rod's memo only cites one reason for the firing of james comey. think that rod believes in the ruth of his memorandum and i take him at his word. if you're asking me did the president have other reasons in mind, i think we have good reason to believe that's the case. >> you took the letter from rod that donald trump initially wrote that took issue -- it mentioned you. >> it did. >> did it mention other doj or fbi officials besides james comey. >> i won't reveal any other details. >> did it mention russia? >> i won't talk about the details of the letter beyond what the president discussed it. >> let me play for you someone who talkened about the details, which is andrew mccabe on sunday saying russia was something roger stone knew that donald trump wanted as part of the reason. let's take a look. >> he didn't want to put russia in this memo? he did not. he explained to the president he didn't need russia and the president responded i understand that, i'm asking you to put russia in the memo anyway. >> yeah, this is the exchange that took place betw

james comey broke protocol and they both lied to congress .e to know that there was at least one bureau skeptic. who knew hillary was guilty as all heck! but it is said is taken this long to read about the sworn exchange between james baker and congressman, john radcliffe showing the investigation could have taken the proper turn. what else is hidden in opaque congressional transactions that might shed light on the dock time? the truly guilty may never be held accountable. but it does not mean which is stop asking questions to stop all of it from happening ever again. and that is the memo.♪ ♪ [music] kennedy: william barr was just sworn in as ag. under lindsey graham close ally of the president now sits atop the senate judiciary committee. should those to take another look at the hillary server debacle? our panel is back. alex, i will start with you. you are not only a lawyer your political beast. and it james comey last time he was question, before congress in a closed-door session was the transcript is later made public on mike baker's testi

light on president trump in days after the firing of james comey. >> thereay afterdent trump fired fbi director james comey, the man that took over as acting fbi director, andrew mccabeed op an investigation into whether it amounted to obstruction of justice. that's according to his new book, the threat, coming out next week. he tel 60 minutes he wanted to be sure any investigations involving the president would keep going no matter what. >> i was very concerned that i was able to put theusa case on absolutely sol ground in a fashion that were i removed quickly or reassigned or fired that the case could not be closed or vanish in the night without a trace. >> mccabe says the president deliberately lies to get what he wants and could never pass a lie tector test at the fbi training nter. if he were on the box at quantico he would break the machine. the day before robert was named special counsel during

he calls him a pubppet for jame comey. the justice department is also weighing in this morning after mccabe claims there were discussions had within the d.o.j. about removing the president using the 25th amendment and why he was worried the russia investigation would disappear without a trace. >> mccabe says he launched the probe into the trump campaign's ties to russia because he feared the investigation might be stopped before it even started. worried that he could be fired by president trump. here is mccabe on the moments directly after meeting with the president hours after the president had fired james comey. >> i was speaking to the man who had just run for the presidency and won the election for the presidency and who might have done so with the aid of the government of russia, our most form udable adversary on the world stage. that was something that troubled me greatly. >> how long was it after that that you decided to start the obstruction of justice? >> the next day i asked the team to go back and conduct an ass

top fbi lawyer who worked for mccabe, lisa page and add james comey and others lisa page admitting, in fact, in 2016 and 2017 along with comey in fact after nine months when they investigated before the appointment of the special counsel, they had nothing. still mccabe has always f peddled in the trump-russia conspiracy theories. just like fakeex news. however, this next revelation from mccabe's interview is much, much more alarming. take a look at this. >> there were meetings at the justice department in which it was discussed whether the vice president and a majority of the cabinet could be brought together to remove the president of the united states under the 25th amendment. this was not perceived to be a joke. it was also said at a previous time that the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein offered to wear a wire into the white house to record potentially incriminating conversations with the president. a statement was released after that that that was never serious. it was sarcastic, et cetera. mccabe, in our interview, says no, it came up more than once and it was so serious th

