jim comey is his own guy, he really is, and that's what trump doesn't like. he looked like he was vetting comey in that interview the way he describes it. he said, are you investigating me, are you investigating me? you better not say you're investigating me because i'm not going to keep you on if you say you're investigating me. what kind of judiciary plan is that? and using lester's platform to say this guy is a grandstander, all this stuff. it's not true, and i think mccabe is making the point from the fbi, one thing we do know about comey besides the fact he's independent. he's loyal to the troops. he's loyal to the institution. he looks out for the fbi. the fact that the fbi responds to that and does appreciate his leadership is coming out in spades right now. so trump has a pants on fire situation tonight. >> when you said who is putting out this stuff, this gets back to what john mccglauphlin have said, it could be a clean line. >> is it bannon? i wonder if he's behind the briefing of ms. sanders. >> i think that reince priebus is in charge of that oper

of the deputy attorney general's memo recommending that jim comey be -- concluding that jim comey had lost and squandered the credibility and integrity of the fbi, although it did stop short of actually recommending his dismissal. then very quickly, you had donald trump himself come out and say "no, of course i was going to fire jim comey, even before i got the memo," and then pretty quickly after that, you begin to have these statements that increasingly speak to -- and i am not a lawyer, but in listening to lawyers review this, "speak to intend in the president's mindset, which does appear to have been to interfere with jim comey and the fbi 's investigation into the trump campaign and its links to russia. as the caller was hitting in that direction, i think you are beginning to see statements that someone like robert mueller might look at and begin to be able to create intent to obstruct justice, if that is the direction that this investigation ultimately ends up going. host: back to robert mueller, this is the announcement of jim comey's nomination to replace him as fbi director a

i know jim comey. i've been very critical of some of his judgments, in fact, maybe a little harsh on him in terms of this firing and perhaps i suggested it was justified, but i can tell you this. there's no question about his integrity, whatsoever. that, i can tell you. i think if this is exactly what happened and it's well documented and we have these circumstances surrounding it, i would believe what's in the memo. >> gloria, politically, ok, we're 24 hours out from the report that the president shared classified information with a u.s. adversary, obviously, talking to the rugszs, one of them believed to be a top russian spy in the oval office. you told jim acosta saying of the memo, i just don't know on this one. obviously, the president is denying it, but that's a troubling statement. >> it is. >> -- from the trump camp from their own aid. >> it is. there are other people in the white house trying to put some sort of a face on this. but look, before this story broke this evening, i was talking to s

, it has procedures and protocols and traditions of its own, and that's where robert mueller and jim comey have a much deeper understanding of how something like this is going to unfold. to the caller's point about the relationship between comey and bob mueller, he's absolutely right, these are two men who have worked very closely together at the highest levels of the justice department, they worked together both before 9/11 and then their relationship and partnership was really forged in the crucible of the post-9/11 justice department during this as thebly intense period country was responding to 9/11 and try to reorient itself to fight al qaeda. andmueller was fbi director jim comey was deputy attorney general, technically, bob mueller's boss at that point. they were true closely together for a number of years on a daily basis, working to combat , weorism and particularly might talk about this more later in the hour, and the caller brings it up, during the 2004 incident known as the hospital visit, when jim comey and bob very high-stakes showdown with the bush white house and vice presi

jim comey had declared it closed. it's not necessarily a given as we stand here tonight that forever phils these shoes is going to share that opinion and given what we've heard tonight from the attorney general of the united states and the assistant attorney general of the united states citing that case is the reason why comey was dismissed. i don't think it's necessarily a given that we're done with the hillary clinton investigation. if you look back at one of the deby the when candidate trump said i'm going to instruct my attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor. and then he said he's not going to put her through that. let me just jump in here real quick. of course hillary clinton's running mate virginia time cane tweeted out just a short time ago, shows how frightened this administration is over the russia investigation. recommended by jetion sessions. i thought he had recused himself from the russia investigation. comey fired by a growing pattern by the white house to cover up the truth. i think we're goin

jim comey is a bright guy. he's an ethical guy but the bottom line is, when he made a prosecute of opinion in an investigative matter, he made a mistake. we all make mistakes in life. this was a big one that was obvious to everybody. >> martha: but he claims that loretta lynch had essentially removed herself from that decision by stepping onto that plane on the tarmac with former president bill clinton. and that he was basically taking over what he needed to take over because she stepped aside. she left him holding the bag spread that's what he would argue. >> he would argue that martha, but i believe at the head of an investigative agency which even if she called him and said i want you to render the prosecute of opinion because i can no longer do that, he needs to toss that ball back into the justice department to whoever is in charge when she removed herself and to make the prosecute decision. he had an investigation going that was an inquiry, nothing investigation. he had no subpoena power. he had no real w

