that wasn't jim comey. but when the professor called on him, he usually knew the answer. >> soon after law school, he and patrice marry and he joins the district attorney's office in the southern district of new york. at 6'8", comey quickly makes his mark. >> my first impression was that he was very tall. and he was, i came to know, super smart, very funny, and just a charming individual. >> comey meets a set of like minded friends who form a close knit group that will last for decades. >> we sort of grew up together in the offices of assistant u.s. attorneys. we're all of the same ilk, not being motivated for any sort of personal gain or any sort of political gain, but just there to fight the good fight for the good guys. >> comey's sense of justice and his sense of humor carry into the courtroom, where he prosecutes everything from interstate fraud to the gambino crime family. >> oh, gosh, you won't see somebody better in the courtroom. >> i recall hearing of when jim got up and said, i don't want to hold

it was the way that comey flounced it.th this barrage of criticism of hers, you put up or shut up. you file a case in which case you can criticize all you want or you don't file a case and then you say nothing. comey tried to have it both ways, by not filing a case and criticizing hillary clinton and that wasn't the way the system is supposed to work. >> let me bring in two more voices, including one guy who was actually with comey when he found out he was fired, josh campbell, former aide to comey and mueller at the fbi and steve cortes is with us, former trump spanish advise riff council. josh, what do you have make of this 500-page report faulting your former boss? >> well, it's certainly a day of reckoning about it looks like in this case there was wrong doing. the inspector determined there was policies not followed. the question p second question is are these criminal charges or administrative charges? none are great. but are officials con dubbing themselves consistent with law and policy? this specific report, we ha

director comey had a double standard.e spoke publicly about the clinton investigation while keeping secret from the american people the investigation of donald trump and russia. director comey talk publicly about hillary clinton's quote case which resulted in no charges and the reopening of the case in october of 2016 based on e-mails that showed absolutely nothing new. at the same time he kept secret from the american people the ongoing investigation of president trump's campaign in russia which was happening exactly at the same time. i feel disheartened by this report because i warn direct the -- director comey personally against his double standard before the election. i want to share with you a statement that i issued on october 31, 2016 just days before the election and here is what i said and i quote. if it comes out after the election that the fbi kept secret from the american people the fact that it was investigating former trump campaign manager paul manafort for seeking access to e-mails or investigating anyone

fbi comey lied.ssion to the president and said director of initial intel jim clapper and john brent an may preapproved to be the most revator indicating officials in history of any administration. inconstitutionalized deception as a tool of gentleman. and: wow! i love that column. number 1. number 2, the iran deal fit perfectly into your analysis does it not? what did we learn today n >> yes, i think it does. it results from two things. one, they felt they were so moral and nobel that any means necessary was justified them to achieve them. more importantly ben rose said they created an echo chamber of journalists. there was no independent audit on them. if you were charitable you would say they just misread human nature. they think they'll be paid in time or more likely the iranians looked at that as weakness to be exploited. if you were less charitable you would say they did anything to get a signature achievement before he went out of office and they had some warped view that the irans and the shi'

comey's credibility. so, in this sense, while the ig report does fault comey's decisions and his actions, it actually, legal experts say does not dent his credibility. because it does to the find that he lied it doesn't find that he mislead the public. it also says, it found that there was no evidence. there is no evidence here to support the theory that the fbi was against trump well there are those really damning text messages from people below james comey. the report says those political views and text messages did not influence the investigation. and at the end of the day here, when you look back to 2016 recommendation james comey talks at length about hillary clinton's investigation. did he not, on the record, confirm that there was an investigation into the president trump's campaign. and so i think at the end of the day, comey's credibility was something everybody was watching for. it does not seem like that is something that was truly dented by this report. >> dana: bob, you worked at the departme

comey said great things about him. >> let comey go.e alerted everyone to who was happening with comey. he did standpy comey's side when it went down. so mueller is a careful guy. he's always been a careful guy. so we didn't know how long this investigation would go on. so to rush it is crazy. at the time is that it started, let's take as long as it goes go get to the truth. >> it's like you -- the story has to get bigger. seems to me that is if you look at it through the lens of personal promotion all these teaming things you're talking about today makes more sense on a partisan side. it's about maximum promotion. >> i'll say this going back to the whole i.g. report. i think what was troubling today is -- one of the reasons that we saw donald trump rise and win is the american people are losing faith and trust in their institution. i'm not sure the i.g. report encouraged me to have faith and trust in the doj -- >> neil: is that something that republicans will found? this institutions can be trusted. >> we have to have reform. trump has

