comey did not say what the briefing was about or why he was summoned there. >> director comey are you here to discuss general flynn? >> well, mum's the word for the fbi director. house oversight chair saying the committee will be investigating mishandle of classified material. nbc kristin welker is live in florida. >> greta, the president just arrived hereafter he made that stop at boeing with you you just mention trying to turn a page. he started that process yet with that news conference and today he motor vehicspoke at boeing. he vowed to bring jobs back home. with lockheed martin, he talked about getting better deal with some of these planes. president saying negotiations are ongoing. it doesn't seem as they they have a deal yet. this is going on as the search continues for knew national security adviser. the acting national security adviser lieutenant general keith kellogg. mcmaster, fbi petraeus. retired army general as well as former un ambassador. i have been told he going to meet with three of those contender over the weekend. this is key post and key to turning around this c

it comes after fbi director james comey met with members of the intelligence committee two hours. marco rubio posted this tweet "i am now very confident senate intel committee i serve on will conduct thorough bipartisan investigation of putin interference and influence." reince priebus concerned they had received the committee's letter but he downplayed it as well as the forthcoming investigation itself. >> that doesn't mean there's anything there. it just means they need to do some things to satisfy their committee that they've looked into something and they can have meetings lined closed doors like they always do in the intel committee and they'll issue their report. as long as they do their job and we cooperate with them, they'll issue a report and the report will say there's nothing there. i know what they were told by the fbi because i've talked to the fbi. i know what they're saying. >> that's interesting that he has been talking to the fbi, the chief of staff. meanwhile, reuters has this weekend confirmed reporting from the "new york times" that last week "americans with ti

>> james comey is the guy who said no to president george w. bush when bush was misusing the powers of the nsa to spy on americans. he has the power and the will to say no to presidents. in the end it was the fbi who brought down richard nixon. and the fbi is sworn to the rule of law. if you had said to your audience a couple months ago that james comey and senator john mccain were standing between president trump and the survival of american democracy, your entire audience would have fallen off its collective couch. i think that's true. i think that's where we are now. >> does -- how does that assessment of director comey, his role and what you think he's capable of, how does that square for you with the way he behaved around the clinton e-mail investigation during the campaign? >> that was a serious mistake, i think he knows it. he called mrs. clinton extremely careless. carelessness is not a violation of federal law. lying to the fbi is a violation of federal law and if michael flynn was sticking to flynn facts as they used to say at the def

after we loved comey, now we don't like comey. it's a very dangerous war for donald trump to wage. to wage war against folks who may have information that may incriminate you may not be the smartest strategy. what i would tell republicans is do your job, investigate everything, investigate the leaks, but also investigate the russian. the problem is donald trump and republicans want to be selective as to what they want to investigate. they only want to focus on the leaks but not don't to focus on all the other worrisome information. we need to keep pressing as american people, forget the distraction, keep your eye on the ball, folks. let us keep demanding a full investigation, a full select committee to investigate all the russia ties including these leaks. >> jen, president trump isn't the first president who doesn't like any leaks. obviously president obama wasn't crazy about it. what goes on in the white house? what's supposed to have when you sense a deluge of information coming out of the intel community or even the white hous

comey or anyone else, we should take that with a grain of salt. do you have confidence in the integrity of whatever existing investigation is happening in that fbi? >> well, the recent story that broke tonight by the "post" that other intelligence agencies have been in play in this also, looks like they're overlooking and watching what the fbi is doing. so the fbi is not exactly acting alone in this while they're conducting the investigation. they really can't do it without the other intelligence agencies possibly being involved in this. so this is going to make it very hard to play games with the fbi. and i don't think the fbi is inclined to do so. they have nothing to benefit by it, particularly down into the rank and file. we've heard stories about the new york office and various offices, we know there are three phases of this fbi investigation and two of them are outside of washington while the counterintelligence operation is out of washington, there's a pittsburgh office and an san francisco office that are doing different phases of this inv