now, the people we've talked to find it inconceivable that jim comey would tell donald trump he was not under investigation, but they don't know for a fact because they weren't at the meeting. only comey can testify to that, greta. >> ken, is there -- usually when the fbi director or any of these cabinet officers travel, they have assistants or deputies with them. was there anybody else at that dinner besides the president and james comey? >> i don't know the answer to that, but my understanding is it was mainly a one on one dinner. but you're right, both these men have staffs. it is hard to imagine they were completely alone at all times. it was billed as a one on one dinner, greta. >> matt, is there any information there is a taping system in the white house? >> well, other than the president's strange threat of blackmail to jim comey on

they did not like jim comey. when hillary clinton said that was one of the reasons she lost, most democrats on the hill agree with that. he's been erratic in his public performances. some things he talks about very eloquently, other things that would help prescription more lig would help bring more light to the conversation, it's been frustrating for both sides. what jim comey has done throughout his career, made democrats feel like he's a democrat, made republicans feel like he's a republican. he's an every man. in the end, he had nobody standing on his side. >> we keep coming back to why now. there's an i.g. investigation under way right now and if it really was about clinton e-mails, and that all of a sudden donald trump had a night mare that they mistreated hillary clinton, i need to act on this now, that still brings us back to the fact there's an i.g. investigation -- >> which will continue. >> okay. okay. pause everything. we're not changing the subject. it's too good but we're going to make it better beca

jim comey is out at the fbi. >> this is a cover up. is this a cover up? >> of what? of what? omey firing cast a shadow over your talks, gentlemen? >> you're kidding. >> there is one news agency allowed in the trump/lavrov meeting and it belonged to vladimir putin? >> you can't make this stuff up. >> regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey. >> they keep changing their story. >> i gave you the best information i had at the moment. >> we had a very nice dinner. >> did you ask him to drop the investigation? >> no, never. >> did president trump record his conversations with former fbi director comey? >> i assume you're referring to the tweet. >> james comey better hope there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. >> the president has nothing further to add on that. >> the president on multiple occasions demanded that comey pledge his loyalty to him. comey declined to do so. >> i read that article. i don't think it's inappropriate. >> did you answer that question? >> no, no, i didn't. but i don't think it would be a bad question to a

is that-- is that what led to jim comey's firing? was it-- was it the russian investigation? it a general sense that comey was never going to be a trump guy, frankly, like he really wasn't an obama guy. for a president who puts a real premium on loyalty, was jim comey just too much of a, you know, an independent wild card for this administration? this was a lot of things we're still trying to get a handle on, because as your reporters said earlier, a lot of this just doesn't line up. a lot of the stated reasoning for why they wanted to fire jim comey just doesn't totally line up. >> woodruff: what is your reporting telling you, matt apuzzo, about the sense inside the justice department, inside the f.b.i., about whether this russia investigation can go forward in an independent way, in a way that people will find credible? >> well, i think that the sense that the f.b.i. is "we move forward." the acting director, andrew mccabe, is a career f.b.i. agent. you know, there would be no reason for him to put the brakes on the russia investigation, you know, just because jim comey was

they're saying essentially that he fired jim comey for the very conduct that candidate donald trump praised james comey for. so how do they intellectually connect those dots, or can they? >> first of all, this is not a white house or an administration that necessarily bothers to connect dots or bothers with consistency, even. but i do think that the events of the last 24 hours have really raised the political imperative here. however this investigation is conducted, it has to come to some kind of clear conclusion that is credible. now, whether that can be handled within the processes that are already set up, whether it's the sblebl intelligence committees on the hill or inside the justice department, is a real question going forward. and i think the pressure is going to continue to mount for perhaps a select committee, perhaps some kind of separate prosecutor. maybe even a 9/11-style outside panel, to just take this out of the hands of politicians. >> but the white house doesn't want that. leader mcconnell so far holding firm against that. republicans believe, even the critics of trump beli