department officials were about the conduct of our president of the united states in the days after james comey was fired. mccabe, who took over as acting fbi director after comey was taken out, that was may of 2017, told "60 minutes" what prompted the fbi to start investigating the sitting president of the united states. >> the president had gone to jim comey and specifically asked him to discontinue the investigation of mike flynn, which was a part of our russia case. the president then fired the director. in the firing of the director, the president specifically asked rod rosenstein to write a memo justifying the firing and told rod to include russia in the memo. rod of course did not do that. the president may have been engaged in obstruction of justice in the firing of jim comey. >> what was it specifically that caused you to launch the counterintelligence investigation? >> if the president committed obstruction of justice, fired the director of the fbi to negatively impact or to shut down our investigation of russia's malign activity, possibly in support of his campaign, as a counterintel

two most important witnesses shawn's sean james comey signed on the first fisa warrant. he went to trump tower and said it's salacious the dossier but it's unverified. the bulk of information was the dossier. he lied tout president-elect or he lied to the fisa court and didn't all of them consciously lie to the fisa court because they didn't verify it. >> all true, sean, i'm not disputing any of that here's what we know, rod rosenstein said he didn't say that he was trying to invoke the 25th amendment actively pursuing removing the president from office. andy mccabe and two opener people we have deposed in the judiciary committee said he did. i want those two guys in front of our committee under oath. >> sean: last question. >> elijah cummings is bringing in michael cohen instead of the two guys we need to have in front of our committee? >> john. >> sean, what we need is a special federal grand jury. instituted by the attorney general and appointed the toughest prosecutor he can find and you call them all in. i'm sorry, congressman, the committees of the congress have co

may 9th, 2017, president trump fires fbi director james comey, may 11th, the president admits he was ussia thing when he fired comey. may 12th, one day later, trump tweets james comey better hope there's no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. in our days after that, sources close to comey say trump asked him to close the investigation into michael flynn. that same day, deputy attorney general rod rosenstein discussed invoking the 25th amendment and potentially wearing a wire. may 17th, special counsel robert mueller is appointed. that is a lot of stuff going on in just eight days. >> it is a lot of stuff. this is extraordinary. the fact that they would be having a meeting like this at the fbi is extraordinary. it's also extraordinary that the national security adviser to the president of the united states is suspected of being a foreign asset and they tell the president and his reaction is, lay off of him, for the most part. it's all extraordinary. we spend a lot of time trying to justify how reasonable, rational people are trying to find a way to stop so

this all followed by the firing of fbi director james comey. let's discuss now. r both comey and mccabe. man, this is fascinating. good evening to both of you. josh, what made these officials think they needed to take such extraordinary actions against the president at the time? do you think there is a missing piece we don't know about? >> i think the missing piece is unknowable. and that is the context that these discussions took place and if they did in fact take place. we know they're written about in the book. and i also say we know that something looks very different when you're reading it on the page of the book and when you compare that to someone having a conversation. we don't know were they joking when they were talking about wiretapping the president or possibly removing him. these were very tough times inside the fbi. it was a highly stressful period, so you don't know kind of what the context was. that's still left to be seen. and i again i go back to i don't think it's knowable because you have two people, andrew mccabe and rod rosenstein, apparently

he said the president called him on an unsecured line saying how happy people were that he fired james comey. mccabe writes the president said he thought most people in the fbi voted for him. he thought 80%. he asked me again, as he had in his office if i knew that comey had told him three times that he was not under investigation. mccabe says the president also ordered him to investigate why comey flew home from los angeles on a government plane after being fired. mccabe said he told the press he decided comey should do so after getting the okay from fbi lawyers and the existing threat assessment considered comey was at risk. the president flew off the handle. that's not right. that's wrong. he reiterated his point seven or eight times. i'm sorry you disagree, that's my decision. the president said i want you to look into that. what am i going to look into. i just told you i made the decision. coming up he'll have much more using the 25th amendment to remove president trump from office. >> president trump also weighed in with a series of tweets writing disgraced andrew mccabe pretends to a

