talking to fbi agents? >> that's when the news broke about what had happened. the question that we all would ask now is how does he even get home? under the law, the fbi director is supposed to travel on a special plane that has special communications capabilities in order to be able to speak to the president and talk to other top officials. he flew out to los angeles on that plane, does he come back on that plane? does he have to fly commercial? we don't know, those are questions that are being asked, what happens now, does he get a chance to clean out his office, his desk? we don't know. we know that andrew mccabe is now the director of the fbi and he's going to be running this investigation into trump and russia. >> and jeff sessions, once again, he has recused himself from this russia investigation, and again, why was he brought in to oversee or approve the firing of the buy running the fbi? >> reporter: my guess is what they're going to say is that this decision to fire james comey was outside the purv

we need the fbi to be accountable because we need the fbi to be effective. its mission is to protect us from the most dangerous threats facing our nation and as the director was last here, since the director was last here the drumbeats of the attacks on the united states from those directed or inspired by isis or other radical islamic terrorist has continued. for example, in june 2016, a terrorist killed 49 and wounded another 53 in orlando, frequently -- frequented by the gay and lesbian community. it was the most deadly attack in the united states soil since 9/11, but long afterwards in september, a terrorist stabbed ten in a mall in minneapolis and another terrorist injured 31 after he detonated bombs in new jersey and new york city, and in november, terrorists injured 13 after driving into students and teachers at ohio state university. our allies haven't been immune either, as we read in the newspaper frequently. we all recall the tragedy of july 2016 when terrorists plowed a truck through a crowd in france killing over 80 people. so we in the congress

fbi under the bus. that's what i am very mad about and have been very mad about for a long time. you and let me ask you this because we are already hearing from democrats and even the president's lines in his own letter about the russian investigation, the fact that jim comey had exonerated him from any connection to that three times. what he think about that because there's going to be inevitable discussion and pressure that that's why the president fired him. >> i don't know what jim comey has told him but from press reports, the deputy director who i hope it does not the acting director apparently according to news reports i guess their true. i've never heard otherwise. the deputy director told the chief of staff at the white house month and months ago "this whole thing about russia is a bunch of b.s.." what's going on here? i don't know. it defies logic. >> martha: chuck schumer, senator schumer now in front of the microphone paired let's listen. >> firing director comey. i told the president mr. pr

of the fbi. ich ans he's now leading the fbi investigation into the russian attack on our election and trump campaign's potential involvement in it. his name is andrew mccabe. he reportedly took a long in person meeting with the president yesterday at the white house and now he has been put in charge at the fbi including in charge of the trump-russia investigation. given his previous named individual role in communicating inappropriately with the white house about this investigation, given his extraordinary effort to kabosh damning reporting about this story we now know is well cooperated and multiple ply sourced and confirmed as true by the director of national intelligence, isn't there an issue here with deputy director andrew mccabe taking over the lead in the fbi's trump-russia investigation? isn't there? how can he specifically be the one leading this investigation now? "new york times" and "washington post" and nbc all confirmed this story in the days before he was fired yesterday, director

we need the fbi to be accountable because we need the fbi to be effective. its mission is to protect us from the most dangerous threats facing our nation and as the director was last here -- since the director was last here, the drumbeat of attacks on the united states from those directed or inspired by isis or other radical islamic terrorists has continued. for example, in june 2016, a terrorist killed 49 and wounded another 53 in orlando. frequented by gay and lesbian community. it was a most deadly attack in the united states soil since 9/11 but afterwards in september, a terrorist stabbed ten at a mall in minneapolis and another terrorist injured 31 after he detonated bombs in nj new jersey and new york city. in november, a terrorist injured 13 after driving into students and teachers at ohio state university. our allies haven't been immune, either, as we read in the newspaper frequently. july 2016 when terrorists plowed a truck through a crowd in france killing over 80 people. so, we in the congress need to make sure that the fbi has the tools it needs

also acting fbi director angela mccabe and former fbi director john pistole who's the president of anderson university in indiana. deputy white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders took questions on the james comey firing and said the president had lost confidence in mr. comey's ability to lead the law enforcement agency.