that was done under jim comey, and jim comey was forced to admit that they would unmask individuals as part of trump's caaign. liz: you're right. the issue with comey, he's supposed to be the nation's top investigator, instead he acted like judge and jury prosecutor, confirm and deny. he held press conferences like they were closing arguments. but even senator dianne feinstein questioned comey. what do you think? >> well, look, i think -- the sanctity went both ways but i think the prosecution made it very difficult to ever do. he talked about the ag lynch not being credible after the meeting with bill clinton on the tarmac and the two airplanes. completely true. but his job has not been to come out and say, well, we completed the investigation. nothing to see here. so that is a huge, and i believe critical failure on his part from there on, everything i think is a matter of time. and, again, let's be clear on this. the democrats were out for his hide long before yesterday. liz: right. let's get to that because the president is now saying democrats have been complaining for months and

in terms of that conversation, it is important, what the president said to jim comey and what jim comey said to him. if he did say, i hope you can let this go, is that obstruction of justice? >> the question becomes, actually, what should comey had done with a request like that. if i were the fbi dark dark, i would do 1 of 2 things, mr. president, this is an area that i know that you are new, this is not something a president should ask an fbi director and put it in those terms. there is no evidence that comey did it. secondly, if comey was that worried about it, he should have made an immediate report to congressional oversight. think about this. martha, you and i have talked about this town, washington, nothing like that would stay on a dressed for this amount of time. you don't hold things like that back. there has been a number of occasions where that information, if it happened, comey should have given out to one of the oversight committees, either house, judiciary, senate judiciary, said, we have a problem. you don't set on something like that. >> martha: this is someone who is an

i think, you know, jim comey has wanted to testify. he's wanted to tell his story.ink, again, the clue that we're going to have to watch, there is this open question, you know, is the justice department looking at a cover up or not? is bob mueller going to look at a cover up? we won't know that for a while. we might get a clue in that testimony. if jim comey comes in and there are some things he's willing to talk about but other things he says, i've talked to the special prosecutor and he's asked me not to go into this, that would be a very clear sign that that's something that bob mueller wants to pursue. he wants to have a chance to talk to witnesses without them knowing what jim comey has already told him. >> that would be the question i would have that was surprising because there was some question about whether we were going to hear anybody, ari, in an open session given that you have an investigation and you could hear robert mueller saying, i need to keep all of this quiet. >> yeah. we had heard in our reporting according to associates of comey, that he didn'

what are you supposed do if you're jim comey? this is the guy who literally holds your job in his hand. he has no filter. donald trump. he has no sense of sort of what you say and what you can't say, that as has been true of him. the problem now is to return to the point, he's the president of the united states and what he says and does matters. >> you've worked at the cia and also at the fbi. you third theard the acting fbi director of it on capitol hill. he said it would be outside standard practice for a direct are tore comey to reveal the status of any investigation to a potential target. what do you make of this? >> this is pretty straightforward. the president signed a check, jim comey will bounce it one of these days. remember, there is a press department that is not that old.president of the united states alleged there a wiretapping of tour. jim koeccomey came out and said did not happen. not only do i guarantee comey didn't say that, bullpen he could n but key not have said that. how can he say i can guarantee you will n

, i don't believe anybody can kredably say they know the answer -- >> i don't think jim comey -- and a paper out by jim baker. >> none of the sources were in the room. jim comey is an expert, aggressive and artful at playing the press. he has a lot of allies talking to the "new york times," giving his version of events. the own personal who knows what's happens is anybody sitting in the room. at this moment, jim comey has a better history with the truth than donald trump -- >> he was fired. he was also fired -- >> donald trump pretended to be a publicist, played characters in real life. where are the republicans? >> i already answered that. i think there will be some of this. republicans need to stand up. in order to maintain credibility of party, we don't have to stand with the president on every single thing. >> how about this, threatening the former director of the fbi. >> jim comey is very respected and stepped into a political firestorm, maybe he was politically naive when he stepped into it last year but certainly respected when it comes to his term in the justice department and

he has applauded what jim comey said. said other things as well, really very few, but he has said comey did her a big favor. but he has been overall applauding him. and that makes you feel that it can't be about hillary clinton. fair assessment? >> absolutely. i mean, it wasn't just once. it was throughout the fall where candidate trump saluted comey about hillary clinton's behavior. and that was after he became president. that was in the oval office. so the idea -- and also just i think our viewers, i think people are sophisticated, does anyone really believe that donald trump was upset and angry that jim comey was too mean to hillary clinton? >> and huma abedine. last night people were spinning -- and this is not true, but for an deher sake it d be out there. jim comey grossly overstated how many e-mails she hads hassed along to her husband. but the idea that the trump administration cared about that and that is motivating this now when president trump's twitter is filled with his desire to oppose the russian investigat