james comey learns he has been canned as fbi director while watching cable news in california. president trump's long-time private security guard delivers the termination letter to fbi headquarters while comey is across the country, visiting an fbi field office in l.a. comey promptly boards the fbi plane to fly back to washington, and hours later, the man whose taking over as acting fbi director meets with president trump in the oval office. >> i was speaking to the man who had just run for the presidency and won the election for the presidency and who might have done so with the aid of the government of russia, our most formidable adversary on the world stage. and that was something that troubled me greatly. >> reporter: the very next day, mccabe begins working with agents to launch both a criminal and counterintelligence probe. agents examined president trump's actions for firing comey for possible obstruction of justice, while federal agents look into why trump is acting in ways that seem to benefit russia. at the exact same time, russians are taking center stage inside the

president trump from office in the wake of james comey's firing. we'll talk ability that next. g , and a dedicated advisor to help you grow and protect your wealth. fidelity wealth management. to help you grow and protect your wealth. ♪ ♪ ♪

president trump asking james comey to drop his information into the national security adviser raised concerns of obstruction of justice. mccabe said rod rosenstein even offered to wear a wire in his meetings with the president. >> the deputy attorney general offered to wear a wire into the

the former acting director of dealings with president trump in the days after the firing of james comey. let's get late details on all this from our justice correspondent pete williams. >> reporter: the day after president trump fired fbi director james comey, the man who took over as acting fbi director, andrew mccabe, opened an investigation into whether it amounted to obstruction of justice. that's according to mccabe's new book "the threat," coming out next week. excerpts are now appearing. he tells "60 minutes" he wanted to be sure any investigations involving the president would keep going no matter what. >> i was very concerned that i was able to put the russia case on absolutely solid ground in an indelible fashion, that were i removed quickly or reassigned or fired, that the case could not be closed or vanish in the night without a trace. >> reporter: mccabe says the president deliberately lies to get what he wants and could never pass a lie detector test at the fbi's training center. if he were on the box at quantico, he would break the machine, mccabe writes. he says the day

they do not want to do what james comey did.y do not want to hold a press conference and tell people everything that the president may have done wrong and what the president may have done in this days. the department of justice has a long standing policy that they don't talk about anything that involves people who have not been charged and that's what we saw in the james comey press conference, right and william barr has said publicly that he was opposed to what james comey did and rod rosenstein was against what james comey did and other members of the department of justice, and as a result of that they were very concerned with not making that mistake again. >> what's important in all of this is this is the clearest indication to us that mueller is done and that most of the investigative steps that he undertook are now complete. there are some indications that we haven't seen the grand jury and the mueller grand jury that's been overseeing this investigation has not been seen since roger stone was indicted and that's about a mo

like to speak to james comey about it. >> after comey was fired?'s correct. >> rosenstein had been the one who wrote the memo that got comey fired, and now he wants to reach out and ask him for advice? >> he did, he did. he raised the issue with me twice, and ultimately i told him that i wasn't comfortable connecting him with jim comey, that i didn't think jim should weigh in on these things. >> we're almost out of time. so lightning round, in a sentence or two. what was that, brian? >> same thing. rod is taken aback by the fact that he is now viewed as the president's accomplice in firing james comey. this is an attempt to overcompensate the other way by extending an olive branch through a trusted intermediary. >> i agree that completely. he is trying to underwrite the fact that he was under attack in the building and alumni from outside the building combined with an extreme dash of naivete which he exhibited throughout this period. >> joyce? >> a lot of people held james comey in great esteem, believe head had made a mistake in how he handled cli

the same thing happened with james comey. he was able to describe what happened. what this goes back to -- i would ask you the viewers if you think about the fbi right now and the department of justice and the view that has been able to -- this conarrativ they are corrupt. you haven't sessions, rosenstein to defend. you have this narrative. now you have andy mccabe trying to counter that. here is our side of the story. this is fascinating to see what stories he tells. >> josh campbell lepi inhelping. thank you very much. laura, mccabe, he tells some incredible stories about how concerned he was about protecting the russia investigation. in case he was removed for some reason. almost an unprecedented situation. did he do the right thing? >> i think that's a hard question. on the one hand, we have the former general counsel james baker who we have described in his closed door testimony with congress explaining that they were really troubled by some of the behavior that they saw from the president, especially after the firing of james comey. they're trying to figure