no one at fbi headquarters knew. that letter was delivered to the fbi headquarters for director comey about the time he was in la. but no one at the fbi saw this coming. certainly james comey didn't, none of his people did. they were all absolutely shocked and incredulous when they came out this afternoon. and they're trying to get their footing now. >> pete, do we know -- how much time went by when it was on tv, which is presubly how everyone at the fbi learned about . and when andrew went to the white house to meet with the president. at that point, you have presumably andrew mccabe at the fbi headquarters knowing he's now the highest ranking guy in the fbi, but no one has talked to him and he doesn't know who is running the fbi as of that moment. >> i don't know the timing. i don't know when he went to the white house. i know that when we first heard about this, which was -- i'm trying to think back now, it's been a while, 5:30 or so eastern time tonight. >> approaching about 5:45. >> that was before it was on any

he's out in los angeles with the fbi plane, and he's no longer the fbi director. so will he have the ability to use the plane to fly home? my guess is that will probably happen, but that's sort of the question right now. you know, he didn't know this was coming as pete williams pointed out. you know, this is something we know the justice department had been working on for at least a week. if you read the rod rosenstein letter, it's obviously pretty detailed. they had spent a fair amount of time on this and they had obviously been charged with coming up with these reasons. >> what do you mean by that? that to me seems the key here because it seems what the white house is communicating is that the white house was just going about its business and the attorney general is going about its business. but it's rod rosenstein, the widely respected career individual who made this determination. he passed it up to sessions would approved of it. he passed it up to the president who approved of it. yet it seems possible that the people sent the word that they wanted to find a

not good for the fbi or not. this is about the timing. if the white house was sincere. >> tucker: you wish they fired him at some other time. >> i was that wave taken action, another appropriate actions at the time. >> tucker: we had a ton of segments about the russian conspiracy and vladimir putin having dinner with ivanka or whatever that conspiracy suggests but tonight, the president of the united states just canned the fbi director and people are wondering if this is good or bad. they're confused, they're legitimately confused. so i'm just trying to get the perspective of a former dnc spokesman when i ask you do you think jim comey should still be running the fbi are not? at the very civil question. >> i am not a fan of jim coming. >> tucker: so you're glad he's fired. >> this move by the white house was a try to kill the russian investigation, nothing more. >> tucker: why was looking forward to seeing you tonight because a lot of our viewers don't live in washington and they don't understand why people here

now, long time observers of the fbi, former fbi agents, the new acting director of the fbi, who was a former deputy to james comey. they all say that the trump-russia investigations at the fbi will continue. they can't be stopped. nothing can slow down those investigators. nothing can intimidate them out of doing their work and that sounds awesome as a pep talk. of course, we don't know that for sure. right. we have never been in this position before. we don't know what's going to happen to those investigations. late tonight, the news cost that there are four candidates the administration is now considering to be the new director of the fbi replacing james comey. one is the acting director, andrew mccame kab. with him is alice fisher. she was under george w. bush. an acol plished lawyer. there will is controversy from her time in the george w. bush administration because of her connections to the prison at guantonomo and to interrogations at the prison at guantonomo. another candidate is reportedly judge michael garcia, an appeals judge in new york state. he is also a former federal p

fbi director comey was not at fbi headquarters. he was at the fbi field office in los angeles talking with some of the staff there. and he learned of his termination by actually watching and seeing it unfold on television. we understand that once he began seeing that on television he tried to make light of the situation. joking around. of course he abruptly left tha meeting. the way this went down because this has been unfolding over at least the past week. we know president trump has been talking about this, working with the justice department, and we do know perhaps as long ago as two weeks ago when deputy attorney general rod rosenstein confirmed, assumed his position on april 26th, perhaps this was in the work. this disconnect between the letter that or the memo that rod rosenstein wrote talking about mishandling of the hillary clinton investigation and trump referencing the russian investigation. >> the letter from trump, rod rosenstein memo, what we heard from sean spicer briefly in the press room the why now seems to be the

