after a powerful earthquake off alaska. measurements say a 7.9 magnitude quake hit kodiak in the gulf of alaska. >> tsunami warnings up and down the coast. we have cnn's ivan cabrera. >> good morning, dave. the warnings extend through british columbia and all the way down to san diego. it would take a longer time for the waves to arrive. what do we have? a 7.9. it was down from originally which was 8.2. a great earthquake. that doesn't sound a lot, but in earthquake world it is as far as the magnitude. the depth is important. you don't want a shallow depth. 15 miles is shallow. that is important. the displacement of the water with that energy doesn't have much to travel the surface. we had a buoy registering waving up to 38 feet. that doesn't mean 38-feet waves arrive to the coast. here are the warnings that extend across alaska and aleutian islands. from there, beginning across the united states, where we have the watches

he served in that role until christopher wray took the reins of the bureau in august, then went back to his post as deputy. >> reporter: have you been told mr. mccabe is resigning? >> thank you. >> reporter: sources tell cbs news president trump asked mccabe which candidate he voted for in the 2016 presidential election. mccabe told the president he doesn't vote in that election. last week president trump told reporters he didn't remember asking mccabe about his vote. white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders says president trump stands by his previous comments about mccabe, criticisms included, and she said the president continues to have full confidence in the current fbi director, christopher wray. mola lenghi, kpix5, the white house. >>> president trump will deliver his first state of the union speech tomorrow night. the white house says the theme will be "building a safe, strong and proud america." president trump is expected to talk at length about immigration. he will also highlight the recently enacted tax bill along with plans for trade and infrastructure. re than a

maybe it's because of the inspector general report says christopher wray by suggestion. this is a man who voted in the republican primary. >> he's also a guy who sat down with terry mcauliffe, clinton's biggest supporter when his wife was running for state senator. here's a thing we always forget. when he sat down with terry mcauliffe, it wasn't just about terry mcauliffe was the biggest clinton supporter and his wife was running for office and getting $500,000 of financial help -- >> it was a year and a half before. >> as a democrat. but when he sat down with terry mcauliffe, terry mcauliffe was under investigation by the fbi. what does andrew mccabe, deputy director of the fbi, sitting down with terry mcauliffe while he's under investigation by the fbi -- >> but the idea that a year and a half before he's in the position, you're worried about. you see a direct connection? >> when mcauliffe is under investigation, the deputy direct to or is going to sit down with him and get money for her campaign? this weekend when the eagles pull up to play the game, if the r referees

. >> you spoke about christopher wray. >> christopher wray is the director.ow that's different. mccabe is a career fbi employee and so is peter strzok. >> did christopher wray threaten to resign, if they insisted on having him removed? >> you'll have to ask christopher wray that. >> do you have any knowledge of whether that's true. >> i'm not going to talk about conversations that happen between christopher wray and the attorney general. i wasn't on the phone. >> did you hear anything about the conversation? >> chris, the attorney general and the fbi director according to anonymous sources. i'm not going to get into it. i think i made pretty clear that the attorney general believes that the fbi director can and should bring in his own team for a fresh start. >> you can say i know it didn't happen. if you want to shoot down sources, anonymous sources are often some of the best as you know. >> actually the president has addressed this. i'll refer you to his comments. >> i know. he denies it. he says lot of things that don't always prove out to be true. someone

we would refer you to the fbi where christopher wray serves as the director.nce in him and has put the decisions at the fbi in his hands. >> did the president at any time convey he wanted to fire robert mueller to anyone on staff here? >> not that i'm aware of. >> just to finish this loop, no one at the white house contacted the fbi about mccabe, no one put any directors or had any discussions about his tenure at the fbi? did anyone at the white house? >> not that i'm aware of. nothing specific to mccabe and his stepping down as of today. if that's what's being reported. jim? >> sarah, what would you say to critics who believe that this white house and this president have had almost a steady pressure put on the justice department, put on the fbi since the president came into office on this special council investigation, whether it be conversations with jeff sessions's office about recusal, whether it be about the desire for robert mueller to go away, and now with andrew mccabe. there are even reports rob rosen stein was feeling pressure from the white house. i