james comey is still a witness in the mueller probe. again, jim comey was fired. he also admitteds that he purposely leaked his memos to the media about his talks with president trump in order to get a special counsel appointed and he was robert mueller. joining me now, former fbi assistant director, jim call stra. your reaction to the ig's findings that jim comey was insubordinate. >> that's no surprise to anybody. we've known that for a long time. we know that comey was off the rails, that he was acting, you know, unlike any other fbi director ever, was not abiding by fbi rules and regulations, the rules of federal procedure. i mean i could go on for hours about the things that jim comey was doing wrong. the big problem with waiting for an ig report is it was, what, otheover a year now and some pas of this brought information forward that's very interesting. it obviously talks about a number of agents that were dealing with the media. whether that was leaks or not, i don't know. it just looked like a lot of things were going on that were not proper. and the way

james comey was one of them. >> okay. there is a problem tonight, though, for the president. because yes, the report, the 500 pages, spells out mistakes comey made and does so in tremendous detail. but this is the bottom line. after 18 months of investigation and 500 pages, quote, we found no evidence that the conclusions were affected by bias or other improper considerations. so trump's repeated charge that comey helped clinton, which he did on twitter, wow, looks like james comey exonerated hillary clinton long before the investigation was over and so much more, a rigged system. well, the report says that was not the case. was there personal political bias by some agents involved in the investigation? yes. the report says the agents who exchanged those highly critical text messages of trump, quote, brought discredit to themselves. but did that personal point of view impact their work? was their work politicized? did they violate, these people who worked for the fbi, lawyers and fbi agents, did they violate the

comey has found ironically defenders in the democratic party which believes that comey helped throw the election in trump's direction, but they viewed comey as a key witness to what could have been obstruction of justice on the president's part. >> right. i do think that's a political question. and i think when it comes to judging the president -- i mean, we know how the constitution is written. the potential jury for the president is ultimately congress. so, all of this is in that sense very political and comey will fall into that. >> i want to get into -- we've talked around this, but let's look at the lies the president has been telling. let's take a report that he's likely to start tweeting about in 3, 2 -- i'm kidding, we don't have any tweets yet but we expect them soon. but they do -- i think it's farah analysis to say there is something in here for everyone. but his attacks on the justice department are debunked largely by this report. so, one of them is that fbi leadership politicized the investigation. horowitz finds and writes at the beginning of the report that there was no

jim comey may have made errors in judgment.was not doing that in connection with trying to sway the election up with wone way o. we should respect the process. i was interviewed for a portion of the ig report. >> thanks for joining us. >>> just ahead, a testy. change between our own jim acosta and the white house press secretary as the white house tries to justify the separation of children from parents who cross the mexican border. i don't think enough people heard about your big day. but nothing says "we got married" like a 12 ounce piece of scrap metal. yo! we got married! honk if you like joint assets. now you're so busy soaking up all this attention, you don't see the car in front of you. and if i can crash your "perfect day", imagine what i can do to the rest of 'em. so get allstate, and be better protected from mayhem. like me. vojimmy (shouting): james!as been jimmy's longest. 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

comey puts republicans and democrats in difficult situations. >> laura: why do you think comey did not tell loretta lynch about this july press conference? >> it's incredible. there is not one criminal prosecutor at the federal level that works at the fbi. they work at the dolenc. -- doj. he can to consult with the doj. why didn't lynch recuse herself. -- doj. he can to consult with the doj. why didn't lynch recuse herself? no need for comey to become the investigator. that's a bad mix. loretta lynch said i will accept the fbi's recommendation and the fbi took and it ran beyond that. >> laura: sal, your reaction to this leak. he was insubordinate. maybe you have heard this word used to describe a high ranking government official other than someone in the military. you don't usually hear that. what is that? defying protocol? is this just disciplinary or serious? >> it's very serious. insuborderination is not a strong enough word. why didn't he go to loretta lynch. he makes it very clear in his book. he thought the department of justice was corrupted. he thought it would hurt the fbi. he