jim comey did both today and effectively. none of the senate intelligence committee members coming out of the briefing willing to say anything at all. that's rare. they can't talk about classified information but they'll usually give us an outline. they didn't. and of course also noting this was when the senate was out of session, they were willing to stay for this briefing. why does this matter? as you've noted we've been told by a source this briefing was about russia and this is the committee doing the most important and most likely most effective investigation into the russian meddling into the 2016 election. this is a bipartisan committee, one with a chair a republican and the vice chair a democrat say they have good relationships with are committed to an in depth investigation, one that includes not only contacts between campaign officials and looking into contacts between campaign officials and russian intelligence contacts but also extending into the transition period. you know what that means, john. that means that m

comey said yeah, go ahead.riebus went to fox and friends and said i'm told the higher people of intelligence this story is incorrect, over blown, et cetera. the democrats as you can imagine having a field day with this, saying what priebus did was wrong, and again renewing their calls for attorney general jeff sessions to recuse himself from any involvement here. for are bright lines established between the white house and the justice. the white house said this was simply talking bow a news story, but as the news story was about an fbi investigation there may be a bit of a grey area. the presidents sounding off saying quote, the fbi is unable to stop the national security leakers that have permeated our government for a long time they can't eve find the leakers within the nbi itself. classified information is being given to the media. find now. raises coppell of important questions. why was priebus reaching out to the fbi? now we find it was the fbi reaching out to priebus. hey, by the way this story is all - -

john podesta used to run hillary clinton's campaign and blamed james comey as one of the reasons that she lost. let's listen. >> you have a theory, the case that comey wanted trump to win, that the fbi wanted trump to win? >> i think there's two. i think there's sort of two possibilities. they're at least forces within the fbi that wanted her to lose. i'm not sure that they were prepared to -- they really understood the alternative. but they wanted her to lose. i think that's one possibility. i think the other is just a cover your ass organization and there was pressure coming up from underneath him and he su succomed to that pressure. >> does that not perpetuate the wound? >> it's open for most people as campaign staffers. they can't believe they lost in november but they are looking backwards. this is going to be the person who is going to lead the party for the next four years, at least organizationally and i guarantee you, they won't be talking too much about the past because if they are, democrats will remain in the minority for a very long time. >> yeah. to put a button on it, t

friday comey briefs the senate intel committee and people on the committee come out of that committee like ghosts and rubio says, you know, it's going to be an investigation and we're doing it and the demand letter, the freeze the documents letter comes out that same day. this is all happening in a week, right? and then on sunday senator graham is at a conference in germany says that 2017 is going to be the year of kicking russia's butt. so there's obviously a lot of facts on the ground here and a huge amount of smoke and also some fire, chris. >> i would say so. and this question of just sequence, as they put it, they have a meeting, the guy's briefing them is comey. they come out and they're all of a sudden bipartisan, it's all brotherhood and sisterhood all happening all against trump and all of a sudden they send a letter, don't go -- what do they call that thing? >> don't go destroying any documents. >> what do they call it the thing that rips up -- >> the shredder. >> stay away from the shredder. >> the committee is clearly protecting the integrity of whatever investigation they

and comey is controversial.re are some people who said, given what he knew about this set of issues going on with russia, mike pence and others, it is a bit of an outrage that he disclosed issues about hillary clinton and concerns about her e-mails and said nothing about this -- about the russians before the elections. but i talked to a liberal u.s. senator on the liberal side of things who was equally impressed by comey yesterday and think that we don't know what it was, but rubio said he walked out. he is somebody who has been walking hawk on the issues of russia and he's been critical of donald trump being so casual about it. so, we're hearing from both sides of the aisle that they have confidence right now, in what's beginning to unfold from the fbi. >> steve clemmons, thanks so much for your input. always great to have you. >> my pleasure, darra. >>> new today, malaysian police have arrested a fourth person in connection with the death of kim jong-nam, older half brother of north korean leader, kim jong-un.