the sudden departure of andrew mccabe, he stepped down after pressure from the fbi director christopher wraye "new york times." wray grew concerned about mccabe after reading an inspector general report on the 2016 investigations into hillary clinton's e-mail use and connections between trump campaign associates and russia. the "times" reports that write a suggested he be moved to another role but that would be a demotion since he is -- been jimmy's longest. jimmy (shouting): james! he's survived record rain and a supplier that went belly up. so while he's proud to have helped put a roof over the heads of hundreds of families, he's most proud of the one he's kept over his own. brand vo: get the most out of your money, whether you're using quickbooks smart invoicing to get paid twice as fast or automatically tracking your mileage. smarter business tools for the world's hardest workers. quickbooks. backing you. i knew at that exact moment ... i'm beating this. my main focus was to find a team of doctors. it's not just picking a surgeon, it's picking the care team and feeling secure in where yo

christopher wray saying the memo alleging fbi misconduct is misleading and blatant step to discredit the russia investigation. first to cnn justice correspondent, jessica schneider. jessica, this was a stunning statement from the fbi. >> it was, brianna, a very public push back against the president and the president's chief of staff, who have made it clear they tend to release this memo alleging abuse. the fbi isn't holding back, to reiterate the dangers the release of this memo might pose. tonight in a stunning move, president trump's handpicked fbi director christopher wray clashing with the white house, saying do not release the memo, this stark statement despite justice officials about publicly opposing the white house. the fbi was provided a limited opportunity to review this memo. we have grave concerns about material owe missions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo'scracy. chief of staff john kelly implied the decision to release has been made. >> it will be released here pretty quick, i think, and the whole world can see it. this president, it's so unique, brian, he w

the fbi director christopher wray seemed to hint yesterday in a message to fbi staff that this had someing justice department inspector general report. the inspector general is well respected. he is an an equal opportunity muck racker. so it's certainly possible that this doesn't have political ' implications. we'll have to wait and see what the fallout is here. >>> still ahead, details about first lady melania trump and her reported reaction about an alleged affair involving her husband. >>> bill karins will be back with us with a check on the forecast for us. stay with us. ♪ ♪ i'm jimmy, this is my definition of fresh since 1983. ♪ ( ♪ ) ♪ one is the only number ♪ that you'll ever need ♪ staying ahead isn't about waiting for a chance. it's about the one bold choice you make, that moves you forward. ( ♪ ) the one and only cadillac escalade. come in now for this exceptional offer on the cadillac escalade. get this low-mileage lease on this 2018 cadillac escalade from around $879 per month. visit your local cadillac dealer. from around $879 per month. your heart doesn't only belong ♪to y

christopher wray does not seem to have resigned. whatever is going on where christopher wray was inspiring people with him standing up against white house pressure, he was going to resign than see officials pushed out of their job after being publicly -- if you were thinking christopher wray would resign rather than let that happen, andrew mccabe is gone after today. the fbi director christopher wray was seen at the white house with rod rosenstein. he oversees robert mueller's special investigation since jeff sessions recused himself. the reason i go through that list is just to be -- i mean, to be blunt about it, the president has fired or tried to fire everybody in an oversight role in the russia investigation up to and including the special counsel himself. rod rosenstein is the only one left who he hasn't fired or tried to fire yet. but rod rosenstein we're told today is increasingly a focus of the president's attentions and not in a good way. he really has fired or tried to fire everybody except rosenstein and they have a plan

christopher wray and deputy attorney general rod rosenstein left the white house earlier this week. sources both men have voiced concerns about the memo with rosenstein "pushing back hard." the president seemed to make his feelings known. the committee had no comment today on a possible timing for the release of the memo in the last few minutes we've got some new information that gets us some context on christopher wray's review of the memo. we are told he had an hour and half to look at the four-page document. >> bret: more on this with the panel. there is little evidence tonight of a bipartisan awakening following last nights call for unity in president trump's first state of the union speech. john roberts looks at the president's efforts to reach across the aisle. >> good evening. many times in the past, presidents have hit the road immediately after the state of the union address does have their policies were included in the speech. president trump prefer to stay here at the white house and that the themes of his speech marinade for a while. president trump got high marks from r