i do think comey -- john touched on this. comey does not come across very well here. it strikes me that he is looking out for how jim comey is going to come out of this thing. the fact that he would lecture hillary clinton while using his own private e-mail, the fact that october 5th he recommends not coming out with the russia -- the fact of the russian investigation for fear of it being an october surprise. but 23 days later he comes out and says, oh, by the way, remember that thing in july i talked about. well, now we are going to look into these e-mails on anthony weiner's computer. >> there is no protocol. >> right. the problem was, i remember that day. he said i'm saying this. woe almost certainly will not be able to figure out what's in these before the election. on the saturday or sunday before the election he said never mind. but the damage was done. >> the tail is wagging the dog. he is responding to concerns that in the future if the news gets out, it will be seen as a conspiracy. >> and bias is in fact, the four-letter word here. it it's huge. it's crucial

there was no political bias in comey's actions, not surprisingly, james comey is disagreeing with somef the conclusions that were reached. the former fbi director says, nothing in the report makes me think we did the wrong thing. he continued, my team believed the damage of concealing the reopening of our investigation would have been catastrophic to the institution. the inspector general weighs it differently, that's okay. even though i respectfully disagree. this administration said comey was fired over the handling of the investigation. the president said he fired comey for the russia thing to lester holt. how does this play into the overall russia investigation? >> first of all i think that lester holt interview is going to become more and more important in this investigation. the president's attorneys were meeting in washington today. i'm told this subject came up, i think what ravi was talking about and said he feared is going to be one of their arguments against the special counsel, which is, look at what the inspector general said, we were right to fire james comey. you can't s

thee buck stops with comey. comey disgraced. mccabe, criminalve referral, you have obstruction. spent months trying to make sure that hillary clinton was protected. you know why? if they had impaneled a federal grand jury and played by theed book, she would have been indicted by the democratic partw would've had t to grab another convention and find another candidate. they couldn't allow that, they had to defeat trump. comey, insubordinate, usurping the powers of the attorney general, the deputy attorney general, the associate attorney general. insubordinate. collusion, obstruction, insubordination. it is absolutely unbelievable. i want to get back to the media. the media, which sings like a bunch of blackbirds on a telephone pole. they move in one direction, they all move in the other direction. now we know why. the media was working, much of the media, for the fbi. while the inspector general does not tell us, which media, watch reporters, which fbi agents, we want to know. they don't tell us. now there are some recommendations that they have in this report. it was hilarious.

by -- if james comey loses his credibility, if this ig report takes away james comey's credibility, at least some of it, dents it, if those on the clinton campaign come out and say, look what james comey did. he has no credibility. is there a concern that what you, in effect, are doing is handing over a gift to the president and to republicans to say james comey has no credibility, mueller can't trust him when he interviews him. the foundation of the mueller report, mueller probe, has no credibility because it began under james comey's watch. >> i think that there would be more concern about that if we didn't have the president on television saying that he fired james comey to stop the russia investigation. >> but what he does do effectively for his voters -- i don't know if he's going to have enough voters in 2020 or what will happen in 2018, but i can tell you that when you talk to people who are considering donald trump, or whatever, they will say, hey, listen, i don't think any of these people are trust worthy at all. they'll point to the whole justice department and they'll point

the buck stops with comey. this is comey. comey disgraced. mccabe, criminal referrals.er heard of an fbi like this. you have obstruction jim comey spent months try position make sure shah hillarhillary clinton was protected. do you know why in if we had impanged the federal grand jury and played by the book she would have been indicted. the democratic party would have had to have another convention and find another candidate. they couldn't allow that they had to defeat trump. comey insubordinate. usurping the power lines of the attorney general. the deputy attorney general. the associate attorney general. insubordinate. have you collusion. obstruction, insubordination. it is absolutely unbelievable. i want to get back to the media. the media, which sings like a bunch of black birds on a telephone pole. they move in one direction they all move in the other direction. we know why. the media was working, much of the media with the fbi. what the inspector general doesn't tell us for some reason which media. which reporters which fbi agents. we want to know. and they don't t

of course he fired comey because of russia. he lobbied comey to go easy on flynn because of russia. he asked his white house counsel to fire bob mueller because of russia. it looks like they fired andy mccabe because of russia. he attacks the fbi constantly because of russia. all roads lead to russia with this guy. it's the rosetta stone of this presidency. that's what he's fixated on. >> is it not wise legally? >> it's legally not wise. we're not going to end up in criminal court. donald trump's credibility would be shot by these inconsistent statements. what we have here is them, meaning trump and his lawyer, not bracing for criminal court, but this campaign is designed to undermine in the public's view this whole investigation. they're hoping this muddies the waters and everyone thinks it's unfair. so the trump base will put pressure on the republicans in congress not to impeach him. not legal, it's political. >> jason do you see a contradiction as to what the president tweeted and what he said to the russians in the oval office and lester holt? >> i don't think so. the president