comey apparently objected to that saying it would compromise an ongoing fbi investigation into russia. that's andrea mitchell's reporting. at some point, the acting attorney general, yates, informs the white house counsel of the concerns over flynn. january 309, sally yates was fired over a different issue. that brings us to this week, yesterday. kellyanne conway saying flynn had the full confidence of the president. late last night he then resigns. i guess given that time line that i just went through, does it -- david, does it me sense to you that this is the order of events? >> well, none of this actually makes a lot of sense. i think to extend a little bit what have the congressman was just saying, the story that was being put out to the american public was misleading. but look at it from the russian perspective. the russians knew what happened in that phone call back at the end of december. and they knew that flynn knew, obviously, what went on in that phone call and that the vice president had been put out and sean spicer had been put out to tell something that was not true. fro

comey has his back. he has comey's back.that is a big thing because the fbi -- neil: prosecution of michael flynn seems to be out. >> here's the thing. the fbi doesn't prosecute, it investigates. sometimes they recommend prosecution. seems like they will not recommending prosecution of flynn because comey has this relationship with trump. although i will tell you this, if the "washington post" is accurate, that comey diddies close, you know misled agents had classified conversations with his russian counterpart -- neil: whether flynn did. >> whether flynn did, that is not that much different than what. martha stewart did. who prosecuted martha stewart? james comey. direct attorney for the southern district. there is interesting parallel. neil: we're looking for someone to take that job. already it is not easy. with retire admiral bob harward not taking it, this might not be a an easy position to fill. >> right. neil: you have to worry in the interim, that is a pretty important division. that is another thing that stymies him

priebus then asks comey if he can cite mcakie abe and comey as top intelligence officials in pushing back on the story himself in tv interviews last sunday? which he did. >> i've talked to the top levels of the intelligence community and they have assured me that that new york times story was grossly overstated and inaccurate and totally wrong. >> reporter: the direct communications between the white house and the fbi were unusual because of decade-old restrictions on such contacts concerning pending investigations. >> you don't want the appearance of political influence with respect to an investigation or prosecution. that's why the protocols are in place. >> reporter: president trump on friday vented against the leaks that have plagued his administration, saying they should use named sources even as white house officials asked repo reporters not to be named. >> i'm against the people that makeup stories and makeup sources. they shouldn't be allowed to use sources unless they use somebody's name. let their name be put out there. let their name be put out. [ applause ] a source says

mike pompeo and james comey and they are in position. so i hope that we will straighten that out without using anybody else. the gentleman you mentioned it a very talented man, very successful man and he offered services and you know, something we may take advantage of. but i don't think we'll need that at all because of the fact that you know, i think that we

director comey was at the white house just last month, praised by the president. >> he's become more famous than me. >> reporter: but when chief of staff priebus asked comey if the fbi would publicly dispute the "new york times" story, the fbi director said he could not do that. none of this seemed to matter to the crowd at cpac, the largest annual gathering of conservative activists. trump skipped it last year. this year, a triumphant return. how is this cpac different from previous cpacs? >> i mean, just the buzz and excitement, and we're winning. we're in the white house. i mean, it's just exciting. >> reporter: this hasn't always been trump's crowd, but it sure was today. >> the core conviction of our movement is that we are a nation that put and will put its own citizens first. >> all: usa! usa! usa! >> and jon with us live from the white house tonight. we understand there was a press briefing today, but only some news organizations were allowed in? >> reporter: some of the largest news organizations in the country, denied access to the briefing. while smaller conservative outle

reince prebus, sally yates, john bren b, and james clapper and fbi director, james comey.lked with cnn's anderson cooper. >> this came to a head on the obama administration, the last full day obama was in office. there was a depate between the intelligence community, the justice department and the fbi, you had sally yates and the deputy attorney general, wanted to go to the trump white house after the inauguration and let them know that the way pence, the vice president-elect and other administration officials in the incoming administration were mischaracterizing based on a conversation they mad with flynn, his conversation with kislyak, the russian ambassador. com comey, the fbi director, initially, opposed going to the trump white house, to let them know this conversation. after trump comes to office, sally yates, acting attorney general, makes the case again and convinces comey some time after the 23rd of january, and before the 31st, that this information needed to be passed on. so, they shared it with the white house. >> in terms of the intersects of conversations of