as is christopher wray. as was jeff sessions. it just seems that the white house and the president seems at war with his own government. i really haven't seen this. going back to watergate, you mentioned mcgann, i think don mac dan did the nation a service when he basically prevented a saturday night massacre. archibald cox moment. he saved us from that. i think by doing so he helped the president. >> i think it was david ger den saying it was a slow-motion saturday night massacre? he's basically getting rid of everyone who is investigating him. he's at war with his own party and the people he appointed. why won't republicans -- they voted on party lines today to release that. every single one of them. why won't republicans stand up for -- you heard director clapper, you heard general hayden, saying the congress is there to keep checks on the president, and they have relinquished their power and authority to the president of the united states. >> sadly, we're supposed to have a system of checks and balances, where we -- it's supp

christopher wray tonight says the removal of his second in command, andrew mccabe, was not political.evertheless, both of these new developments signal a sharp uptake in the political temperature here in washington. continuing coverage tonight. and we begin with chief national correspondent ed henry on the exit of the fbi's number two, andrew mccabe. >> great to see you. breaking right now, i'm told top white house lawyers who specialize in national security matters are now pouring over this republican memo after consultations with staff on the house intel panel. they are going through this memo carefully with two goals. it released the memo as early as wednesday so as not to step on the state of the union address tomorrow night. and then i'm hearing we will hear a new push from republicans on the health for a second special counsel to be named. top people at the fbi like andrew mccabe and rod rosenstein in the justice department are implicated in this republican memo. g.o.p. leaders do not think they can credibly investigate themselves. mccabe is no longer in office but tonight he's

christopher wray, handpicked by the president voiced to the president.learly, they did not feel like those concerns were being heeded by the white house and that's why they felt the need to put out that statement in the first place. now we have devin nunes' response. >> now you have, jim sciutto, the likes of the president of the united states, devin nunes and on the other side christopher wray, rod rosenstein. it's becoming like a standoff between them. >> it is but the typical standoff is democrat and republican. you have democrats on the opposite side criticizing devin nunes. let's filter out democrat and republican and go right to the agencies here. you have the fbi, headed by christopher wray, who was appointed by the president to run the fbi, saying this is a fundamentally inaccurate document. you have the department of justice. jeff sessions issued a letter to devin nunes saying, one, not only is it extraordinarily reckless to release this but that the doj is unaware of any abuse of the fisa program. in addition to that, i've spoken to current and

president trump, himself, deny christopher wray threatened to resign in the wake of pressure from attorney general jeff sessions to make changes in the senior ranks at the bureau. and in our new cnn poll, nearly eight in ten people say president trump should testify for mueller, if asked. there is a lot i know i gave you right there. so i will get right to cnn's chief correspondent jim scuitto and robert mueller's former special assistant to the d.o.j. susan hennessey. again, good evening. that is a lot we need to get to. jim, i got to get to you first. so much to get to. but let's start with the cnn breaking news here. new signs that former paul manafort deputy rick gates may be negotiating with mueller's team. what do you know about that? >> here's what we know. cnn has learned the former campaign aide rick gates has offered a white collar defense attorney to his defense team. that attorney was seen last week at special counsel mueller's office, suggesting that there is an ongoing negotiation between the defendant's team and the prosecutor's. at this stage with gates' charges filed and b

tonight from axios reporting that attorney general jeff sessions has pressured fbi director christopher wray to fire deputy director andrew mccabe. wray balked at this, threatened to resign if mccabe was removed. what do you think of this? >> this is personal. 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 servic

and terms of christopher wray he needs to be brought before congress under oath. and answer questions soon. we are breaking now after shut down ended and president will give his state of the union. after this, we need wray to testify under ocean to answer these -- ocean to 18 ser these e questions. lou: all of us are concerned for sirsurvival of this country, wee fighting against a prospect of a lot of evidence being destroad bdestroyedby the people who 14 e preserving it. congressman thank you, i feel a lot better that you are involved in leading those efforts there. thank you. >> thank you lou. lou: we're coming right back with more. stay with us. >> president trump breaks schumer shut down. dems agree to reopen the government. >> i think if we've learned anything, during the process. a strategy shut down the government over the issue of illegal immigration is something that american people did not understand. lou: what will pay the political price for the schumer shut down? that is just one of the issues we take up with ed rollins and michael goodwin coming up.

