that is the good jim comey. then there's the bad jim comey who wants to write an op-ed. spy chief wants to write an op-ed to. how insane is that? i don't blame the obama administration for saying no. if weon't want jim comey's opinion. we want to know what he knows. who is being surveilled and why. that's more important. i think he's getting caught up in the politics. he wants to be everyone's friend. >> juan: lisa, the let's use eric's parameters and say jim comey made the right decision or the obama administration made the right decision in terms of investigation that we want our investigators to come to a strong conclusion. but jim comey, in the mind of many people involved in politics in america, jim comey says everything is viewed through, are you left-wing or right-wing? but in terms of politics, he damaged one candidate, hillary clinton. >> lisa: i'm not a big fan of parameters. if you are the fbi director, he was set up to be involved in politics from the beginning. he had a presidential candidate who was under investigation prayed now we know there were at least

jim comey and the supreme court nominee neil gorsuch have their first hearings. ness at an intelligence committee hearing on russian meddling in the election, senators plan to ask him about trump's unsubstantiated and potentially libelous claim that he was wiretapped. adam schiff saying there is evidence of collusion between russia and trump officials. >> there is circumstantial evidence of collusion. there is direct evidence, i think, of deception. and that's where we begin the investigation. >> i'm joined now by msnbc intelligence analyst malcolm nance and howard fineman back with us. malcolm, what will we learn tomorrow from director comey who often stresses he can't discuss investigations except for when he can. >> well, i think for most part he's going to give us an outline of what the fbi can and cannot say with regards to the types of counterintelligence operations which may or may not be going on. director comen the political sense,e's been open mouth, but intensely closed mouth about anything that has to do with the counterintelligence division of that --

this is the same jim comey who sabotaged hillary clinton's campaign in october by violating departmentpolicy about public statements. now it appears that he is following or requesting permission from the justice department to speak out, but now he is only making public through leaks his feelings. the fact is, jim comey is only saying what every other neutral observer has been saying, which is there appears to be no basis for what donald trump said on saturday in these tweets about president obama, but it's a very complicated knot of alliances and anger, and i certainly don't have any clue on how it is going to turn out. >> n >>. it goes without saying, this is not how the relationship is supposed to work between the president and the fbi director. >> that's right. we have seen, as sarah talked about, this is an administration that came in questioning the authority, the validity of information that came out of the intelligence agency. so in that way, in some ways it's not surprising that donald trump has taken this tactic or the folks around him are sort of glad at this point to be in l

if it's not jim comey, who is it? >> obviously, like i said before, there are a lot of intelligence agencies that are involved in wiretapping. i guess once we have a clear picture that none of them were involved, probably the president should step forward and say he's now convinced it's not the case and make the appropriate apologies. but i don't think he feels that he's there at this point. >> do you agree with the senator? >> i lost sound on the senator. >> you did? >> i think the president should apologize. there's a bigger issue, whether this president is intellectually qualified to be president of the united states. he is going to make more false claims. the question is, are we dealing with a president who is electorally qualified? of course. but intellectually qualified -- >> you're saying he's not smart enough? >> look at how he -- >> what do you mean by -- that's quite a charge. >> i think he's going about his own health care bill listening to you and chris in the morning. he does not practice nor details and

. >>> fiche director jim comey butting heads with president trump, kind of. ey hasn't said anything in public but it was reported that he was, quote, incredulous over the president's claim that he was wiretapped by the obama white house. where does this fight go? let's discuss. former cia counterterrorism official and tom fuentes, cnn senior law enforcement analyst and former fbi director. last time we saw this dust-up, not long after that, the dossier came out from leaked sources. obviously, nobody wants to see this game being played. let me give you two pieces of sound and get your reactions to them in terms of what the state of play is. here is michael hayden, former intel chief. >> my first instinct is i want to get angry and i try to discipline myself not to do that. i focus on this as a great sadness. this is a community that exists to serve the president of the united states. and he has done things over the past more than 45 days, even as president-elect, that seems to put him at odds with the intelligence community again that exists only to serve him.