not good for the fbi or not.his is about the timing. if the white house was sincere. >> tucker: you wish they fired him at some other time. >> i was that wave taken action, another appropriate actions at the time. >> tucker: we had a ton of segments about the russian conspiracy and vladimir putin having dinner with ivanka or whatever that conspiracy suggests but tonight, the president of the united states just canned the fbi director and people are wondering if this is good or bad. they're confused, they're legitimately confused. so i'm just trying to get the perspective of a former dnc spokesman when i ask you do you think jim comey should still be running the fbi are not? at the very civil question. >> i am not a fan of jim coming. >> tucker: so you're glad he's fired. >> this move by the white house was a try to kill the russian investigation, nothing more. >> tucker: why was looking forward to seeing you tonight because a lot of our viewers don't live in washington and they don't understand why people here th

the fbi can -- the the presiden fire an fbi director. i would be sad to leave this mission and businesspeople. >> boston college as a leader on thinking and educating on these issues. it's a great place to have it. hope you will do it many more times. you are stuck with me for another six and a half years. i would love to be invited back again. >> bret: well, no. james comey, fbi director, fired today by president trump. he was in l.a. about ready to give a speech, a recruiting speech, talking to fbi agents and found out he was being fired watching a television inside the office. he got official word from the fbi here in washington. let's bring in the panel. james james rosen, a.b. stoddar, syndicated columnist charles krauthammer. let's start with the first panel about why, why he was fired. james. >> james comey was fired because, due to many sets of eyes, in the congress, within the ranks of the fbi they are in the great american public, and most notably at the white house and in the department of justice, james comey had become a law

>> he did not fire the entire fbi. he fired the director of the fbi in any suggestion this is somehow to stop the fbi's investigation of the attempt by the russians to influence the elections last fall is really patently absurd. this is one person. it is the director. the investigation is going forward both at the fbi and in the senate intelligence committee in a bipartisan way. so i don't think there's any link at all. >> bret: this comes, obviously, senator, after the focus of sally yates, then acting attorney general who was fired, testifying about michael flynn and the warning she gave about the national security advisor that he might be compromised or could be blackmailed by the russians. the questions focused on the 18 days it took from that notice to him actually being fired. is that a concern of yours? >> well, of course i don't know what their conversations were between ms. yates and the white house counsel, nor do i know what president obama said to president trump about general flynn. but certainly if they r

james comey was not a member of the fbi when he headed the fbi. my guess is somebody in -- you're going to want a careerist because you're going to want somebody with no political background at all. they're going to have to be searching for a careerist here. >> absolutely, i agree. he's got a huge problem in his hands in terms of perception. and i just don't know why he is doing this at this time. and it's hard to figure out trump. it will be interesting to find out when he got the recommendation from sessions to remove comey. >> or did he ask for the recommendation? >> he asked for the recommendation. was it a visceral reaction after last week's testimony? if the recommendation came weeks ago, then it wasn't. so -- >> it's clear to me that the president has felt comfortable that he's gotten enough complaints that he believes he has enough cover here. that's the impression i've gotten when this topic has been talked about. >> it's very hard also. the attorney general who has recused himself from the russia investigation is now saying the person in

we're going to have the president under investigation of fbi, fire the director of the fbi to achieve the goals of this memo, restoring public comments in the fbi. >> and to have that firing by the president who is under investigation by the fbi, to have it be carried out as if he is doing it to defend the honor and the legal dignity of hillary clinton from last year, his opponent in the presidential election of lock her up fame. the idea that he would be acting as president because he was so concerned she might have been unfairly me lined by the fbi and that's why he needs to be fired in the middle of his counter intelligence investigation and trump ties with russia. it's astonishing and part of the way that we'll know whether or not it's wise, that they're trying to get away with this, is whether or not people credit what they say as being the reason for what they do. i have always believed that this administration is much easier if you cover them as a silent movie and you ignore what they say and watch what they do. so often what they say is -- it's a smoke screen. >> and rachel, t