maybe because of the inspector general report says christopher wray. man voted in republican primary. you have the special counsel. >> he's a guy who sat down with clintons biggest support ere when his wife was running for state senator. >> a year and a half before he was in the position. >> here's the other thing we forget. it wasn't just about terry mcawe lif. and running for the offense and getting $500,000 financial help as a democrat. he sat down and terry was under investigation by the fbi. what is andrew mccabe sitting down with terry while he's under investigation by the fbi helping get financing for his wife's campaign? of course this guy needed to go. >> a year and a half before he's in the position. you see a direct connection. >> the deputy director will sit down with him and get money for the wife's campaign? this weekend when the eagles pull up to the big stage to play game. if the reves get off the eagles that will be a problem. you have to be impartial. you do the investigation. >> you believe democrats are people who favor democrats we

we know christopher wray, the now trump appointed fbi director got a look at that memo yesterday and if he had problems with it, he will tell us what the inaccuracies are, where are we with all this with the democrats? >> i don't think they wanted out. >> harris: can they block it? >> i don't think they can, i think their appeal would be to the fbi and the doj to pressure the president on why it's important not to put it out. it's also interesting that the fbi director ceases four-page memo for the first time sunday according to our sources and then here we are at 1:00 p.m. monday and the deputy director of the fbi is saying he stepping down and we are getting sources saying he was removed. it's interesting timing. >> harris: where do we go in terms of what's coming up next, the state of the union. is this the sort of thing that gets talked about there? or is this something separate? the president heard the question, we think. at the very end of the meeting leaving for that united nations security council lunch. what's true about reports that mccabe has resigned, where does he go tom

. >> reporter: ranking member adam schiff telling that they refused a briefing from christopher wray.his coming after months after riterring criticism over the president and allies over mccabe's handling of the hillary clinton e-mail and political donations his wife received from a super pac associated with the clinton ally. >> shouldn't mccabe go? >> he got more than $500,000 from essentially hillary clinton and is he investigating hillary clinton? >> reporter: last beak, we learned that jeff sessions said to fire mccabe. wray told mccabe he's bringing in his own team that mccabe could not be a part of, prompting mccabe to leave ahead of his expected retirement in march. wray suggesting that a upcoming general election report was a part of the process. >> we refer you to the fbi. >> now, all of this is happening as the white house is declining to impose sanctions mademanded a congress last year on russians. they are putting russia on notice. meanwhile, the senior white house official tells us that the president is not expected to address the russia investigation in his state of the u

effort to circle the white house and distract from the russia probe. >> what we understand, christopher wray came up to capitol hill. you had conversations with mr. wray. were you satisfied with the justice department's concern? two, what was the rational for not releasing the memo. >> no, the review did not satisfy either the bureau or the department's concerns. the director of the fbi asked for the opportunity to come before the committee and express those concerns, but that request was denied by the chairman today. >> what was the rational of your memo, why it's not released publicly as of now? >> they made the request to release it in a statement advocating release saying we need full transparency. so, when i moved to have the minority memo released in the interest of full transparency, they evidently took the view that full transparency means one side gets it, not the other. so, they voted down the opportunity for the country to see the minority memoranda and, frankly, an accurate recitation of the underlying facts. >> with the resignation of andy mccabe, are there concerns the memo is

reports sessions at the public urging of president donald trump has been pressuring fbi director christopher wray to fire deputy director andrew mccabe. but wray threatened to resign if mccabe was removed. sessions told white house council about don mcgahn about how upset wray was about pressure to fire mccabe and this wasn't worth losing the fbi director over. the white house responded the report in a statement in msnbc saying in part the president believes politically motivated senior leaders, including former director comey and others have tainted the agency's reputation for unbiased pursuit of justice. not a denial. we should note back in july the president tweeted about andrew mccabe saying why did aj sessions replace acting fbi director andrew mccabe, a comey friend who was in charge of the clinton investigation? nick, what do you make of this report? >> i think it's all consistent with what trump has been doing all along. he has absolutely no respect for the rule of law. he still thinks this country is governed in a mode prior to 1776 when king george ran the operation here. he thinks he c