. >> you have been watching coverage of fbi director jim comey testifying about russia cost involvement in the presidential election. we wanted to take it to the white house where sean spicer is holding his daily briefing. >> i will try to have more of a readout. i know they will talk extensively about what they're going to accomplish. japan, south korea. i will let the secretary of state brief the president before i get ahead of deciding what was discussed in beijing. >> you said in the case of the president's tweets that this is an ongoing investigation and more people may come out. sean: right. >> why is that sufficient to stay in one case that there was

>> the man standing between them is jim comey. may be there's creditability on the issue because -- >> if he goes after trump. >> comey may have ability to do though row investigation on trump -- >> let's listen to -- he in barrel sean spicer. defending attorney general sessions is an interview on fox. >> he has been 100% straight. the question asked is whether or not he was aware of trump campaign doing some in kpa capacity the answer is no. he was aware -- he made statement that was 100% accurate and he stands by it. >> you don't think he needs to recuse himself? >> no. >> that's a solve pill. last night, we're looking with a the lot of information you're getting when putting gig saw puzzle together. we have frame. something to do with the campaign, something to do russian wanted done, they wanted to humiliate democratic process. we know trump said i want you to find evail put it out, he was kidding about d publicly. a lot of phone calls, a lot of meetings, what do we have to fill? what's the journalist challenge coming out of i

between jim comey and a reporter from "the new york times," give me jim comey. >> martha: a range of reaction across the political spectrum. here now, scholar who teaches. misleading the senate in testimony about one's own contacts with the russians is a good way to go to jail. let me start with you, richard paynter. do you still feel that way? >> well, yes. i feel very strongly about the real problem which is russia's conduct over many decades. and our inability to deal with that. russia has tried to subvert western democracy since the 1920s. here in the united states and in europe. it is going on in france right now. if we are going to deal with this problem, we need to be honest with each other about what we know about what the russians are doing and meeting with the russians and when senator sessions in his confirmation hearing said he had no contact with the russians, that's what he said, and that was just wrong. he had had these meetings with the russian ambassador. i'm very concerned about it. i'm not going to prejudge weather and senator sessions committed perjury. what i am

but down several floors below the capitol building there is a secure information room where jim comey was spotted by a reporter going into see senators mcconnell, schumer, burr and warner. now, who are they in this context? they are the four senate members of the so-called gang of eight that the eight members of congress that are required to receive the highest level sensitive intelligence briefings. they know more even than senate intelligence oversight contest often times because there is an obligation for the intelligence community to keep them up to speed on what they are doing. we don't know at this point what the topic of the meeting is. we do know the senate intelligence committee into russian meddling in the election has heat up. it's entered a new phase this week with senators heading out to cia headquarters at langley to view very sensitive intelligence information that they didn't even feel comfortable allowing to be transported up here to capitol hill where they do have secure rooms where it could be viewed. but that is, of course, the sensitivity of it that they don't wan

jim comey came out -- one of the criticisms of jim comey was the gym comey as a prosecutor shouldn't be making decisions about whether to go forward. loretta lynch. >> eric: something -- >> juan: loretta lynch basically did the same thing. >> greg: this is bait and switch from the start. they were asking sessions about whether he had discussions with the russians about the campaign. he said in that context he did not. they bait and switch the question so they are saying wait, he talked to the russians as a member of the armed services committee. those are two different things. if they had asked him about that, he would've said oh, yeah, i talked talked to all the amb. i don't even know what i talked about it but had nothing to do with the context of those questions. it was a cheap trick from a party that is bereft of any ideas. this is a walkable strategy of the democratic party. they're going to go after, for the next four years, anything they can. to hit the administration. what drives me crazy is how riled up the democrats are over the russians considering that president obama, wh

do you expect jim comey to say there's no proof of collusion and we're done looking. it's closed. probably not right? >> i don't expect him to say that at all. i'm not sure how much he is going to say but that the house intelligence committee on a bipartisan basis along with the senate intelligence committee is going to look at everything. names and situations and sources and they're look at everything that is involved that could possibly lead to something else to try at some point in time down the road to say with a conclusion and with certainly either something was or it wasn't and today is the beginning of that. >> understood it's just the beginning. whatever answers that you get from comey are not just qualified in terms of what he is allowed to talk about but what he wants to talk about and something that is just a part in the process. if you don't agree that these kinds of questions are fake news, if you don't agree that this is something that could be sumd up as done already. why don't you call out the president for making these on the day. >> listen i disagreed with this p

what jim comey said was those investigations of hillary clinton were complete by election day, and he spoke in july when they had completed their investigation. the investigation into trump was just beginning and he didn't feel like he could speak about that. the problem with jim comey and this whole episode is he seems to be making rules up as he goes along to try to figure out how to protect his agency. made a series of judgments about when to speak and when not to speak. maybe with good intentions but gotten himself in lot of hot water and raised questions like the one you just did, rife with the question whether he was in fact a player in the election. lot of democrats believe he was. >> david gergen? >> i have a great deal of respect for jim comey coming into all of this, i do think he made a mistake not disclosing both investigations at the same time rather than disclosing hillary clinton investigation and not the other. i think this notion that somehow one was closed and other was not is spurious. as i recall when he went back and said we were looking -- well he said few days b