rosenstein, they say, wanted to get rid of comey. you touched on this, but just detail how complicated it is to be rod rosenstein. we're going to get to yesterday's fiery testimony. i talked to senior justice department officials today who said they welcome the opportunity to show how even keeled the deputy attorney general is. but your reporting certainly doesn't describe that side of him and his role is treemly fraught with peril from all political directions. >> well, it's so conflicted. and as he is the chief or very important witness in the comey firing, he is also dealing with this issue on capitol hill where he has these republicans that are going after them. he's trying to buy them off, trying to give them this information on an ongoing investigation, a highly unusual thing to try and give mueller more time to do what he's going to do. it is a very, very interesting spot for him and it's all because jeff sessions recused himself. that is the original thing that gets us to where we are. sessions stepping aside, allowing rosens

did director comey, the f.b.i., and d.o.j. handle the public aspects of the investigation into hillary clinton's emails correctly? of course not. we democrats said that then, the inspector general makes it clear now. but director comey's mishandling of the publicity around the clinton email campaign all accrued to the benefit of then-candidate trump. not the other way around. it was trump who benefited. from all these mistakes. so it hardly reflects deep-state or bias against him. and as the president told lester holt in his own words, on national tv, he fired director comey because of the russia probe. so what does this all mean going forward? we know that in the days ahead, the president and his allies will try to twist themselves into pretzels and try to use this report to undermine the special counsel and russia probe. unfortunately for them, nothing in this report lays a glove on special counsel mueller or the ongoing russia probe. if this was the president's plan to take down the special counsel, president trump swung an

comey telling the truth? he said here there was not an internal investigation ongoing about the leak. was he correct? speak to that. >> was the ongoing investigation into leaks to mr. giuliani? deny t confirm or -- mr. wray: i can't confirm or deny an investigation. hearing. an open director comey says there was such -- there was such an investigation. >> there are a number of things i would have done differently. not going to comment on whether or not there is an ongoing investigation one way or the other. we have refused to do that and i'm not going to change the policy. here we know about the private life. we know nothing about the leaks from fbi personnel who are taking steps to sway the election to mr. trump. you did not include an investigation of those leaks. >> that is correct for the reasons we noted. we are not to speak to work we might have ongoing. at some pointe you would report to us. was generally accepted leaks were going on. mr. giuliani basically said so on tv. the president says this report

comey that would vindicate him. the fbi hasn't provided any such emails, and the inspector general's report doesn't mention any. neither man could agree to come here and explain it to the committee. whatever happened, it is a sad state of affairs for the former top two employees and officials in the fbi to be in a swearing contest over press leaks. justice should be blind. law enforcement needs to ignore politics, follow the facts and embrace oversight as a way to improve. the inspector general's report on to be a step, really step one in the right direction. but consequences must follow. senator feinstein? sen. feinstein: thank you, mr. chairman, for holding this hearing. horowitz,general thank you for the hard work you and your staff have done. this is a very big report. i think the largest i've seen in at least two decades. we look forward to hearing from you and from director ray -- wray. after an 18 month investigation that included review of more than 1.2 million documents and interviews with more than 100 wit

it justifies trump's firing of comey. what we're seeing is wildly incompetent and i will say biased. i think there was some bias and preferential treatment. you and i were, we were talking before the hit, if you and i had done one thing that hillary clinton and huma abedin had done we would be sitting in leavenworth. i think it will justify trump's firing of comey and comey will be go down as one of the worst fbi directors in history. one of the stunning things, that lisa page, peter strzok exchange, tell me won't be president, right, right? no, we'll stop him. don't forget peter strzok was heading up county intelligence probe of supposed trump collusion. this was not a random field agent. i think the thing coming out of this, i think people have to be aware of, i still think there are serious questions about the doj and the fbi and the trust issue with the american people. i don't think this will help them at all today. i think we've still got to work through that. can we trust them to be guardians of rule of law? how th