and then he told russian officials immediately thereafter that firing james comey as fbi director would relieve the pressure on him about russia, mccabe is now able to explain publicly that his preeminent concern in those circumstances, he became acting fbi director because of trump firing comey for all those reasons. he can now explain that his preeminent priority was to take steps like the obama administration had done earlier, to take steps that the evidence and the intelligence and the investigations were protected, that they could not be disappeared by the incoming trump administration. >> i was very concerned that i was able to put the russia case on absolutely solid ground in an indelible fashion that were i removed quickly or reassigned or fired, that the case could not be closed or vanish in the night without a trace. >> you wanted a documentary record. >> that's right. >> that those investigations had begun because you feared that they would be made to go away. >> that's exactly right. >> i met with the attorney general and later went down the street to meet with the pre

president trump asking james comey to drop his information into the national security adviser raisedoncerns of obstruction of justice. mccabe said rod rosenstein even offered to wear a wire in his meetings with the president. >> the deputy attorney general offered to wear a wire into the white house. he said i never get searched when i go into the white house, i could easily wear a recording device. they wouldn't know it was there. he was not joking, he was absolutely serious. and in fact, he brought it up in the next meeting we had. i never actually considered taking him up on the offer. i did discuss it with my general counsel and the leadership team at the fbi after he brought it up the first time. >> the point of rosenstein wearing the wire into a meeting with the president was what? what did he hope to obtain? >> i can't characterize what rod was thinking or what he was hoping at that moment. but the reason you would have someone wear a concealed recording device would be to collect evidence. in this case, what was the true nature of the president's motivation in calling for the

but ultimately, rosenstein did not mention russia in the memo explaining why james comey was terminated (robin) and here's a live look outside... at the embarcadero. (robin) welcome back. checking in on your morning forecast. more sunshine to expect today and another comfortable afternoon ahead of us. look forward to temperatures boosting well into the 50's with a comfortable afternoon after frigid cold temperatures to start the day. tomorrow times of sunshine will give way to a few isolated showers across the bay area before more clear and dry skies to finish the week. major hot spot in oakland. wb 580 at high street. bay bridge wb 80 is less then 30 min from the maze to sf. san mateo bridge less then 30 min from 880 to 101. richmond bridge drive less than 20 min from the toll to 101. ( robin ) ( robin ) student debt is setting records. this past year - borrowers collectively owe more than $1.5 trillion dollars in student loans. and many may never be able to pay it off. kron4's vicki liviakis takes a look at students who are strapped for cash. so you want to go to college? dig deep. it

"he was a big part of the crooked hillary scandal and a puppet for leakin' james comey." all of this unfolded on the same day of william barr. barr was sworn in late this afternoon which means he'll now be overseeing the mueller investigation. let's bring in our lead off panel on a cons sequential thursday night. clint watts and barbara mcquaid and massey miller, former chief spokesperson for the justice department. clint, i would like to begin with you given your fbi experience, do the extreme measures that is going going on, does that read true to form to you? >> yes. >> it is interesting how many ways they explored to deal with the situation. do we do a special counsel? yes or no? do we pursue the 25th amendment, yes or no. do we take a memo or wear a wire, there is something going on in those days after comey was fired, were they that concerned that they needed to do something quickly. something that you have not seen before. what i also find interesting is these two individuals, rosenstein and mccabe were put in unprecedented situations. we are going to evaluate this

now robert mueller is not james comey. by the rules if it's as simple as we looked into a bunch of stuff, we don't have the goods to charge and that's it. the precedent do that where, well, we digged down here, we found this evidence that indicated it but it didn't rise to the level, you shouldn't expect a comey-like recitation of those investigative threads that didn't go anywhere, at least in legal terms. now that said, congress is a leaky boat. if there's something that gives more details than the one page summary conclusion you might expect that some of those detail, it's possible they come out. on the essential question, another point you want to make is the investigative threads are still open. the d.c. attorney's office isn't looking into roger stone, for instance. but on the crucial question did the trump campaign enter into a conspiracy with russian nationals to influence the election, that's the key question that robert mueller will be expected to report on and you and i may see the final answer but we won't see