jim comey let with lawmakers today on trump's charge that he was wiretapped by president obama. also this today, donald trump brazenly refused to criticize the organization that worked with russia to tilt the 2016 election in his favor. the organization that has been

jim comey is the guy who released the letter about hillary clinton 10 days out. i do not think he can be viewed as a friend of clinton. i am not a defender of the policies of the obama administration. there are people who differ on policies. they all wish the best for the country. most people who go into government do so because they want to bring about policies they think are good for the country. i have worked with a lot of these people and know these people, and they actually worked pretty hard to try to get the country safe. they have done a pretty good job. how many attacks have there been here since 9/11? some, obviously. that the fbi should have deported after the first , and we can think of cases in boston and orlando. but these are changes that trump's travel changes would not have affected. the people involved in this have worked pretty hard since 9/11. we owe them quite a lot. one of the things i dislike most about this rhetoric is -- klapper, have no reason to defend him. but if these conspiracy theories imagine that the entire cia or fbi is doing thi

jim comey is the guy who released the letter by hillary clinton. i don't think the fbi is viewed as a hotbed of that even in the obama administration but i am not a fan of some policies of the obama administration. there are people who differ on policy but all wish the best for the country. most people who go into government do so. they want policies they think are good for the country. most people on the intelligence field, they know this, they actually worked pretty hard to keep the country safe. and they have a pretty good job. how many attacks have there been since 9/11? there have been some obviously in some people were let in who shouldn't have been in the fbi should have deported them after -- first meeting set of instead of sending information to the local police, like in orlando, but this is places that trumps travel visa changes would not affect. there is one reason why people -- there are things you can do to tighten up our country terrorism efforts. but people involved in this work hard since 9/11 and we'll them quite a lot. -- we owe t

liz: jordan, we were reporting jim comey was seen heading to the white house earlier. he was asked at the hearing, was there wiretapping by obama at the trump tower. he said no. it was striking he was not asked, was there surveillance. that is something different, right? >> that is something different. that was an opportunity missed by some republicans, they focused on the wiretap issue only, liz, and didn't say surveillance like you said. a much broader term. he can only answer the question offered. liz: switch gears, the other big story of the day, republicans pulling the health reform bill after failing to get the required votes. as an attorney what do you think the trump administration's next options are here? jordan sekulow: i think the next options are pretty bleak. this is a bad day for republicans, and for many of us who are conservatives who were okay with this reconciliation. we understood the limits of reconciliation but wanted to see planned parenthood defunded. we wanted to get the individual mandate removed and move onto phase two and we understand what r

some of it coming from senator lindsey graham who met last week with jim comey as well. he in his judiciary subcommittee about to start their own separate investigation into russian contacts with the trump campaign during the course of the campaign. so a lot of moving pieces here, a lot of threads. it's one of the stories where the evidence comes out one piece at a time. and of course president trump throwing pretty big wrench into all of it this morning. >> case city hunt, thank you. you mentioned lindsey graham. he just wrapped up a contentious town hall meeting fp. there were some heated moments. >> i'll help trump where i can and the rest of you who voted for clinton, you should want to proceed, too. [ screaming from the audience ] >> this question is from pauleen roberts from westminster snchlts continued shouting ]. >> sit down. all right. go ahead. >> the state exchange, we're down to one company. one company and you will have no choice. premiums went up 27 -- i tel you what, you're going to get kicked out in about 30 seconds if you don't shut up. >> because i'm t

>> well, listen, i had a great deal of respect for jim comey coming into all of this. i do think he made a mistake by not disclosing both investigations at the same time. rather than disclosing the hillary clinton investigation and not the other. i think this notion that somehow one was closed and the other was not is spurious. as i recall when he went back and said, we're looking at it -- he said, a few days before the election, we're looking at some new e-mails. he went public with that. and he said, that's because we kept the investigation open. well, it wasn't closed, really, it was still open, they just weren't doing very much with it. i just think he should have come with both or none. >> nia, before we go, the president's reputation now in washington, where do we stand with that? not many people will tell you on camera how they feel but behind the scenes? >> there is a lot of hammering. >> his credibility. >> among republicans in terms of a lot of the drama, right, surrounding this white house, the self-created drama around the wiretapping and the credibility. a