the pushback against the account of the dinner and the other communications with jim comey. >> just tocomes not from comey himself, we have not heard from him since his firing. but it comes from people that heard about the dinner at the time like general clapper and others he spoke to afterwards. these are all people outside of the fbi that talked about it. they tell us the same thing. number one, he did not ask for the dinner, he was invited to the white house. who calls the white and says can i come over for dinner? and second, the president said can i have your loyalty? according to these people, comey said i can't pledge my loyalty, but my honest loyalty. >> this from those who know the way the president operated in business, he was very keen on loyalty. he has people sign nondisclosure statements, but the jim comey that people know is not one that would say three times, let me assure you, you not under investigation for a lot of reasons. >> we'll have to wait and hear about that. we heard from one, i assume we will hear from the other. i was struck when i went to the defense depar

>> well, that's one of the things we need to ask jim comey. ly be the case that acting director mccabe may or may not have been aware of the comey memos. but i'm going to trust -- again, i'm going to trust acting director mccabe until i can't trust him. so far he's been a straight shooter and he seemed to have steely determination that he and the men and women of the fbi are not going to be intimidated and follow the facts. >> general mccaster said everything the president told the russians was appropriate. how do you reconcile that with the fact that the white house is continuing to ask "the washington post" and others who have information about that classified source not to public everything that we know? >> to me, it seems very curious to say the least, that there's still attempts from this white house to rein in the press from publishing all the information that the president relayed to the russians. what makes it further outrageous is you have russian media in that meeting but not american media. and now you have vladamir putin in what is

backlash over president trump's firing of jim comey at town halls. r comey. >> my view right now is the fbi is still got some work to do in their investigation and both the senate and the house intelligence committee are still investigating. this isn't the first fbi director that was fired. bill clinton fired his too. >> yes or no? >> the answer is, no, not yet. >> jason carroll is out front live at that town hoall. pretty strong views. >> reporter: very angry people in this room tonight, erin. this congressman came here tonight expecting to talk about health care. you remember this is the same person who helped to craft that amendment to the bill, which would allow states to apply for the waiver to cover people with pre-existing conditions. he was ready to come here tonight to deal with that. after the president fired the fbi director, he immediately or very soon found out he was going to have to come here tonight and answer for this president. >> and now we have comey fired. if that isn't enough to convince you that the legislature cannot do this on

firing of jim comey and related issues like russia. one piece of news to show you about healthcare, specifically when it comes to major insurer and the decision they're making. this is aetna saying they're going to exit their a.c.a., the affordable care act program that they've been in. according to a spokesman, they'll not sell individual health plans next year in delaware and nebraska. the announcement came a week after the company said it would stop offering health plans in virginia in 2018, and a month later said it would leave iowa. the cascade of decisions represent a stark turnaround for the nation's third largest insurer, which initially entered 15 states' marketplace. the last time it decided to slash participation to just four, that was the largest by any health insurer of the healthcare law's marketplaces, which started in 2014 to provide coverage for people who cannot get affordable health benefits through their employers. mark, pennsylvania, republican line. you're next up. caller: good morning. i totally support what dona

what should happen now -- sally yates and now jim comey. general -- deputy -- he said i'm willing to appoint a special counsel whenever i determine it is appropriate. , senator clings ask, would you agree it is vital of ourassurance democracy and law enforcement system that any investigation into these matters be fair, free, and politically ?ndependent russian ma if there was ever a time circumstances warranted a special prosecutor, it is right now. the attorney general has already had to recuse himself from the investigation for being too close to the president. in mr. rosenstein is true to his word that he believes this investigation must be "fair, free, thorough and politically independent," if you believe the american people must be able to have faith in the impartiality of this investigation, he must appoint a special prosecutor and get his investigation out of the hands of the fbi and far away from the heavy hand of this administration. mr. rosenstein has the authority to appoint a special prosecutor right now. he needs no congression