is being suggested here is their conversations were being had at that time about whether or not james comeyerns about president trump and what was then an fbi investigation, and now the department ofjustice afterwards were looking at what president trump was doing, what president trump was doing, what president trump was saying and whether or not it was impacting on theirjob. 0f whether or not it was impacting on theirjob. of course, these conversations we will learn something about in andrew mccabe's interview tonight on 60 minutes and also in his book, which is being released, called the threat. chris, thank you. the british prime minister has called on conservative mps to put aside "personal preferences" and support a brexit deal in the house of commons. theresa may's plans were rejected in a vote last week but today one of her senior ministers indicated that there might be a solution to the disagreements within the party, that doesn't involve reopening the withdrawal agreement. ben wright reports. the lobbying of eu leaders will continue apace this week as theresa may tries to deliver o

. >>> the president fired fbi director james comey. andrew mccabe talked about those decisions last night. natalie brand has more from that interview. reor james comey who was ident e ti leadelection triggered a new bureau investigation into the president in may of 2017. >> a crime my have been committed. president may have been engaged in obstruction of justice in the firing of jim comey. >> mccabe who took over as acts director of the borough following comey's firing, rod rosenstein tried who help determine if the president got rid of comey. >> context of that conversation, the deputy attorney general offered to wear a wire into the white house. he said, i never get searched when i go into the white house, i can easily wear a recording device. >> president trump tweeted this morning, mccabe was fired for lying and now his story gets even more deranged. he and rod rosenstein hired by jeff sessions jack mother beauty, looked like they were planning an illegal act and got caught mccabe was discredited he was fired days before his retire

the need to open an obstruction of justice investigation after the president fired fbi director james comey, and confirms reports that the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein discussed recruiting cabinet members to possibly invoke the 25th amendment to remove trump from office and wearing a wire to record his conversations with the president. in a fresh statement on rosenstein's behalf, the justice department now saying in part, the deputy attorney general previously has stated based on his personal dealings with the president, there is no basis to invoke the 25th amendment, nor was the dag in a position to consider invoking the 25th amendment. given that he was fired for lying to internal justice department investigators. as we have previously reported, he did keep contemporaneous notes on all of his conversations. more to come, dave, christine back to you. >> thank you for that. >>> vice president mike pence says he does not believe mccabe's claims that discussions took place to remove president trump from office. he tells msnbc, no one brought the subject up to him. >> i never heard o

>> absolutely not, not any time. >> why did james comey approve a leak to the press?> i don't know why james comey doesn't remember the conversations we had in the same way that i do. >> sean: so while he throws his longtime friend, buddy, colleague ever so honorable james comey under the bus and maybe not so honorable, but nothing but praise for fbi lovebirds strzok and page. take a look. >> lisa page, good people who serve this country well. and they have made porous poor decisions in their private lives. that has brought incredible grief and scrutiny on the fbi, i'm sure they regret that, but good people make bad decisions every day. >> sean: good people serving the country well, you mean when the supposedly nonpartisan, high ranking fbi officials talking about opening an investigation into trump as an insurance policy, oh, with him, in order to literally destroy his presidency, undo a duly-elected president, strzok calling the president and 88, abysmal, lisa page calling trump both some and awful. strzok thank hillary clinton should win back the election in 2016,

andrew mccabe didn't go to the bathroom without the approval of leakin james comey. we'll let that sit where it is. 10:26 p.m., i'm corrected. mr. mccabe, career g-man, i think comes across with the bearing of a career g-man. a lot of civilians who saw the "60 minutes" interview found him to be a credible figure. what has stood out to you covering this beat most of all? >> well, i think the two most startling things that stood out in the "60 minutes" interview were first that he was admitting that -- disclosing that he had opened this counterintelligence investigation against the president. and the way he described it was that, you know, given all of these things that they were seeing the president do and say, that if they saw anybody taking these steps or engaging in these sorts of behaviors or saying these kinds of things, it will almost have to. it would be practice if they didn't open this kind of investigation. that was interesting. the other thing that really stuck sought the comments that mccabe said the president made in a meeting about north korea with intel