jim comey is the guy who released the letter about hillary clinton 10 days out. i do not think he can be viewed as a friend of clinton. i am not a defender of the policies of the obama administration. there are people who differ on policies. they all wish the best for the country. most people who go into government do so because they want to bring about policies they think are good for the country. i have worked with a lot of these people and know these people, and they actually worked pretty hard to try to get the country safe. they have done a pretty good job. how many attacks have there been here since 9/11? some, obviously. that the fbi should have deported after the first , and we can think of cases in boston and orlando. but these are changes that trump's travel changes would not have affected. the people involved in this have worked pretty hard since 9/11. we owe them quite a lot. one of the things i dislike most about this rhetoric is -- klapper, have no reason to defend him. but if these conspiracy theories imagine that the entire cia or fbi is doing thi

and the importance of congressional oversight, jim comey recognizes the awesome power held by the fbi what abuse of that power would mean for the fbi. so i think he takes that very seriously. i do not see him intentionally resisting or pushing to the side -- >> what did you take away from how nunes treated the fbi when he said that the nsa looks like they're going to cooperate? i realize i'm paraphrasing, but the fbi not so -- i mean, i sort of thought that was a slap at the fbi. >> right. and it could have been. >> maybe it wasn't, but that's what i thought. >> right. of course, most of what the fbi does is going to have to get passed upon by doj. there's another layer of review there. i would be astounded if jim comey were to push back in any material way other than a totally lawful manner. >> what do you make of what happened today with nunes going down there? >> you know, aisle troubi'm troe whole thing. i will say as i did to you briefly ago, i agree with senator mccain. there -- the term, "bipartisan agreement" is an oxymoron in this city. i don't see any way where we, the taxpa

jim comey says trust me he's doing it right. he's following the law. we are doing the oversight and u.s. american should feel safe in privacy to protect them. >> i don't want to comment on current events, so maybe i could just talk in general. it's vital that we the intelligence community need to be able to share with the american people through their representatives the most important things we are doing. for a bunch of reasons. they ought to know. and second, there is a danger in all humans, especially in authority and the government to capture something john adams said to thomas jefferson, which is power always thinks it has a great soul. this danger. i think i'm an honest person. i'll follow love of my own own view of things. so that checking imbalance is the genius of the design of the founders. it is vitally tell them what we are doing so they can ask our questions about it. in my experience, it is a highly productive relationship. sometimes people outside the road don't understand it. how can you tell a select few? the nature of the work. they a

maria: are you surprised jim comey is still in? thought the opportunity to ask him to leave us when -- thank you for your service. that didn't happen and i can't really happen now because he's now gotten himself embroiled in a new look like he's been fired for political reasons. maria: that's right. great to have you here. inc. so much. michael mukasey joining us. maria: welcome back here we are learning more about the terrorist behind the deadly rampage outside the british parliament. the saudi embassy in london said khalid massoud visited 12 times to teach english. investigators now trying to determine how he became radicalized. peter king is on the house homeland security and intel coittee and jos us n. commerce men, good to see you. thank you for joining us. do you have a sense of those questions? can you take us behind the current events? >> what we are dealing with is what we been dealing with in the united states. san bernardino, or they know. now san bernardino, or they know. now you have a situation in london for a person

maria: are you surprised jim comey is still in?i thought the opportunity to ask him to leave us when -- thank you for your service. that didn't happen and i can't really happen now because he's now gotten himself embroiled in a new look like he's been fired for political reasons. maria: that's right. great to have you here. inc. so much. michael mukasey joining us. the demand behind the terrorist attack in london. we will talk with congressman peter king next. ♪ ♪ what we do every night is like something out of a strange dream except that the next morning it all makes sense. to power global e-commerce fedex networks are massive far-reaching and, yes a little magical. ♪ maria: welcome back here we are learning more about the terrorist behind the deadly rampage outside the british parliament. the saudi embassy in london said khalid massoud visited 12 times to teach english. investigators now trying to determine how he became radicalized. peter king is on the house homeland security and intel committee and joins us now. commerce men,

he assigned some greater talent, if you will, to jim comey than i do. jim comey is a problem. everything he touched has gone badly. he needs to go. lou: thank you both. appreciate. that's it for us tonight. join us tomorrow. the fred barnes will be with us. and we are going to have -- hae a hoot of a time. kennedy: brian kilmeade is here. james comey says privacy is dead. what would the founding fathers do. and could technology turn begins and force us into a one-world government? dr. ron paul is here with the prescription. grab your keys. less than two months into his presidency and donald trump has lord over a divided washington with overblown can dazzle and calls for impeachment with no