was afraid. >> comey was afraid. he said don't give them this information. he later changed his mind. what does it tell you? it tells you the white house is going to sabotage ongoing investigation. that's disturbing. >> they thought comey had finger on the -- this would bear that out, right. >> he wants to preserve integrity of this investigation. the only thing we're going to get out of this is that these investigation are completed. that's what comey is trying to protect that. >> i think that's true of calculations of the intelligence community on what information they give the white house what information they give about sources of the information because of concern about you don't know what the story is behind this administration's aditude is behind russia. >> there is dangerous, you are starting to see roy blunt on the republican side, lindsey graham and mitch mcconnell may be open to investigation. the further that moves down the road, the bigger the trouble for the president. >> congratulations for saturd"sy n

comey said yes. think it was fox news sunday saying that the information was bogus or however he said it in his wisconsin accent. so, the reporting, what cnn is saying, what i'm hearing this morning, not really that different. it's pretty consistent. >> the white house is going to try, right? i'm not that surprised that priebus would go to the fbi and say, listen, this is getting us in a lot of trouble, this story. if you don't think the story is accurate, can you help us clear it up. perhaps you have more credibility. >> whether the pins went to pins -- >> doesn't surprise me. >> if the fbi is there on other business, is this reporting suggests, and if the fbi says, hey, can we talk to you, that's one thing. that's what this report suggests. >> yes. >> if you have somebody doing what the clinton administration did in 1993 and george stephanopoulos cowelled the fbi, the head of fbi for the white house and said hey, we need you to write this press release that we are going to put out later today, that

comey said we'll sign off on that. here's what reince priebus said on "fox and friends." >> what i told you, the highest levels of the intelligence communities have told me. it's an inaccurate and grossly overstated story. it's not true. >> the white house says it was absolutely appropriate for priebus to talk to the fbi about this because this was about a news story and not an investigation. we get into a gray area here, shep. the story was about an investigation. could those two things be linked? there's no laws broken here. might run up against guidelines. there's a couple of interesting aspects of this to consider. why did mccabe approach priebus in the first place? who leaked this? the circle was small. it was reince priebus and director of the fbi, james comey. what was the leaker there? the white house would like to know. >> shepard: who is the president blaming? >> he's not blaming anybody in particular but lashing out against the fbi on twitter tweeting out this morning when all of this blew up in the white ho

. >>> coming back, james comey, is he compromised now that the trump campaign and russian informationming to light? y282ty ywty that ride share? you actually rode here on the cloud. did not feel like a cloud... that driverless car? i have seen it all. intel's driving...the future! traffic lights, street lamps. business runs on the cloud... and the cloud runs on intel. ♪ i wonder what the other 2% runs on...(car horn) >>> word we've gotten is fbi is not expected to pursue charges against former national security adviser michael flynn over the phone call with the russian ambassador but doesn't mean the story is over. discuss with jeffrey toobin and john flannery, thank you both for joining. jeffrey, the fbi deciding not to file charges, does that mean he's in the clear? >> fbi's role for the last three months is mysterious to me. how would they know they're into the filing charges right now. did they talk about the wikileaks and hacking of the democratic party and clinton campaign in the phone call? there's a lot we don't know. i'm not here to convict michael flynn but seems premature t

is that comey meeting. yesterday coming to brief senators on the intelligence committee.nd we have this news out today and it's about michael flynn because we have the new yorker reporting that flynn was paid for the tenth anniversary dinner of r.t., which is a television network for russia, a $40,000 fee to attend but also that would be an issue, erin, because he may have violated the constitution's emoluments clause. we've talked about that when it comes to donald trump and conflicts of interest for his business, but this is an issue because you can be called back to military service at any time so, there that's where general flynn will be caught in the crosshairs. >> i think that's right. there's very important moment during that press conference when julie pace, the associated press writer, stood up and asked donald trump if he could say definl tifly if any of his campaign aides had any contact with the russians and he said not that i know of. he didn't say defin tiitively n. he said not that i know of. i think that one particular line will be something we come back t