in a tweet to, comey responded. i respect the doj ig office which is why i urge them to do the review. the conclusions are reasonable even though i disagree with him. people with good faith can see an unprecedented situation differently. on text messages between peter strzok and lisa page, michael horowitz found in a document documentary or political evidence for bias. in a recent fox interview, comey said politics paid no role. >> i was deeply disappointed in them but i never saw any bias, and a reflection of any kind of animus towards anybody, even me. >> a text message recovered last month suggest strzok may have acted for political reasons. in august of 2016, page road, trump is not ever going to become president, right? right? and he replied, no, he won't. we will stop it. then tens of thousands of emails were found on a computer. the inspector general said strzok dragged his feet and no action was taken until two weeks before the election when comey reopened the email case. quote under these circumstances, we

so, again, a scathing criticism there of james comey, but, jake, comey has said in a statement today that he respects these conclusions that he doesn't thessaly agree. jake? >> jessica schneider, thanks so much. let's go to the white house where we find pamela proubrown. today is the president's birthday, we haven't heard from him yet directly on twitter. is the white house indicating that he is the gift he wanted? >> well, the white house is certainly seizing on the findings in this inspector general report, no surprise there, jake, with sarah sanders, the press secretary, coming out during the press briefing today saying that the findings reaffirm the president's suspicions about comey, the former fbi director whom he fired and tweeted about saying he should be thanked for firing him so the white house using this report to further justify the president's actions in firing james comey. sarah sanders also saying it reaffirms what the president has been saying, that there's political bias within the fbi. here's what she told reporters. >> there are a lot of things in this report that

comey.o what does it mean if mueller tries to tell rosenstein there was obstruction of justice? and much fun was made of the over the top hollywood style movie the president showed kim jong-un at the singapore summit. but as a propaganda exercise, did it actually deserve five stars? >>> plus, a lawsuit accuses harvard of limiting asian american admissions by downgrading applicants regarding personal traits like, likability, kindness and being widely respected. do the ivies discriminate against asians? >>> and john travolta with me to talk about his new movie about convicted gangster john gotti based on a book by his son gotti jr. i'll ask the two of them if the film glamorizes the gangster life. >>> first, we finally got the inspector general's 500-plus page report this week about the fbi's hand ling of hillary clinton's e-mail and predictably, both sides claimed victories of a sort. much has been said but not that which i think is most important. for me, the ig report crystallized the loomi

comey had thrown the election to donald trump. liz: right.ting back to the fisa warrant process, christopher steele, you know, those claims from third, fourth parties removed, he doesn't even now stand by the dossier, in court. >> i think earlier trey gowdy's comment, if you look at the way the investigation was handled, there are a lot of questionable calls on mrs. clinton like letting cheryl mills be counsel and so on and stuff. trey gowdy pointed out it was a very different approach. in the hillary approach, it was voluntary, we'll get your cooperation in the russia investigation, we'll see. we're going to insinuate someone into the campaign, we're going to get fisa warrants, a very, very different approach. liz: let's talk about james comby and what the i.g. found and really he set the tone for fbi. >> absolutely. liz: he told fbi subordinates, do not tell loretta lynch, according to the i.g., i'm having press conferences on my own where i will be exonerating hillary clinton. >> outside of his authority to exonerate. liz: right. >> if you

the bombshell report on james comey revealed tonight. did comey's actions cross the line? publicly chastising hillary clinton for 15 minutes on national tv before revealing he wasn't recommending charges. then 11 days before the election revealing he was investigating again. then saying there was nothing there. and the ig report asking why james comey did not reveal the fbi was also looking into the trump campaign at the same time. and the fbi officials and their personal text messages. what they reveal. >>> also tonight, the destructive tornado slamming the northeast. destroying buildings. several wounded. >>> the manhunt at this hour. the shooter opening fire outside a major airport on several drivers in their cars.hicles hi. a runway closed. we have new reporting tonight. >>> the deputy attacked responding to a call. the struggle in broad daylight. >>> the growing outrage. parents crossing the border separated from their children. for the first time, we're allowed inside one of those immigration detention centers. what our correspondent was allowed to see, and what he c

it's been problematic for james comey. the conflicting testimony he has given on his book tour and before this congress. both these things cannot be true or false in the same way at the same time. i want to talk to you about that chain of command. he says he adhere to the chain of command but he broke with that because he thought loretta lynch was so compromised he could no longer follow orders. and if that were the case he should have gone to the president. if the president was compromised, you have politicized. weaponized system of law enforcement and justice that means we are in deep yogurt in this country. which is it. >> we found out today that the clown show comey, i'm so glad trump fired him. he thought he was the law unto himself. that he could make these decisions by himself and do whatever he wanted to. i find it interesting. john podesta was arguing he had an impact arguing three days before the election. don't give me that argument. if any one of us tried to do what she had done using classified information on