i have a lot of respect for jim comey. i think he always seeks out the truth.d stabbed up to what appears to be pretty up believable white house pressure. >> would you ever considerÑi hiring jim comey to help in your investigation? your colleague senator blumenthal suggested it. >> angus king who is on the committee also suggested it. i would love to hire somebody of jim comey's merit and knowledge, particularly of complicated investigations. i'm not sure all the rest of the colleagues would agree, but if he'sing to take on that role i would work to try to cop vince my colleagues that we ought to use him. >> senator warner, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you, wolf. >> we've got more breaking news coming into "the situation room." we'll resume our special coverage right after this. hi guys. it's great to be here. in the desert. at the mall. on the mountain. at school. at the beach. in the big easy. yeah. yeah. today i want to show you guys the next-gen chevy equinox. what do you think? that's pretty. pretty sexy. it's all-wheel drive. look at that. it l

i love jim comey.an intimate event with the president and the president brings it up in an interview, and what does jim comey do? it's why he's not going to be the fbi director anymore. he's a political animal. he had to immediately start leaking about his end of the story paid we want something better than that in the fbi director. we don't want someone who is trying to weasel his way into every story part he always wants to be the eliot ness, and really he is the dirty leaker. >> the president issued a statement. he was very clear and precise. some of the stuff that's off the cuff. this is not off-the-cuff stuff. he is taking to what's factual. as long as he does that, i think in the grand scheme of things as this plays out, he is well served. >> eboni: i think there's a lot of unanswered questions around several things that president has done but on this one, i can't see him at this point in the game risking that much around general flynn. i just can't see it. >> eric: a key excerpt. "mr. comey was

apparently a kiss of death. >> that's a problem. >> but i'm wondering when we're going to hear from jim comey himself. it depends on where the investigation goes. >> it does and the appointment of robert mueller special council might throw a wrench into whether the public ends up hearing from james comey in testimony. he has been invited by the senate intelligence committee, by the house intelligence committee and the house oversight committee. but it's unclear whether the special council will have jurisdiction over comey and whether he can testify on the hill. >> but you do wonder with the relationship will he want comey to go clear his name. >> first. >> right. we'll see you in about 30 minutes. >> nice to he see you this morning. grab a cup of coffee and come back in a few. >> president trump is ready to renegotiate nafta. a 90 day consultation period. talks could begin as early as august. renegotiation took center stage during trump's campaign. the president blames it for killing american manufacturing. however nonpartisan research doesn't have the same conclusion. it hasn't had a huge im

being that the president freely admits now, yeah the reason he fired jim comey is, in fact, the russia investigation. >> we made the recommendation. regardless of recommendation, i was being to fire comey knowing there was no good time to do it and, in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made-up story. >> what did core fin say about that? i've we heard what i think is a phony narrative he did this to squelch the investigation into russia. io elbe there is any everyday of. that is the president saying that's why he did it. ha ha. ahem. so we will see who the white house puts forward to be the new director of the fbi. reportedly those positions will start tomorrow. they will start on saturday. those four interviewers will be with jeff sessions and rot rosenstein, those were the two people who at least on paper provided the pre textual explanations for why james comey had to be fired the pre textual information about hillary clinton's e-mails, that was undermined and trashed and denied by the president who in

jim comey has made many mistakes. i was critical of him for the way he handled the clinton e-mail investigation. he made mistakes in his testimony. but you still cannot fire the guy who is investigating your campaign for colluding with russia. that's knots something that's acceptable and normal in american politics. we have crossed a line here we have not seen since watergate. >> what do you say to that, jason miller? sure, democrats were upset. you point o that out now. >> not just upset. they wanted him fired. >> donald trump is now president of the united states. he digit fire director comey right when he came in. director comey is in charge of an investigation into the trump campaign. how can the president fire him right now? how can he fire the guy investigating him? >> absolutely. up mean, first of all like i said earlier, director comey should have been fired last year by president obama. but whoever replaces him will step inspect and continue the investigations until they reach their natural conclusion, which

but nobody ever offers when a good time would have been to fire jim comey. llary would've done it day one, but if donald trump does, that's retribution for not offering an indictment to loretta lynch when the email scandal happened. if he does it in march, that's when comey announced that there was an investigation. can't do it then. so when's a good time? >> tucker: i'm going to ask that in a minute when we talk to a member of congress. thanks for joining us tonight. we've got an alert for you tonight. the senate intelligence committee has subpoenaed former national security advisor general michael flynn for anyen documents related to the panels investigation into potential election meddling by russia. two heads of the committee, republican chairman richard burr and democratic vice chair mark warner of virginia said the documents were first requested back in april but flynn'sch attorney refused to cooperate voluntarily and that's why they subpoenaed him. we'll keep you updated on the story as it develops. every week, air traffic in this country reaches a new