a very long meeting with fbi director comey.re not sure if there were other people in the room briefing because there's been an unusually tight hold on whatever has been going on and what they've been talking about. normally you can at least get senators to stop and talk a little bit, even if it's broad about the news of the day or what was discussed. as you saw there, both warner and burr were extraordinarily tight-lipped about what they heard. burr said, i said from the beginning i'm not going to talk about this investigation or say anything about that investigation, so that actually kind of alludes to the fact that it might have been focused on -- i don't want to go so far as to say safe to assume, but about the senate committee on russian's meddle. that's been the news of the past week. at this point, again, we don't know exactly what it was they were talking about but it was several -- it was over an hour, behind closed doors with jim comb y intelligence committee, and senator chuck schumer was in the meeting, although he w

but we have seen jim comey get very political. he did it with hillary clinton's issues twice. not just once. what we have seen, though, is this problem where the trump white house is trying to push people to move along. but what what? we are about to have a budget that might decimate the epa and regulation of our clean air and clean water. double defense spend asking take away health care for people. it's like how many fronts can we be fighting here? i think what we are trying to do is to say let the intelligence committee do its work. give them the documents. give them the witnesses. we can stop talking about this and stop proclaiming innocence or guilt until they finish that work. we have other things to get started on here. >> i want to bring in gloria borger to talk about the showdown over obamacare. you heard, because it's soundsing like kong republicans not necessarily on the same page with the white house exactly on this. >> no. >> we also heard at the budget today to combine a couple of thing that i think are important, that donald trump is not going to touch entitleme

priebus then asks comey if he is cite mccake and comey as, quote, top intelligence officials in pushing back on the story itself on cbs news last sunday which he did. >> i've talked to the top levels of the intelligence community and they've assured me that the "the new york times" story was grossly over stated. >> reporter: and because of decades old restrictions on such contacts concerning pending investigations. >> you don't want the appearance of political influence with respect to an investigation or prosecution. that's why the protocols are in place. >> reporter: president trump on friday ranted against the leaks that have plagued his administration, making a case reporters should only use named sources. even as white house officials spoke to reporters asking not to be named. >> i'm against the people that make up stories and make up sources. they shouldn't be allowed to use sources. unless they use somebody's name. let their name be put out there. let their name be put out. a source says that donald trump is a horrible, horrible human being. let him say it to my face. >> reporter

>> i have tremendous respect for jim comey, his competence and integrity.s been my experience that he wouldn't do anything that was going to in any way compromise the integrity of an ongoing investigation that's why anybody who claims the facts are already known in terms of what did or didn't happen between russian officials and u.s. feofficials during the election is speaking prematurely. but the white house needs to understand that the interaction with the fbi on criminal investigations is something that really they need to steer clear of. certainly when i was in the white house for four years and at the cia, any type of engagement between the white house and the fbi about an ongoing criminal investigation was forbidden. not just because of the impro-piety of doing it, but the appearance it would provide to folks on the outside that there might be some -- >> so this is not regular business. when you were serving in the white house, no one ever called you and said we've got a story? >> no, i never did that on behalf of the white house request and the white

we know that james comey rejected the requests according to the sources we've been talking to because of the alleged communications are the subject of ongoing investigation. and i underscore that indeed if the deputy director of the fbi reached out first thing in the morning to try to temp down the story and give the white house guidance that is highly unusual. >> evan and jim, thank you for that reporting, exclusive reporting. andre carson of indiana is joining us, a member of the intelligence committee. thank you for joining us. >> thank you wolf. >> you just heard the reporting that the fib refused a request from the white house to knock down recent stories reported by cnn and the "new york times" about contacts between the associates of donald trump during the campaign and russians. were you aware that the white house had made this request to the fbi? >> well, it's unfortunate. i mean, hearing the news. but it's not surprising. i think we have an administration that has constantly accused entities like cnn, the "new york times" of being fake news. and i think this is a masterful a