with comey, the famous -- the firing of comey, the work on the memo on air force one, the president'sction to the news of the trump tower meeting, there is a whole pattern and practice here of things that could be construed as obstruction. if mueller concludes and recommends that the president should be taken to tank for that, it will be impeachment, and that will then fall to the house of representatives, and then rod rosenstein is not conflicted. he becomes a fact witness -- >> right, but -- >> and not a decision-making. >> but nelson, it doesn't -- correct me if i'm wrong, but the mueller report when it's produced on obstruction, whatever the findings might be, does not go directly to the congress. there is a very important weigh station, and that is rod rosenstein. how can rosenstein take possession of that report where a critical issue was the decision to fire comey where the president's view was drafted by rosenstein himself? do you not see a conflict in that? >> rosenstein's decision when he gets the -- first of all, i think you make a very good point. let me start there. you p

he wanted to fire james comey. but they also did not find any evidence of a conspiracy at the heart of the fbi to hurt donald trump. in fact, i think it's just the opposite. what donald trump has always been saying, it's the same people working on the e-mail investigation to the russia investigation, that there was a conspiracy against him, and the whole russia investigation is, therefore, rigged against him. this clearly does not support that point of view. they'll use it to say comey is a bad guy and i believe the investigator will say he didn't behave like he should have. >> the president said the whole world will eventually stand up and agree that i should have fired comey. >> we know what the president is hoping for, wanting all these months, is some sort of a recommendatio recommendation. you know, if you've listened to comey, either if you've seen this, he indicated there wasn't a rule book for what he did, sort of stepping out of the norm and firing james comey. the fact there is no partisan putting the thu

comey. for instance, on november 14, 2016, one of our democratic judiciary committee colleagues told cnn's chris cuomo that comey should be fired immediately and the president -- president trump ought to initiate an investigation into his actions. conversely on may 9, 2017, that same democrat made a complete u-turn and stated that, quote, the firing of fbi director comey by president trump is a terrifying signal of this administration's continued abuse of power on so many levels. end quote. additionally following the 2016 election, another of our democratic colleagues insisted that comey should pack his things and go. however a year later the same person insisted that james comey's firing suggests an attempt to schedule much an investigation. a third judiciary committee democrat stated comey's actions make it clear he should resign immediately for the good of the fbi and the justice department. fast forward a year and the same democrat is then advocating for director comey to receive, get th

comey acknowledged that. we know there was an early drafted report and the early draft was submitted to the attorney general and perhaps others. i hope that we get to see both versions of the report to see what was edited out and what language was muted. we have reason to believe in the initial report the report insubordination was used in regard to comey. it will be interesting to see if that it's still in there and his lairs -- lawyers have looked at this and everybody has an opportunity to present their side and it will be interesting to see what changes were made in the report but i think it can have substantial implications for the mueller probe. >> sandra: do you expect, jonathan, specific recommendations from michael horowitz based on his findings of the report? >> i can't tell and neither can anybody from the reporting. it's a black box at the moment as to what specifically will be in there. what i have a clear sense is if his findings even flirt with the territory we're talking about, the white house

comey.his ig really goes after the former fbi director for his decision-making. two, the other loser, peter strzok and lisa page and those text messages that surfaced, more of them, and this report. the biggest of which will be i'm sure grasped upon by president trump and his supporters. seven words in answer to attacks from lisa page to peter strzok. "trump is never going to become president, right, right? strzok responds no, no he won't. we will stop it. that, in and of itself even though we don't have the full context, just that in a vacuum will create major fuel to the issue of what was happening behind the scenes. the other thing to note is that overall, the ig says they couldn't document political bias within the fbi on the decisions made early in the clinton email case. and does raise questions, though, about the bias they did find and how that affects the case after july, when the fbi director comey comes out with the news statement. >> jesse: seems like the report teased up the next

look at these blistering remarks. >> we see jim comey and jim comey alone deciding which d.o.j. policies to follow and ignore. when he lost confidence in the trump justice department, he memorialized private conversations, he leaked them,ed a milted he did so to spur the appointment of special counsel because he didn't trust the career prosecutors at the department of justice. when he lost confidence in the obama justice department, he didn't make special memos. he didn't share them with his law professor friends. he didn't leak the information. he didn't lift a finger to get special prosecutors. instead he appointed himself, fbi director, attorney general, special counsel, lead investigator, and the general arbiter of what is good and right in the world according to him. >> sean: indignant jim comey was rightfully fired. cooked comey is under investigation, for mishandling classified information ironically the very crime he exonerated hillary clinton over. none of this is normal. james comey's fbi is in ruins, watch this. >> mr. horowitz james comey, andy mccabe deputy director