locktime observers of the fbi, former fbi agents f new act director. fbi who was the former deputy to james comey, they all say that the trump russia investigations at the fbi will continue. they can't be stopped, nothing can stop or slow down those investigators, nothing can intimate them out of doing their work. and that sounds awesome as a pep talk because, of course, we don't know that for sure. we've never been in this position before. we don't know what's going to happen to those investigations. late tonight, the news crossed that there are four candidates the administration is now considering to be the new director of the fbi replacing james comey. one of them is the andrew mccabe, one is alice fisher. she's very accomplished lawyer, there is some controversy from her time in the george bush administration from her connections to the prison at guantanamo and interallegations at guantanamo. another candidate is judge michael garcia. he's an appeals judge in new york state and a former federal prosecutors and ins commissioner from the george w. bu

the fbi can -- the the presiden fire an fbi director.d to leave this mission and businesspeople. >> boston college as a leader on thinking and educating on these issues. it's a great place to have it. hope you will do it many more times. you are stuck with me for another six and a half years. i would love to be invited back again. >> bret: well, no. james comey, fbi director, fired today by president trump. he was in l.a. about ready to give a speech, a recruiting speech, talking to fbi agents and found out he was being fired watching a television inside the office. he got official word from the fbi here in washington. let's bring in the panel. james james rosen, a.b. stoddar, syndicated columnist charles krauthammer. let's start with the first panel about why, why he was fired. james. >> james comey was fired because, due to many sets of eyes, in the congress, within the ranks of the fbi they are in the great american public, and most notably at the white house and in the department of justice, james comey had become a law unto himself.

good job by the fbi. >> i have respect that the fbi has given it a second chance. as you know the fbi -- and i give them a lot of credit -- because they're fighting forces they're not suppose stod to be fighting. >> i was not his fan but what he did, he brought back his reputation. he brought it back. he's got to hang tough because there's a lot of people want him to do the wrong thing. what he did was the right thing. >> so now your white house is saying that what he did was wrong but previously as a candidate, donald trump was saying it's the right thing. >> you're confusing two things that don't belong. thanks for the trip down memory lane. that was fun but here's what happened today. today not in the campaign, in the white house, the president of the united states -- >> so that person doesn't exist anymore? candidate donald trump is a fictional karncharacter we can longer refer to? >> i'll ignore how unkind that is. he needs confidence in his fbi director and he doesn't have it. >> when is the moment he lost confidence? >> read the letters. it's a confluence of

and just because you change the head of the fbi doesn't mean that everybody else at the fbi just goesacation and we're no longer investigating things. i think all of the investigations continue. in fact, i would be shocked if someone at the fbi says tomorrow, oh, because the head is gone, we no longer investigate this thing. i don't know any of the details. if the facts come out that somebody committed a crime, that's a different story and we can address it. right now it's mostly political innuendo and sour dprgrapes ove the losing the investigation. >> not exactly, senator. the former fbi director did testify under oath that he launched a criminal countersbleblcounte counterintelligence investigation into allegations of collusion or cooperation between trump associates from the campaign and the russians as far back as last july. and this investigation, he just reiterated the other day, is continuing. it's not just a little bit of smoke. he says there's a formal, criminal jegs underway. >> but also he's apparently written three written notes to pr president trump saying he's not a tar