you head my mind about comey. he went in. staffers were not invited into the meeting. everybody is tight lipped. they are trying to put their ducks in order. the fact you have mccain over the weekend saying the conversation we are having right now with trump is almost th athortarian. this is bigger than politics but institutions. that's why we are going to go after, making sure we can tie up russia. >> the facts that the intelligence committee does know so much, why is the trump administration so set believing the leaks are in the intelligence community? why not members of congress or the senate? >> having been in many meetings where there are almost immediate leaks. the intelligence community does leak. the hill does leak. a leak is a symptom something is wrong. they feel there's illegal activity, unethical activity, they are frustrated. that's what a leak is. the leak is evidence of the problem. >> what we are seeing is a build up of the dam. part of it is the intelligence community, as most members are, usually the republican party, the person in office is on the si

story saying that the trump campaign was in constant contact with the russian intelligence, friday comey briefs the intel commune and they come out of the community like ghosts and rubio say -- the document comes out on that same day, 2017 is going to be year of kicking russia's but. there's a lot of facts on the ground and huge amount of smoke and fire. >> i would say so. back to you, the question of sequence, as they put it, they have a meeting, the guy briefing them is comey. they come out, it's brotherhood and sister hood happening against trump, they send a letter -- what do they call it -- >> the shreader. >> the community is protecting the investigation they do. they do not want to be republicans on that committee -- accused of having to setup the investigation to fail by allowing documents to be destroyed or by not setting the proper scope for this investigation. clearly, comey told them some things that concerned them enough that they were ready to say, republicans and democrats a alike, this going to be broad investigation. white house ask 12 agencies don't put anything in the

this is director comey writing, a speech he gave. "serious debates are taking place about how law enforcement personnel relate to the communities they serve, about the appropriate uses of force, and about real and perceived biases, both within and outside of law enforcement." these are important debates, director comey says. "every smeern feel free -- every american should feel free to express an informed opinion, to protest peacefully, to convey frustration and even ainger in a construct and even anger in a constructive way. that's what makes our democracy great. those conversations, as bumpy and as uncomfortable as they can be, help us understand different perspectives and better serve our communities." of course these are only conversations in the true sense of that word. if we are willing to talk but to listen, too." director comey continues in his speech, "i worry that this incredibly important and incredibly difficult conversation about race and policing has become focused entirely on the nature and character of law enforcement

. >> members of the senate intelligence committee got a briefing from fbi director james comey. >> this briefing was about russia, likely most effective investigation into russian meddling into the 2016 election. >> this administration is running like a fine tuned machine. >> i think there are significant function in national security apparatus. >> america is going to start winning again, winning like never, ever before. >>> up and at em. i am christi paul. >> i am victor blackwell. good morning. >>> mike pence is playing top diplomat, reassuring nato members that the u.s. will stand by the commitment to the transatlantic partnership. and vowing that russia will have to answer for actions in crimea. >> know this. the united states will continue to hold russia accountable, even as we search for new common ground which as you know president trump believes can be found. >> but russia appears to be pushing back on those comments arguing it is the expansion of nato that's creating tension. the country's foreign minister rebuffed reporting that russia meddled in the u.s. election saying he, q

director james comey behind closed doors to discuss russian interference in the 2016 elect. marco rubio took to twitter. he says i'm confident the senate intel committee i serve on will conduct a fair investigation of putin's interference and influence. general flynn resigned over allegations that he lied to the vice president over conversations he had with the russian ambassador. are we ever going to get answers on russia? will the political machine bury this story? >> i'm excited about this new pick. i think he's a great choice. general flynn was one of the more concerning picks for peopleo both sides of the aisle. dagen: what about the senate intel committee looking into this? what is troubling about flynn is the fact that these conversations when he was a private citizen were leaked and the transcript were read by many people in washington. that has to be what they are looking at, not just russia hacking into emails. >> the intelligence community has a beef on what was said in those phone calls. but flynn lied about it apparently to members of the administration. it's no