even if you have the most credibility in the world you can't help but feel the pressure that jim comey has under gone. >> over the past 12 months. >> from the hillary clinton press conference last summer to the release of the letter 11 days before the election to the statements about russia afterwards coming on board. >> i sat there at the national republican convention in cleveland. watched director comey give his press conference, and i took a big sigh and said i believe the guy. didn't say what i wanted him to say or what i thought he was going to say, but i believe him. he has the utmost credibility. >> trump has criticized him. >> everybody has criticized him. i think that's what makes him a great independent director of the federal bureau of investigation. >> he knows things we will never know, never supposed to know. he's reaekticting to things we t know exist. >> ahead of that we're waiting to hear from sean spicer and 43 minutes in we're still waiting. he has a lot to talk about. you feel for him in some regard. wiretapping, health bill, budget planning, there's a lot of press

he assigned some greater talent, if you will, to jim comey than i do.m comey is a problem. everything he touched has gone badly. he needs to go. lou: thank you both. appreciate. that's it for us tonight. join us tomorrow. the fred barnes will be with us. and we are g keep your fingers crossed. nick, we had a celebrity on tonight. appreciate it. you, too, steve. l lou dobbs is here. lou: tonight u.s. forces on the move, hundreds of marines in syria to provide artillery support for the assault to take the islamic state capital of raqaa. former cia analyst fred fleitz among our guest tonight. >>> house speaker ryan pushing better way plan instead of president trump's health care agenda, creating confusion and concernation in his own conference. >> we as republicans have been waiting seven years to do this. lou: tonight i'll talk with one of the architects of the gop

when you have the story running that jim comey called the justice department make it clear that this wasn't going on we weren't involved in this, we don't know what happened. it was something about this wasn't order. i have no idea. i think he was trying to distract what was going on in the news. this is the president of the united states he could have called the fbi and found out this wasn't going on. instead he made an allegation against his predecessor. compare this to george bush -- this is just not the history of america. >> some people believe, is passionate followers believe there was some snooping on him. >> i say as a former prosecutor, bring employee tme the facts an evidence. all we have heard is that couldn't happen. even today the man up for the number two job at justice, under his watch he never heard of anyone in the u.s. wiretapping a civilian in the united states of america that's against the law. >> we have the vice chair senator burr says he has not seen anything. >> right. >>> thank you. >>> so where are the national security leaks coming from. congressman steve k

the idea that jim comey would come along on monday and say oh, by the way it's all true just seems so im probable, but sure, it will be his first opportunity to make a public statement about this. there were certainly leaks from the fbi as there are always leaks from the fbi that said that comey found trump's tweet, he was incredulous about it. it's also true that come monday director comey may say well i can't comment on pending investigations, so you know the idea that somehow this will be tied up with a bow on monday and we will have an absolutely clear answer i wouldn't get your hopes up for that. >> so you know i wanted to ask you one question hyper bollicly, say there's no there, what then on monday? >> then people have to make up their mind whether donald trump lied about barack obama, he accused him of committing a major crime if he indeed did this, since that tweet there's been absolutely no evidence it's true and great evidence it's false. that appears to be the status quo of what the facts are and the state of play and i anticipate that will be the state of play for some ti

jim comey on the hot seat monday it's important to ask. last question, just on all of this what do you make to have fact this has now spilled overseas into britain, the intel agency slammed sean spicer. the fact this has become an international incident? >> i do hope the people in the white house learned from this. go back to the speech when he got accolades to that sat when he sent the four tweets. if you want to move up in support and make the american people grow to support donald trump be like the thursday speech. if you want to be back in the soup, be like the saturday tweets. >> ari fleicher thank you very much. 15 minutes. 15. that is how long a man went undetected after hopping the white house fence last week. we will tell you what went wrong and where they eventually found him next. >>> breaking news here on cnn. we have two stories of major breaches, a laptop belong to go a secret service agent has been stolen, also the man who jumped the finance laence at the white apparently went undetected 15 minutes. we have both stories, so