in the fbi. many people believe this doesn't restore confidence in the fbi. a lot of people are raising questions about it destroys people's confidence in the fbi, that whoever the president appoints will now be in charge of an investigation into people who have been close to the president during the campaign. any potential collusion with russia. >> today's actions had zero to do with that. >> the president himself in his letter three times mentioned he's not under investigation. he himself brought up the investigation with russia and thanked the director. >> we don't know what those instances were. sean spicer was asked about that. sean spicer did not know when those instances were that james comey told the president he was not under investigation. >> deputy fbi director is now the head of the fbi. he's now under investigation. >> on capitol hill comey's firing was met with shock across the political spectrum. republicans expressing a range of concerns but then focused on the timing of the dismi

this guy's track record under the fbi -- they have great people in the fbi -- hasn't been not stellar. >> but again, jesse, when you look at that long letter from rosenstein, it had nothing to do with any of that. they could have made that case. it would have bolstered their case, made it bigger. >> it was tangential to the matter at hand. i think they thought they were probably on firmer ground. particularly with this being about hillary clinton. for the trump administration to fire the fbi director for his handling of the hillary clinton issue? i mean, regardless of what democrats on capitol hill are saying, that puts you on pretty solid ground legally and morally as well when you are going to take somebody out. like we didn't like the way you handled the trump investigation, that would not have looked very good but if you are saying we did like the way he looked into the investigation of our opponent, that makes him look pretty good. >> all right, john roberts. thank you so much. we will be checking back with you perhaps. let's go now to our chief intelligence correspondence co, ca

comey to step down as fbi director. this is what gives hypocrisy a bad name. >> jenna: let's bring in our panel, democratic strategist don calloway and rasmussen report political analyst amy holmes, great to have you. there's a lot to get through, things changed due to my changing moment by moment, we will do the best we can. let me ask a subquestion, the american people, are we better off because of the decision to fire james comey? >> i think we are if we can turn the page and have a fresh start and how these investigations move forward without all of this vitriol and partisanship. i can tell you that at rasmussen reports, we've done pulling on the question of the russian investigation for example, and we have seen that even the american public of unlikely voters are very divided when it comes to partisan view of how this is moving forward. 52% of the likely voters actually want to see the clintons also investigated for their connections to russia. so if we can move forward in a bipartisan or nonpartisan way, i think

who will run the fbi next? let's get to it. first on the fox news deck, seven days ago, the president's spokesman said president trump had full confidence in fbi director comey. yesterday the president fired him. today another spokesman said the president lost confidence in him and considered firing him from the day he was elected president. the change, according to the white house, president trump questioned comey's reasoning for staying at the fbi. >> i think one of the big catalysts that we saw was last week on wednesday director comey made a pretty starting revelation that he had essentially taken a stick of dynamite and thrown it into the department of justice by going around the chain of command when he decided to take steps without talking to the attorney general or the deputy attorney general when holding a press conference and telling them that he would not let them no what he was going to say. that is simply not allowed. >> shepard: james comey was leading the criminal investigation into russian meddling in the u.s. p

good job by the fbi. i have respect that the fbi has given her a second chance.ed with him, i was not his fan. but what he did, he brought back his reputation. because there's a lot -- a lot of people want him to do the wrong thing. what he did was the right thing. >> is that a problem, senator? that what donald trump has said about comey does not square with what his deputy attorney general said in recommending comey's firing? >> well, look, brianna, there were paeople who made a lot of comments last year during the heat of an election campaign season, and clearly, you know, oo i'm also somebody who when i saw the way the fbi director was conducting himself during the course of the presidential campaign thought that he'd gotten outside of his lanes. i think the fbi does its best work behind the scenes and he took a very public role and very much, i think, got very politicized in the process of doing that. you know, the president said some things last year, i think, again, his professionals, the deputy attorney general made a recommendation to him. he acted on it