when we come back, is james comey compromised? is he compromised now that the investigation in the trump campaign and russia is coming to light? ♪ ♪ ♪ only at&t offers you all your live channels and dvr on your devices. data-free. entertainment. your way. only from at&t. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ sfx: engine revving ♪ (silence) ♪ >>> the word we've gotten is the fbi is not expected to pursue charges against national security advisor michael flynn over the phone call with russian's ambassador but that does not mean the story is over. let's discuss with senior analyst mr. jeffrey tubin and john flanery, former special counsel to the u.s. senate and house judiciary committees. thank you both for joining us. good evening. jeffrey, to you, fbi deciding ton file charges. does that mean he is in the clear? re: t >> the fbi's role in the last three months has been mysterious. how do they know they're not going to file charges? i'm not saying they will, but we haven't had a real investigation yet. what was said in all these exchanges with the russian embass

it pointed at comey over and over. but let's say john podesta is correct, let's say there were forces within the fbi that wanted hillary clinton to lose. let's say that is true. we still can't say that the letter that was dropped a couple of days before the election cost hu her the 80,000 votes that she came up short. mandy grumwald, one of clinton's top advisers, said there's bunch of reasons, you can blame the russians, you can say we didn't go into michigan soon enough, you can cite the comey letter. but there's no way to prove that one thing cost clinton the election. >> molly, what do you think? >> i think if you don't want a candidate embroiled in shenanigans with the fbi, you don't nominate someone who had the e-mail situation. other people have gone to prison, one man was sentenced to prison for having photos of a submarine on his cellphone. that put into the race quite a bit of energy and opposition, people felt like the fbi was not holding her accountable for what she had done and it made them feel like they

the importance of having jim comey in there grasping what they think comey understanding this is a veryus investigation being undertaken in a bipartisan fashion on capitol hill that this matters, that all the agencies will be cooperating, whether they're forced to or not. this committee has subpoena power, has made clear they'll compel individuals like mike flynn, like former obama administration intel officials to come testify before them. this is an important committee. that was an important meeting. >> the important meeting. it came only hours after the president's chief of staff went on national television, the fox news fox and friends and said he had been given clearance by senior officials in the intelligence community to essentially say publicly this isn't a big deal. it's clear the committee thinks it's a big deal. >> just odd. their ongoing investigations that presumably haven't reached a conclusion yet. for him to go out there and say that, i think -- i think it also comes as we have these investigations going on and as donald trump really is trying to undermine the press, rig

comey again told him the story was quote, b. s., but repeated the fbi couldn't get into issuig statements about it. priebus asked comey do you mind if i go out there. a couple of days later, here's what priebus said about reports of the new york times on fox and friends. >> what i just told you is what the highest levels of the intelligence community have told me, which is it's it is an inaccurate and grossly over stated story, and it's not true. >> so if the white house is insisting it did not pressure te fbi into anything that the fbi came forward, it simply made inquiries as to whether or not they could correct the record. there are bright lines twine the - - . we're potentially in a grey area here. we'll see what else the white house has to say. >> it ties into the narrative of media coverage. the president also talking about the american burker. we'll talk about his policies will impact us in the economy after this quick break. ♪ >> did we win anything? did we win anything? we're gonna win, we're gonna win big, folks. we're

do you think you know james comey, director of the fbi, do you think he would have weighed in on what was happening on an ongoing investigation. >> i have tremendous respect for jim comey, he is competent and has integrity and it is my experience with jim he would not do anything that would in any way compromise the integrity of an o ongoing investigation, thas why anything who claims that the facts are already known in terms of what did or didn't happen between russian officials and u.s. persons during the election, i think is speaking very prematurely and the white house needs to understand that the interaction with the fbi on criminal investigations is something that really they need to steer clear of, certainly when mifers the white house for four years and then at the cia, any type of engagement between the white house and the fbi about an ongoing criminal investigation was verboten, not just because of the impropriety of doing that but the appearance it would provide to folks on the outside there might be some unwarranted enter ference in such an investigation. >> dickerson: so