jim comey would be enough for me. we're going to hear about the russian investigation from the man doing the investigation, allegedly but you'll have wolf blitzer and jake tapper anch anchoring coverage and they'll be talking about the questions of the next supreme court justice that could be the tie breaker on the court. at 9:00 a.m. eastern. >> the president hoping for a win in his pick to be the ninth supreme court justice. he'll face a lot of questions from the judiciary committee. how far will the democrats go on trying to oppose him? our panel weighs in next. ♪ (vo) do not go gentle into that good night, old age should burn and rave at close of day; rage, rage against the dying of the light. do not go gentle into that good night. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ can i get some help. watch his head. ♪ i'm so happy. ♪ whatever they went through, they went through together. welcome guys. life well planned. see what a raymond james financial advisor can do for you. >> he'll face a major test today as his confirmation hearing begins this m

the best they can hope jim comey, the fbi director.t clear there has been anything to support that yet. and that really hope that the white house, you know, they can knock down some of the collusion talk that has been out there. that's really the best they can hope for from jim comey at this point. >> you are having a bit of a bbc moment, tom, and i hope everything's okay. live tv. that's how it goes. and sarah, i want to run more sound. when it comes to the wiretapping issue, bidthat was set to our w blitzer. >> either he knows it's wrong and he's lying about a national security issue in which case et cetera going to be hard to trust him while we are going forward, he can't tell the difference between truth and fiction. >> what is your reaction to that? >> i think that the democrats on the committee are going to go into the committee with this, and republicans are going to go into the same hearing with a different goal, which is to have the fbi director explain the lack of evidence to substantiate allegations between collusion between

dagen: i still hate the patriots, which jim comey said yesterday at a hearing. miss that one. president chabrol is that they fell, pushing the plan to replace obamacare. >> thursday is our chance to and obamacare and the obamacare catastrophe. lauren: to republicans have the votes to pass the bill in the house? it's 5:26 a.m. you are watching "fbn:am," your first look at morning markets and breaking news. ♪ lauren: breaking news this morning. house speaker paul ryan and gop lawmakers made changes to whip out the board as donald trump rallies in louisville. good morning. i am lauren. dagen: good morning. i've dagen mcdowell and for nicole petallides. neil gorsuch answered questions on day two of this hearing today. lauren: waiting for headline for more information on the trump agenda. the dow fell a bit yesterday. the past three dies down 44 points, rebounding up 21 on the futures. dagen: stats reopening after the holiday slipping a third of a percent with gains on the shanghai, hang seng and cost the -- cost the in south korea. $48..66 a barrel. dagen: right at

jim comey is an honorable guy. so is the president of the united states.ident must have his reasons. >> dana: director comey appeared before cameras today but didn't address the subject. he will be called to testify on march 20 other than open, public hearing by the house intelligence committee on russia's allegedly meddling in the election. the question they have a hard time answering is why doesn't the president just ask for the evidence? >> kimberly: the thing is, we just don't know. we don't know what stage of the proceeding, who has contacted, whether he has any kind of evidence. the purpose, nature, subject matter of any warrant contemporaneous with that time. was there a warrant that was larger and encompasses the area of trump tower? we don't know. i guess, in due course, when the president decides come he will let us know but certainly it was a bombshell of a tweet and of a news story and breaking news, and now everybody is kind of scrambling to find out. unless you actually see the facts on the proof, we really can't know. >> dana: they are going

especially the one fbi director jim comey? kristin fisher is on the scene in louisville. trump campaigning to in this very hall in may. he won kentucky by a big margin but tonight he's going to have stomachs planning to do because more than a million people in kentucky are on medicaid coverage. that is more than a quarter of the states population. a lot of those folks are at risk of losing their coverage under the plan president trump is going to be pitching tonight. it's a plan that has pitted kentucky's senators against each other. rich mcconnell's for it, wrote an op-ed about it. rand paul, one of the most vocal critics against it pretty will not be here tonight. mitch mcconnell will, as will thousands of people. the other question is will president trump bring up went went down on capitol hill? will he address what fbi director james comey just said, given the fact that he has already tweeted about it about six times, i'm guessing there's a pretty good chance he's going to bring it up. the first chance he will have to speak publicly about it. >> juan: kristin fisher i

fbi director jim's comey is testifying about the meddling of russia in the presidential election. he confirmed ties between members of russia and the trump campaign. kenneth moten joins us from the capitol hill. >> reporter: moments ago, james comey said he could not get into specifics, but he confirmed the russian investigation and refuted unsubstantiated claims made by the president of united states. comey confirmed russia's meddling into the election and the alleged contacts into the trump campaign. >> it is an on going investigation i cannot say who is conduct we are examining. >> reporter: his months of public silence over. telling the house intelligence committee president trump's wiretapping are wrong. >> about the tweets of president trump wiretapping him by the prior administration i have no information. we know there was not a physical wiretap of trump tower. however it is possible that other surveillance activities were used by president trump and his associates. >> the president's source not the fbi. >> president obama could not u.n. u.n. latterly order a -- u.n. order