>> how important was the fbi director's failure to go out of the fbi? >> i think that's probably one of the many factors. you can't deny somebody that that wasn't a problem. so i think that was just another one of the many reasons that he was no longer had the confidence of the president or the rest of the fbi. >> can we expect more firings from the justice department? >> not that i'm aware of today. >> going forward, does the president want the department of justice to shut down what he called the taxpayer funded charade investigated? >> he wants them to continue with whatever they see appropriate and see fit. just the same as he's encouraged the house and senate committees to continue any on going investigations. look, the bottom line is, any investigation that was happening on monday is still happening today. that hasn't changed. and, in fact, we encourage them to complete this investigation so we can put it behind us and we can continue to see exactly what we've been saying for nearly a year. there's no evidence of collusion between the trump campai

and by the way of course he has the right to remove an fbi director because the fbi director serves at pleasure of the president. but what i would like to say as an american and to americans is i'm actually very confident that whatever happened heerd we have institutions that will make sure that we get to the bottom of what happened. and we have multiple investigations going on. it's a little dizzying sometimes to enkeven keep track. >> and why the confidence? it's good that you're confident. we need it. but why the confidence? if we know that the situation doesn't make sense, and this one paragraph in the letter alone from the president saying by the way thank you director comey for telling me three times that i'm not under investigation, can you believe that a conversation like that would ever happen between a sitting director of the fbi and a president of the united states? it breaches so many different notions of proper protocol. >> i have no idea, but you asked why am i confident. and i'm confident because we have the system of distributive power and we're seeing it right here. we

to the fbi.and get that to you and get back to you shortly, wolf. >> stand by for a moment, evan perez is with us as well. evan, you cover the fbi for us, justice department. this is a shock. >> it certainly is, wolf. because essentially the fact he is leading this investigation into the trump/russia connectiones it was seen he was frankly untip ofable. when he made that announcement in march, at hearing here in capitol hill, where he announced that there was this ongoing investigation, not only looking at the broader trump/russia issue but also looking into whether or not there was coordination between people associated with the campaign and the russian government, it really cemented the issue that this was something that made him untouchable, least until this investigation when it was over. there is a lot of criticism into how he handled some disclosures. not only during the clinton e-mail investigation last year whether he should have revealed as much as he did, there's a lot of criticism but

the magic of the fbi you oversee is its people. we talk a lot about the counterterrorism work, the counter intelligence work. thought i would give the semi-yet of the work being done by those people all over the country, all over the world, every day, every night, all the time. i pulled three cases that were finished the last month to illustrate it. the first was something i know you followed closely. the plague of threats against jewish community centers in this country in the first few months of this year. children frightened, old people frightened, terrified threats of bombs and jewish institutions. especially jewish community centers. the entire fbi searched response, working across all programs, all divisions. our technical wizards using vital international presence and using our partnerships, especially with the israeli national police. we made that case. the israelis locked up the person behind those threats and stopped that terrifying play against the jewish community centers. the second case is all you know what a botnet i

this guy's track record under the fbi -- they have great people in the fbi -- hasn't been not stellar. >> but again, jesse, when you look at that long letter from rosenstein, it had nothing to do with any of that. >> they could have made that case. it would have bolstered their case, made it bigger. >> it was tangential to the matter at hand. i think they thought they were i probably on firmer ground. particularly with this being about hillary clinton. for the trump administration to fire the fbi director for his handling of the hillary clinton issue? i mean, regardless of what democrats on capitol hill are saying, that puts you on pretty solid ground legally and morally as well when you are going to take somebody out. like we didn't like the way you handled the trump investigation, that would not have looked very good but if you are saying we did like the way he looked into the investigation of our opponent, that makes him look pretty good. >> all right, john roberts. thank you so much. we will be checking back with you perhaps. let's go now to our chief intelligence correspondent, c

he says the dismissal of an fbi director, the firing of an fbi director should not be taken lightly. he thinks we need to regain public and congressional trust if we have a director who understands the gravity of the mistakes and pledges and never to repeat them. that is what's happened. this has nothing to do with the campaign from six months ago. this is to do with the performance the fbi director since the president has been in the white house. >> that was kellyanne conway. joining us is robby mook. good to see you. what do you make of the firing of the james comey? >> look, i have a big bone to pick with james comey. i thought the way he handled the investigation on secretary clinton's e-mails last year was poorly done. however, what happened today was wrong. it was wrong because no one in our country, particularly the president of the united states, should be above the law. what happened was we know that mr. comey was overseeing an investigation into the president. the president and his attorney general both of whom potentially are implicated in this investigation made a decisio