so, again, that came shortly after the entire intelligence committee met with james comey behind closedrs on capitol hill. meanwhi meanwhile, this morning, vice president pence took to the stage in munich to stand by the administration's warning to iran. >> under president trump, the united states will remain fully committed to ensuring that iran never obtains a nuclear weapon capable of threatening our countries, our allies in the region, especially israel. >> want to bring in nbc's kelly o'donnell in west palm beach, florida, not too far from the president's mar-a-lago residence. what's behind the strategy for the rally that's set for this afternoon? and we haven't heard anything yet from the white house in reaction to marco rubio or other intel committee members about that comey briefing. >> reporter: no, and i don't expect that we will today, but the president is talking about the fact that he's going to be holding meetings today. we might be able to make the link that that could be related to the national security adviser openingecause we have been told he would be working on that,

james comey also briefed the senate intelligence committee on the agency's investigation into russiannterference in the u.s. election and i want to bring back my panel, ryan lizza, alice stewart and mark lamont hill. let's listen to what russian foreign minister sergei lavrov said about russian interference in the election. >> translator: i'm not seen one fact breaking into a site, any site of the democratic party. nor as as concerned. >> what do you make of those comments after the events of this week? >> of course he's going to say that, he'll deny it until we have evidence to prove otherwise. all we can say is that based on what we're seeing and hearing from members of the senate intel committee who came out of that meeting with james comey this week, we had senator marco rubio come out and pretty inequivocally say they have what they need to have further hearings on this. and all of them understandably were tight-lipped about the information that was provided to them. certainly classified information. but the fact that they are even contemplating and discussing further hearings is

. >> fbi director james comey making an unexpected appearance on the hill. >> are you here to discuss general flynn? >> in many respects, this administration is in disarray. >> this could explode to being bigger than watergate. >> we're going to find the leaks. >> donald trump saying out loud what richard nixon used to say in private. i'm not sure that's progress. >> i'll be in melbourne, florida. the crowds are massive. >> no, we are not ready for another campaign. you're like somebody who wants a birthday month. your birthday is over. get to work. >>> good evening. it has been a tough month for trump. he lost a national security adviser and labor secretary. help wanted sign for a new national security adviser are not drawing top talent and the core question facing president trump, whether he has been bullied or tempted into a krupp alliance with russia has only intensified as it is determined it should be investigated througan investigation. there are people working hard to distract, attack and bully you away from following the threat. let's keep our eye on the ball. the big questio

he later reached out to fbi director james comey asking for the fbi to at least talk to reporters on background to dispute the stories. >> it's worth underlining why they did that. between the white house and if you have an on going investigation. >> it's not typical for a reason. the communication between the white house and the fbi was unusual because of decade old restrictions on such contact. if he sent this to the white house he may have overstepped. not to mention an investigation involving the president's associates and russia. it limits communication with the fbi on pending investigation. there's specific language from 2007-2009 limiting this communication. >> so what is the status of this investigation. is it on going. it's investigating several members of them. and the investigations are in full swing. >> sources tell my colleague and i the white house made the request to the department of homeland security to bolster it's case for why the seven countries listed in the travel ban should remain after it was blocked by reports. they tell cnn that the department of homeland se

it was comey, the fbi director, who said, no, he thought it would compromise the investigation. after january 23rd when sean spicer had his first press briefing and repeated the misinformation that he had been told by mike flynn and said that he had just gone back to flynn the night before that briefing and that flynn had repeated to him that that conversation was all about airplanes and setting up the phone call and christmas greetings and the like, that's when, after january 23rd, that comey withdrew his objections to revealing this ongoing investigation, and sally yates was authorized to tell the white house counsel. so sometime after january 23rd, she informed the white house counsel, but it was january 30th s that she was fired, and fired presumably, the statement was given to us, that it was because of her refusal to enforce the immigration ban. we don't know why it took so long after that period -- sometime after january 23rd -- for the white house to come to this conclusion. >> andrea, a couple points here. first of all, i'm getting the wave-off that petraeus is indeed n