comey -- hold on.have no idea what mueller's -- first of all, it's irrelevant. >> they are republicans. >> tucker: civil war in the republican party and some of the virulent. bill kristol is a republican. it's a meaningless distinction. i would just say -- of course it is. i would just say, look around sincerely. i know it is. i have been on the right my home whole life, it doesn't mean anything. what does mean something is when you have people who clearly have no self-control and an ax to grind and why is the left, which used to care about civil liberties, making excuses for this crap? i don't understand it. >> i don't think anyone on the left is. i think what the left is saying is that comey, which is the principle focus of the report, acted inappropriately in a way that hurt clinton and helps trump by making i the announcement in july of '16 and then october of '16 about things he shouldn't have been talking about. the decision whether or not to prosecute, things that were all above his pay grade in

>> well, there's reasons that democrats until the president fired comey wanted comey fired and in california 25% of the voters had already voted by the time they made people aware of the anthony anthony weiner. >> how long is voting in california. >> about a month. we're absentee by the time you get the ballot. >> realistically, congressman, you never thought donald trump was going to carry a heavily democratic state like california. >> well, we can all talk about this state or that state. there were plenty of states that were close and it only takes a few votes. i can't let something go by though. i never failed to return a salute that was given to me as i have never failed to return it as a congressman as a matter of absolute courtesy. you don't insult any military person who renders you a salute and i hope your viewers understand that returning a salute is not the same as saluting someone. you always return a salute give on the you, it's a sign of respect for you, not the other way around. >> even a general from a country that the u.s. government regards as a major state sponsor of terror

but jim comey is accountable for the decisions that jim comey made. he's not pushing back against the idea. >> no, he is not. >> that he should be held accountable for it. if somebody prefoundly disagrees with those judgments that could be an outcome. that's not what happened here. >> very quickly, jennifer, are we going to hear from hillary clinton or not? >> i don't know. i can't -- i guess we will have to wait and see. >> all right. we will all wait and see together. ben, jennifer, thank you. we are awaiting the news conference on the inspector general report from the director of the fbi. when that happens, we will bring it to you live. don't go in your opinion. >>> plus how both sides are using the or the r report for their favor, the cherry picking and how that could do damage to the fbi and donl even though this report is trying to restore their credibility. we'll be right back. two inch b. for this new stepdad, it's promising to care for his daughter as if she's his own. every way we look out for those we love is an act of mutuality. we can hel

he posted this picture of him standing up to a large nome and it says comey comey's gnomey.eans. we were at the baseball game and wanted to bring you special moment from september when steve scalise finally made it back to the work to the people's house on his return to congress last year. >> on a tragic event and an evil act. to me. , all i remember are the thousands of acts of kindness and warmth and love that came out of this and kept me going through all of it just reemphasized how wonderful most people are. ♪ ♪ >> tucker: good evening and welcome to "tucker carlson tonight." a big news day. maybe a pivotal one. the doj released its long awaited internal review written by the department's inspector general and it's packed with information. in a few minutes donald trump jr. will join to us respond to it. first, what is in the report in the document is more than 500 pages long and parts of it are complex. and, yet, within minutes of its release, the hair spray geniuses of cable news had it neatly summarized for the rest of us. it was a tough day for the fbi, they said. her

then deputy attorney general, jim comey. whom did comey choose as special counsel? his old chum patrick fitzgerald. it's all so incestuous. now fitzgerald is remitting jim comey in his dealings with special counsel robert mueller. that brings us to today where some of the same figure are back at work using their position and pedigree in an ongoing effort to purge the country of president donald j. trump. what started as concerns of russian collusion has morphed into an obstruction of justice narrative because trump fired someone who he was constitutionally permitted to fire for any reason. in federal investigations, the government has limitless budgets, subpoena power and an army of prosecutors on its side. so targets should not be chosen or eliminated on the basis of their political views, nor because they're considered big fish whose prosecutions could pay big time in big career dividends down the road. this is neither just nor enforcement of the law. what it is, it's big game hunting with a political preference and that's the angle. >>> joining us now for reactio