i think the fbi carries forward. the press is obvious playing a big role here in watching what's happening here. i think congress will be aggressive. i think we have to take the decision and move forward. this is within the rights of the president, to appoint a new fbi director. it all comes down to who the new nominee will be. that person will have to very senior, very well-known, probably a former federal judge or former fbi agent, someone very senior and above reproach, to give confidence so that we can move on with the investigation and get to some semblance of closure. >> thank you. >>> we just have this coming in to us. the president, who we knew was going to be meeting right now with sergey lavrov, we are told now that cameras were allowed in. i'm going to ask my producer, is there any indication that he answered any shouted questions? we don't know yet. we haven't gotten anything written. it is possible. maybe we heard something from the president besides a handshake or the usual formal words that in a situat

-- and lead the fbi and restore confidence of the american people. this was the right decision at the right time. >> considering the bipartisan concern, why not support an independent panel? >> the evidence, the facts that are in public today are very clear, the former director of national intelligence has said there is no evidence of collusion. the president and i remain confident the committees in the house and senate looking into every aspect of issues that arise out of the election will be able to do their work in an orderly way. the president was informed several times by the former director of the fbi he was not under investigation. the simple fact is director comey had lost the confidence of the american people. the support i heard from them is of the senate today when i was over by the senate chamber, support for the decision being expressed in this capitol building and around the country is reflective of the fact that it was time for a fresh start at the fbi. the president did as he is done in so many cases, he provided strong leadership. to

one is the fbi.: that will continue. do you think the president should have fired james comey at beginning of the year? january 20 as he sat down? >> if he was going to, that's when he should have done it. mr. comey clearly overreached. democrats as you heard from chuck schumer were appalled by what mr. comey did to hillary clinton by saying on the one hand he didn't have enough evidence to indict her and raising questions about carelessness or recklessness with classified information and reopening the investigation, all of that was highly unusual, inappropriate and not in keeping with the fbi. liz: there's an argument that rod rosenstein is not in place, deputy ag, and he was sworn in april 26th, they needed him there in order to do the firing. what do you think about that argument? >> i think that is an argument, i don't happen to believe it. because the fbi and the justice department have an inspector general's investigation going into mr. comey's handling of the e-mail scandal involving hillary c

the good news is that the fbi is an ongoing institution.e who are there doing this investigation are going to continue the investigation no matter what happens to james comey. he's not a critical part of this investigation whereas with the watergate prosecution force there was just a small group of us that were the prosecutors. when archie cox was fired we thought the office itself might be disbanded. there is no question the fbi is not going to be disbanded. it's going to continue and the investigation will continue. in fact, i think there will abe lot of pressure to make that investigation go forward and do it in a thorough and professional way. secondly, james comey is no archibald cox. james comey, what he did, he should have been fired last july for basically usurping his power within the department of justice and making the statements he made with regard to the hillary clinton e-mail investigation. thirdly, i think this whole matter of watergate, people have to understand it wasn't just the break-in to the democratic headquarters. it

fbi over here. the fbi around the clock is collecting evidence, questioning people on the record and they are analyzing data. if they find evidence of something being done wrong here with the department of justice they can pull together a grand jury and actually press criminal charges. is this aimed specifically at donald trump's team? no. it's at the russian investigation overall. but as the departed director has said already, yeah. they are considering whether or not somebody on team trump might have been involved. >> that's the criminal part of this. what's congress up to? >> this is the political part in the middle. look at the committees right there. they can pull the committees out and put people on the spot. summoning witnesses to appear on tv and on the record telling them what they know, establishing timelines, pecking away at the story and keeping the story front and center in terms of the politics and the news cycle. you can expect that with republicans in charge of the house and the sena