the question though millions asking about jim comey's firing, is any of this normal? a reoccurring seg ment on "the point" here called normal or not. i'll dig into. that and also white house officials saying comey lost the confidence of the fbi's rank and file. that is part of why he is removed. well, here's the former director talking about those folks in an interview with the usa documentary "inside the fbi." >> i want people to seat fbi and know not just the work but its people for two reasons. first, i want to tract great folks to want to do this with their lives. the second is it's really important that the american people believe us and trust us and know that the extraordinary power they have given us, we're using it responsibly and good people are at the heart of using that authority. anything, text me. do you play? ♪ ♪ use the chase mobile app to send money in just a tap, to friends at more banks then ever before. you got next? chase. helping you master what's now and what's next. ...one of many pieces in my life. so when my asthma symptoms kept coming back on

edgar hoover. >> do you believe jim comey should resign, senator reid? >> of course, yes. >> i am not challenging mr. comey's motivation but i think it was unwarranted, it was a mistake and i think republican and democratic former justice department officials have come out and questioned the move he made. >> eboni: i can't hold it in. chuck schumer and nancy pelosi have got to be the two worst examples to put up there and talk about consistency and the issue of jim comey. let's just be very clear and let's remember correctly that until yesterday about 5:00 in the afternoon, nobody had any thing good, warm, or fuzzy to say about jim comey. i don't think anyone is particularly sad to see him go. i don't like it's fair or accurate to say it's just the left that has these concerns. jeff flake from arizona said, i've got a lot, i took the last several hours trying to figure out an acceptable rationale for the timing of comey's firing and i just can't do it. when he says that, and john mccain has said something similar. 12 g.o.p. senators. >> eric: talk about w

praising jim comey. >> i have to give the fbi credit. so bad what happened originally and it took guts for director comey to make the move that he made in light of the kind of opposition he had where they are trying to protect her from criminal prosecution. you know that. it took a lot of guts. i really disagreed with him. i was not his fan. but i tell you what, what he did, he brought back his reputation. he wrought brought it back. he has it hang tough. there's a lot of people want him to do the wrong thing. what he did was the right thing. >> he was referring, jeffrey toobin, to comey's announcement he was reopening at the very end of what evenly 11 days before the election the hillary clinton e-mail investigation based on those e-mails from huma abedin to her husband, anthony weiner. >> keep in mind, that what then candidate trump was describing in that speech is now a firing offense. in president trump's mind. i mean, could anyone believe that? it just ridiculous. it is not even barely credible that the candidate trump could be prais

>> next breaking news, the president's extensive interview, his first since firing fbi director jim comey. why comey lost his job unle raveling tonight. the white house saying his firing had nothing to do with russia. is the white house admitting that tonight? and the president's obsession with rosie o'donnell. good evening. i'm erin burnett. president trump speaking out now in his first television interviewer since firing jim comey 48 hours ago. since comey lost his job, the president and his staff have repeatedly changed their story as to why now, that all-important question. the president today contradicting himself, his staff, and his vice president. here is what trump is saying this evening in an interview with nbc's lester holt. >> when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made-up story. it's an excuse by the democrats for having last an election that they should have won and the reason she should have won it. the electoral college is almost impossible for a republican to win, very hard, because you start out with

he said over and over again during the campaign that jim comey was doing a good job investigating hillaryinton and now we learn today that he -- james comey was fired because he was too mean to hillary clinton. who believes that donald trump thinks that? so it can't be that. it's got to be -- there's got to be another reason and the only other possible reason is that because he was getting too close to trump himself or people around him in this russia investigation. >> a quick final thought, david? >> i think one of the things, i don't know how we're going to resolve this. i do think that the republicans are going to be looking for who is going to stand up and go where the facts go regardless of partisanship? it will do wonders for the republican party and to replace trust. wherever it leads, donald trump may be totally innocent. that's fine. let's make sure we know that. >> all right. thanks one and all. with all these comparisons to richard nixon's saturday night massacre and water gate, whether or not you buy them here's a saturday night trivia for you. during the saturday night massac