. >> regardless of recommendations, i wrecommenda,s i was going to fire james comey. this russia thing with trump and russia was a made-up story. again, i know what i was thinking, what were you thinking? >> it was incredible. i had to set the context for you a little bit. this was immediately two days after the firing of james comey, very shortly after i directed the team to go back and reevaluate what we were doing and come to me with a recommendation for additional steps to take, cases to close or cases to open. i was testifying in front of the senate intelligence committee that day. already being publicly pressed about whether or not there had been any effort to impede russia investigation. that was the exact question we were thinking about at that time. we were concerned of the step that is the president had taken to fire director comey after of course we refused to follow his request and dropping the case on mike flynn. when we heard that statement and of course the later comments that the president made in the oval office, we knew we had no choice but to start

obvious that the dirty cop, james comey and the other dirty cops had thrown the fight. to investigate hillary clinton. they did intend to give every one of the people surrounding her immunity, no search warrants, no subpoenas, allowed them to destroy evidence. the fact that they bent over backwards to accommodate david kendall, her main lawyer to do with the new e-mails on the weiner laptop, it is not surprising. it is confirmatory of the totally corrupt operation that was the obama fbi and department of justice. hillary clinton was guilty as hell, they knew it and decided to give her a pass. >> lou: they did so seeking could propose. it's stunning stuff. we did not know what the e-mails look like on weiner's laptop. they were incriminating they were principally we are told but nobody knows for sure how many were between hillary clinton and umma bidding. , weiner's wife at the time. where did those sit what is the likely fate of those e-mails? >> here's the thing. for all this time since donald trump became president, and he has been subject of this coup d'État, this ou

our viewers will remember he wrote that letter about firing james comey. he says he started talking about the firing of jim comey, he was obviously upset. he said he was shocked that the white house was making it look as if jim's firing had been his idea. he was grasping for a way to describe the nature of his situation. one remark stands out. he said, there's no one that i can talk to about this. there's no one here that i can trust. what does that say to you about rosenstein's mindset then and now, paul? >> it tells me that that's an extraordinarily human reaction. we knew jim comey, when we served as u.s. attorneys, he was our boss, a highly respected individual. i'm sure it's true that rod felt terribly about all the events happening to jim comey and must have felt some responsibility, correctly or incorrectly, about jim's firing. that anguish i'm sure was real. >> did rod rosenstein actually speak about wearing a wiretap, authorizing the use of a wiretap? >> not a wiretap but a concealed microphone. >> yes, correct. does that issue move forefront again

andy mccabe's testimony is inconsistent with his boss, james comey, james comey's testimony is inconsistentim baker. mccabe's testimony is also in consist inconsistent with rod rosenstein so you have all of these things that were taking place and again that underscores the point that there were senior officials at the department of justice that were the same officials that has undermined and pre-judged hillary clinton as innocent pre-judge donald trump as guilty and they were the ones making the decisions in these investigations. maria: and that was congressman john ratcliffe with me here last week. he of course a february of the intel as well as the judiciary committees i'm back with former south carolina congressman and chairman of the house oversight committee trey gowdy also a fox news contributor and former federal prosecutor and congressman your thoughts on what you just heard from your former colleague john ratcliffe. are we going to see any accountability with bill barr, seeking the truth on this, robert mueller about to come up with this report? what's your reaction to actually see

day one, may 9, james comey is fired. two days later trump sits down with lester holt and said russia was on his mind when he fired comey. that same day we learned "the new york times" trump asked comey for a royalty pledge in a dinner. comey wouldn't give the president what he wanted. day four trump tweets, james comey better hope there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. day seven, we learned from "the washington post" trump revealed highly classified information to russian officials in the oval office. we would later learn in that same meeting trump admitted to the russians that firing comey relieved the pressure of the russia investigation. day eight, "the new york times" report revealed trump pushed comey to end the investigation into mike flynn, shortly after flynn was fired. all of that in the nine days between james comey's firing and robert mueller's appointment as special counsel on day nine. we're joined by andrew mccabe now. thank you for being here. i know you have done a l