yet, the fbi remained silent. in fact, the fbi summarily refused to acknowledge the investigation. it's still very unclear, and i hope director that you will clear this up, why the fbi's treatment of these two investigations was so dramatically different. with the clinton e-mail investigation it has been said that, quote, exceptional circumstances, end quote, including the high interest in the matter and the need to reassure the public required public comment from the fbi. however, i can't imagine how an unprecedented big and bold hacking interference in our election by the russian government did not also present exceptional circumstances. as i said at the beginning, we're in a unique time. a foreign adversary actively interfered with a presidential election. the fbi was investigation not just that interference but whether campaign officials associated with the president were connected to this interference. and the attorney general has recused himself from any involvement in this investigation. at the same time, the fbi must continue to work with its state and local law enforcement

this is the scene at lax for the fbi, former fbi director. there for an event. but flew back to washington after learning about his firing from news reports. >> comey faced intense criticism over his handling of the hillary clinton e-mail probe. his termination comes as he led the investigation into possible ties between russia and trump campaign. we begin with lana zach and details. good morning. >> good morning, there are lots of details on this. many people are really questioning the optics of the timing particularly given that james comey was overseeing the russian inv and the potential of finding somebody in the trump administration who possibly could have clued olluded with r. >> reporter: james comey boarded a plane in los angeles deciding not to attend an fbi event after learning he had been fired as head of the fbi president trump writing it is essential we find leadership for the fbi that restores public trust and confidence. the white house says the president was influenced in part by wreck men daegs of his attorney general, jeff session whose had rec

to the fbi.omey,not have to fire he could have kept him there, and we could have had problems because of it. he did not have to, he is president. host: comey with a 10 year appointment, cut down to just over three and a half years after his firing. he was the seventh director of the fbi. brian from houston is next, independent. comey, i think director the way he acted last year, i felt like he was the one that was trying to be straightforward with the american people. finally put this in front of the american people, remove the blocking of all of the bureaucratic red tape. when loretta lynch met with out -- he do it would be horrible for her to come out and say it so he had to do it. the fact that he did not charge her with anything is what excess -- upset the republicans. was undermp investigation and his team was under investigation and he did not mention this at all last year during the election. host: when chuck grassley puts out a statement saying, the effectiveness of the fbi depends on pub

was an fbi moment. the fbi was thrown out. i mean how do you explain that? he doesn't even understand the history of the country and the number of times the soviet union was attacking our elections. for 50 years. >> there's a great television series in the reagan years. they have our military secrets now they are in tour party stuff lou: why doesn't anybody say the chinese are coming? because they are here to. >> i've a chinese dr. who is my pride and joy. lou: is she an american citizen? i was talking about chinese nationals. >> she is special though. lou: she's a delightful young lady. let's turn to one other element in that's mccabe. with all of his connection to podesta and the dnc to the democratic party, to his wife the democratic candidate and the fbi didn't find it necessary for him to recuse himself legs are you kidding me? >> he should not recuse himself. lou: they have to have an ig report to know what is common sense and a conflict of interest. >> once we get this thing moving forward and as

the bottom line is we're going to have a few fbi director. the president takes responsibility for the decision to fire director comey. not a whole lot more there. the investigations are going forward. >> maria: the president could fire any director any time for any reason which is what jim comey wrote in the letter to his staff. but, could the president have done it differently? should he have done it differently? what should have been done better? >> i think maybe you could take a look at the process. it should have probably been a direct meeting either with the presidented and director comey or with the attorney general sessions and the directser. director finding out what's going on the screen behind him. that's unseenly. you could have improved the process. but the bottom line as we've seen over the last number of months, democrats and republicans and now the president of the united states all have decided or had decided that we needed a new director of the fbi. >> maria: this investigation into the potential collusion between the preside