remember jim comey works for the department of justice. that is attorney general sessions who evidently was there in the meeting before he was removed for the private session between comey and the president. if you walk out of that meeting and you're jim comey, first thing presumably the attorney general says with sb what happened. question for press offices going into the white house is i want to hear what attorney general says. i've got to believe he believes something. >> is it regular practice for him to write memos contemporaneously. >> i saw this happen all across washington. especially at the white house you document it. jim comey might have done this more religiously than others. diit at the cia when i went to a white house meeting. these are called mfrs, memoranda for the record. if there is a significant decision you want contemporaneous account because you will forget what happen had over months p thp is common across washington. he is not the only one who does this. >> stand by, i want to bring? susan hennessey. susan, new york

senator warner: i trusted jim comey. i echo with the chairman said in terms of his willingness to work with the committee. i thought he had made some mistakes last fall but i never called for his resignation. i thought he was a straight shooter. frankly, i'm offended at the president's comments today. ofs is a continued pattern disrespecting the men and women who serve in our intelligence community. i think the president would be theer served supporting intelligence community rather repeatedlyion -- calling into question the leader's integrity. senator burr: thank you. we have a very busy day. announcer: a live briefing. the chair and rigging member of the intelligence committee is meeting today. rebel against senator richard burr, mark worn -- the firing tuesday of fbi director james comey and the new attorney general ron rosenstein as the investigation goes forward. we take you now to the intelligence hearing from earlier. you can find the hearings in their entirety online on our website anytime at cspan.org. >> causes

i don't think there's any question jim comey coming out with that letter. everyone thought this must mean they uncovered something else and turns out they hadn't and jim comey was, as david noted, tried to cover for the fbi looking political, but there were lots of other things that they did not do. they really -- the message was essentially i'm running against this guy, and they thought that that would be enough because they believed donald trump had disqualified himself with nil number of controversial misogynistic, a number of things he had said about women and about other groups. the american public wanted change so badly, look at the exit polls, wanted change so badly they were willing to overlook all those things. the fundamental strategic mistake that the clinton campaign made and why they ultimately wound up losing. >> and without having set up her e-mail and server while she did as secretary of state there would have been no jim comey problem. >> just to add to brianna's point, if she had handled it better, even after she set it it up, mistake to s

i like jim comey.w that there are people who are on both sides of the aisle concerned about decisions he made. i think he was put into an impossible position. with me now caroline polisi, an attorney, and former homeland security director at the policy institute. that's a long title, michael. peter vineart, contributing editor for the atlantic and joe is a new york city councilman. i have no title, thank god. michael, let's talk about jim comey. paul ryan does not agree with the decision that jim comey is a nut job. i don't think this man would agree with it either, he's a friend of jim comey and he spoke to anderson cooper and this is what a friend of jim comey said to anderson and what he is thinking about as he prepares to testify publicly. listen to this. >> i thought it was interesting and very telling that he declined an opportunity to tell his story in private. he clearly wants to do it in a public setting, and i -- >> he was set to testify in private and he said no so now it will be public. >>

you haven't heard from jim comey.ot saying that the reporting is wrong, but it is just reporting. may too premature to even call it evidence at this point. >> that's why i say it is evidence, not proof. second, the request for pledge for a loyalty. >> again, something we don't know for sure yet. >> again, there has been very credible reporting of it, and it's been corroborated. when we talk about these memos, hopefully we will see these memos. >> why haven't you yet? >> because we're just learning of them and also they may be evidence in a criminal investigation. we need to be respectful of the special prosecutor now. i think we have a continuing oversight responsibility. rosenstein should come to tell the american people everything he said in that meeting yesterday and there is virtually nothing he told us that he couldn't tell the american people. nothing classified, nothing that couldn't be made public. and second i want to see jim comey testify before the judiciary committee. while i think he is a man of principal

and now for those exact reasons, he claims that that's why jim comey has to be fired. it's not believable. it simply couldn't happen. >> i want to bring in the rest of our panel, gloria borger -- >> what he said. >> is this as strange as jeffry -- >> i think it is, i think it's bizarre and it's an earthquake and i think that, you know, ron rosenstein may well believe everything he wrote in this memo, because a lot of people believe it, that comey misbehaved during the clinton investigation of the emails, that he shouldn't have had that press conference on july 5, that he shouldn't have made that announcement on october 28, that set the election upside down. but then i was listening to someone who was giving me the spin from the white house on this, basically saying that this is the deputy attorney general's recommendation and the attorney general's recommendation and they sent it to the president and by gosh, the president approved it. you have to ask why now? >> we have joining us on the phone is the democratic congressman adam schiff, the ranking member of the house