jim comey and the fbi are a component of that and there was talk about the wiretapping allegations leveed by the president of the united states about his predecessor. it's no secret where jim comey behind the scenes asked the justice department to knock down those allegations because it was illegal and made the fbi look very bad and most importantly, wasn't true, but those were two of the primary issues that i'm told did come up. it's important to note this is happening as senate intelligence coal mitty oc co committee officials are conducting the investigation to rook look at classified documentdocu >> the current direction of the senate intelligence investigation, that trip critical. >> no question about it. an interesting element is sources i spoke to said some of the senators that headed out that way aren't necessarily thrilled with the access of two documents they have gotten but it is part of the process and that process is kicking into high gear in a couple ways. i talked to democrats that said dell c democrats plan to call on mu multiple officials including michael flynn and force

he clapper, from morell from a number of officials have said that we didn't hear yesterday from jim comeyimportant thing we learned was the confirmation of the fact that an investigation fbi investigation is ongoing. n and, secondly, i think under those circumstances, probably would be foolish to try to second-guess any possibly outcomes, so i think we just going to have to wait and see but the big fact is just the fact of the investigation we are going to have to see where it leads. >> so that is really what we learned yesterday are you he surprised that jim comey still has this job in a lot of people are asking, given the controversy surrounding the election, and you know leading to up the election, the way jim comey conducted himself what do you think? >> well, he's got a 10 year appointment, and i think it would require a pretty extraordinary circumstances to relieve him of his position. that is the deal. and -- i think -- on balance it is a good thing that the fbi director is in 10 years in fact i would like to see that same principle applied to the intelligence community so that the

i think the key question jim comey may answer or posed is there an inquiry?s the status of the inquiry. are you focused on federal crimes or focused on intelligence gathering, which means there may be important things that don't reflect wrongful conduct by anyone linked to donald trump. two ways to be involved, then they will be asked about the wiretapping. this is something, from what we can tell, the fbi appears to be ready to say something about, which makes it an interesting hearing from that perspective. we know that because the d.o.j. made a statement saying they have, quote, complied with congressional inquiries regarding wiretapping. if d.o.j., which oversees the fbi, if they can tell congress to some degree about that, we would expect the fbi director under oath to say something about it. finally, not as great political interest the ongoing recusal questions and director comey will hear about those because some democrats have concerns about the inquiry after sessions announced recused with regard to campaign issues. >> nicole? >> you mentioned leaks.

and what jim comey is going to say, of course, we don't know. he's got of an enigmatic character, he's angered people on both sides of the aisle and democrats are distrustful of him after he announced another leg of the hillary clinton investigation just a couple of days before the election. that's why he's radioactive on the democratic side of the aisle. but he's also pushing back against this trump claim. he was reportedly furious when trump tweeted those allegations. he went to the doj and said you should publicly refute it. they did not. so another question the democrats are going to ask is why are you asking doj to do it, why didn't you publicly refute it. so he's kind of a confusing guy. nobody knows where he stands on the partisan fence. helaims he's not partisan at all. but a t of questio and a lot of eyes on monday for all of these reasons. you're hearing more and more republicans saying if there's not any evidence to this claim, then trump has to apologize, he has to walk it back, he has to do x, y and z and they are getting very frust

. >> good morning, up first jim comey meeting behind closed doors with 8 powerful law makers known as the gang of 8 because they have access to the nation's most sensitive data. that information dealing with russia's alleged meddling in the u.s. election is expected to be shard soon with the entire senate intel committee. >> and the server connection between a trump organization and russian bank. one u.s. official and health care battle on capitol hill you have shifts into high gear so we're entering day 15 of donald trump's presidency and cnn has every angle covered live at the white house. >> good morning, law makers clearly picked up the pace in their investigation into russia's interference in the last election. questionable contact with the trump campaign and of course leaks but the question is the extent to which the fbi director is willing to tell them all he knows. >> heading to capitol hill as tension builds between the justice department and lawmakers over president trump's unsubstantiated wiretapping claims. under pressure to deny or provide evidence of the president's alle