andrew mccabe confirms the president wrote a long rambling letter to justify ousting fbi chief james comey. does the letter amount to evidence of obstruction? >>> from victim to suspect. "empire" actor jussie smollett is now officially a criminal suspect as chicago police believe he falsely claimed to have been the target of a racist and homophobic attack that he was involved in orchestrating. >>> and terror hit list. a u.s. coast guardman has now been arrested, accused of plotting a mass attack targeting democrats and journalists, including cnn anchors. we're getting new details. >>> we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> this is cnn breaking news. >>> we're following breaking news on the conclusion of robert mueller's historic trump-russia investigation. cnn has learned the justice department is preparing to receive mueller's long-awaited final report and may announce as soon as next week that the special counsel's work is done. tonight, president trump says he will be -- it will be up to his new att

to say on "60 minutes" tonight, i'm not predicting this, he started on the interview that after james comeyired, the deputy attorney general rob rosenstein raised the possibility of invoking the 25th amendment to remove the president. here is mccabe. >> the discussion of the 25th amendment was simply rotted raised the issue and discussed it with me in the context of thinking about how many other cabinet officials might support such an effort. >> chris: he says there was no serious conversation, but this was raised. rosenstein says to the degree that it was discussed, it was sarcastic. why do you call what was going on inside the fbi assignment coup? >> rush: because these people are unelected. they took it upon themselves to overthrow the election results in 2016, ignoring the potential real collusion and conspiracy between democrats and russians to undermine the trump candidacy and the term presidency. the mueller investigation i believe is a cover-up of all of that. it's to distract everybody's attention. again, the washington game -- we are losing sight of what happened here. people unel

a puppet for lying james comey. he was fired last year to lying to federal investigators. tucker?cker: catherine honorable for us. thanke you. >> you are welcome. >> tucker: i appreciate it john somers a former communications director for senator harry reid of ned and he joins us tonight. john, thank you very much for coming on. >> you bet. >> tucker: take the party ids off the players in this. here you have federal law enforcement discussing removing theg president without an impeachment or an election. that sounds like something that happens in a third world country. doesn't it? >> it's something and i'm not going to defend any one individual in this situation because these are very serious conversations that they were having. c c they are based off theme constitution. does act as a safeguard should be ever run into that situation. >> tucker: run into what situation?n?tu >> run into a situation. >> tucker: where youou don't like the president or rah agree with his policy. >> where you don't feel the president can do his job. i don't have a problem that they had these discussions

this is a man who ran the fbi after james comey's chaotic firing.rt news is clearly a big deal. mueller had convinced a judge that manafort was lying about a secret meeting with a key russian at the cigar club a few blocks away and this was a few weeks after the secret russia meeting at, yes, trump tower. manafort at both of them and was in charge of the trump campaign. you can see how bad that looks. you don't need google maps for it. look at this. manafort is the fourth trump aide mueller says has lied to the feds about contact with the russians. top dems want to know why. >> the motivation here is if he told the truth about his relationship with someone affiliated with russian intelligence while he was the campaign chairman, that would be so damaging effectively to trump that it would negate his chance of a pardon. that, to me, is quite telling. >> pardons and lies about russia, looks like the heart of it. and then there's this news i mentioned that in any other year would be a top story in the nation tonight. we are hearing from the man who ran

steve: this was eight days after james comey was fired.e tried to establish the investigation just in case he got fired, just in case he was next on that hatchet list. ainsley: scott pelley. it will be on "60 minutes" this sunday. scott pelley is teasing what he was talking about. there were some talks that he talked with mccabe the idea of using the 25th amendment to get the president out of office. brian: rod rosenstein talked about wearing that wire. rod rosenstein said, i was being sarcastic when i said what do you want me to do, wear a wire when i go talk to the president? ainsley: listen to this. >> discussion underway about removing the president of the united states? >> they were counting noses. they were not asking cabinet members whether they would vote for against removing the president but they were speculating, this person would be with us, that person would not be and they were counting noses in that effort. it was also said at a previous time that the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein offered to wear a wire. a statement