asked if the president still supports jim comey, the white house press secretary, sean spicer, wolf, said he has no reason to believe that the president doesn't -- does not, but wolf, you have to question whether the strategy that the white house is implementing here is the right one. keep in mind, earlier today the house republican intelligence committee chairman, devin nunes, said he plans to hold hearings on this coming up and that if you look at the slew of people who may be invited to testify from the dni, jim clapper, to john brennan, former cia director, jim comey, the fbi director, this could really open up a pandora's box up on capitol hill and implode in ways that the white house never intended. wolf? >> yeah, both republican chairmen of the two intelligence committees say they've seen no evidence yet to back up what the president said. all right. jim acosta, thank you very much. >>> let's get more on the president's wiretap claim and pressure to offer up at least some evidence. even as congress prepares to investigate. cnn's jessica schneider is with me here. jessica, the

congressman smith, what do you expect jim comey to be able to say? can he tell us yes or no whether or not there is a criminal investigation of the trump campaign for ties to russia? >> i believe that he can. he can't tell us the details of that. you know, they can say we can't comment on an ongoing investigation. i'd be real surprised, though, because we've heard from the intelligence community and from many others that there was no wiretapping of anybody in the trump campaign. look, i think this whole thing started because of the phone conversation that michael flynn got caught up in. but what people seem to misunderstand is they weren't tapping michael flynn's phone. far more logical is that they were tapping the phone of the russian that he was speaking to. so i expect that fbi director comey will say, you know, there's been wiretap of that. whether or not they're investigating at this point the connections of the trump campaign to the russian interference with our election, i think he can comment on that without going into detail. and i don't kn

. >> reporter: that's how the hearing started but jim comey and nsa director mike rodgers often declined to answer questions about specific individuals or events. and by the end, the republican chairman wrapped things up like this. >> there's a big gray cloud that you've now put over people who have very important work to do to lead this country. >> reporter: after the hearing i asked him about it, what does that do to the work of the white house? >> well, i think this just needs to be cleared up. i think the investigation needs to be conducted and they need to get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible. >> reporter: on the hill this hearing being watched by lawmakers outside the committee. dwight he havens office is right across the hall. >> reporter: what was your reaction when you heard what he had to tell the committee? >> i'm not surprised. i'm happy that now the fbi director has said it, i think there should be an investigation. >> reporter: he also said president trump owes former president obama an apology after one of director comey's other big moments offering nothing to

today at esd.ny.gov >>> incredulous, that is the word that sources used to describe fbi director jim comey'seaction to president trump's tweets, claiming his predecessor had bugged the phones at trump tower. let's get reaction from connecticut senator richard blumenthal. you had a very strong tweet yourself that plays into the political tug of war over accountability there in washington. there's your tweet for the audience to digest. i'll use every possible tool to block doj deputy ag nominee unless he commits to appoint independent special prosecutor. the president can answer his own question, can he not? >> he can, because he has access to the intelligence and there would have to be a warrant for any wire tap to be imposed and incredulous is the right word to describe the reaction many of us had. >> if it's so baseless and bizarre, do you think jim comey should have said that to everybody and not behind closed doors? >> my preference would have been director comey to actually issue a statement and directly con troe vertical this unfounded claim. at least there's no evidence that anyone can

but this might shock of two of you-- there are a lot of us who have lost a little confidence in jim comeyr the years. we probably want to hear from more people than just jim comey. >> woodruff: and that calls to mind, karine, there is this wider investigation going on into connections that matt alluded to a moment ago between the trump campaign and russian officials. we don't know where that stands. >> right, and we need to have a full, thorough investigation on that. clearly, there is serkial evidence that shows the trump organization has had some sort of contact with russia, and we really need to get to the bottom of it. yes, there should be a special prosecutor, but i also think there should be an independent bipartisan commission to really get down to the bottom of it, so we know that that commission has jurisdiction, that they could have spp power, and also that it's public, so we know, the american people know what's going on. >> woodruff: right now you have all these investigations under way. >> step by step. we haven't even filled the senate-confirmed positions at the department o

. >> i would look to welcome our witnesses director of the fbi, jim comey, and director of the national security agency, admiral rogers. >> reporter: the nation's top cop and one of the nation's most senior spy masters there to testify about allegations that russia tried to influence the outcome. >> i have been authorized by the department of justice to confirm that the fbi as parted of our counterintelligence mission is investigating the russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. >> reporter: listen closely now. >> that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the trump campaign and the russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and russia's efforts. as with any counterintelligence investigation, this will also include an assessment of whether any crimes were committed. >> reporter: that's huge. the fbi director disclosed an ongoing criminal investigation into whether associates of the trump campaign worked with the russian government. comey acknowledged that admission in its