literally embraced jim comey. put his arm around him and kissed him. >> air kiss. >> this is somebody who now quickly later is just dismisses him and you're working for donald trump? i mean, if i was there, i'd be saying, oh, my god, when is it going to be my turn to be dismissed and just loony crazy, therefore, gone? >> mike, you worked for three republicans i can think of. george w. bush, john mccain and chris christie who all had epic crises of their own. you were in the middle of all of them. what is happening inside this white house right now? they're aboard air force one. benefit of perfect telecommunications although they have a lot, they have cable tv up there. how do you think they're managing the response? which story do you think is more perilous for them? >> i think the person of interest story is not surprising. i mean, there's an investigation going on. it's been going on to the campaign, people from the campaign moving to the white house. i don't think is surprising. it doesn't make it any easier. >

what about for certain members of congress or people saying if jim comey felt this way and he was taking these notes and the alarm bells, why didn't he go straight to capitol hill or to the doj? >>. >> the course close to comey told me there are more memos. it's not just one after this meeting on february 14th. there are other memos in which he specifically wrote them when he had a meeting with congress that made him uneasy. i asked him that question. and the answer was because, quote, it wasn't a very successful effort by the president and comey thought he had pushed back on it. he was very sensitive to how difficult this was going to be to work with this president. he also thought he could do it. and you and i have spoke about this before. james comey, the former fbi director, former deputy attorney general in the bush administration, is somebody -- and i'm not saying th this snearingly. i'm sure that he thought, okay, i pushed back on that and i remain the best person for this job. i will be able to push back on this and still make sure that there is a fair investigation and that just

which he cites out of context supporting statements from people like eric holder who did criticize jim comeyclinton matter for breaking protocol. but not calling for him to be fired. >> yeah. i think we ought to stand up for comey here. you heard the comments by the vice president saying the american people have lost faith in him and somehow he was misleading the fbi down the wrong path. look, this is a guy, jim comey, who has been a career public servant, a career prosecutor. remember in 2004, he stood by the bedside of attorney general john ashcroft and they pushed back on the bush warrantless wiretapping program, refusing to sign that, forcing alberto gonzales to sign it on balf of president bush. comey appointed a special prosecutor in the valerie plame case. this white house was concerned about that couldn't control him. this shows how important the congressional investigations now become. because although the fbi investigation normally has more resources than a congressional investigation, the white house can starve the fbi investigation of resources of capacity and their congressional

she blamed the fbi, jim comey's decision. also blaming vladamir putin, the russian hacking, wikileaks, and a lot of criticism that she's not taking personal responsibility, though she said she was. but not acknowledging the mistakes that were made and not going to a number of blue states that turned red, wisconsin, not campaigning activity enough in michigan, not connecting with voters in pennsylvania. >> p. williams, we saw at times a very passionate fbi director defending his decision today. we also heard anthony weiner's name come up. rudy giuliani's name come up and we learned a fair amount of wikileaks being an important focus of their investigation. >> so in order, we learned a little bit more about why these e-mails from hillary clinton ended up on the laptop of congressman anthony weiner, which the fbi was looking into because of allegations that he was texting underaged people improperly. it was disclosed that huma abedin, a top aide to hillary clinton, was forwarding e-mails to her husband's computer so that they co

what president trump told the russians in the oval office about jim comey. matt rosen berg is out front front. matt, i told the russian -- the u.s. intelligence -- i just fired the head of the fbi, a real nut job. i faced great pressure because of russia. that's taken off. now, just to be clear, right, this is a quotation. this isn't a paraphrase. this is a quotedation. >> yeah. that's what we're -- that's what was in the notes. we were read portions of the summary. there's a note taker. they write a summary which is circulated to people in the white house, department of defense and obviously, the cia. that's what was in the notes was that quote. this is trump telling the russians, you know, that he just fired and bragging almost, boasting about firing the head of the fbi who obviously runs all our counterintelligence against the russians. it's a pretty remarkable statement. >> it is remarkable. you also know a little more about what he said, right? >> yeah. and we're going to have an update on line soon. he joked with ambassador kislyak, i'm the only guy wh

> chris cillizza, thank you very much for that. >>> coming up next, it's now been ten days since jim comeystill radio silence from the former fbi director. but friends of his are starting to speak out. what a confidant says about the former relationship between the president and why james comey was disgusted. total wireless. she gets the largest most dependable 4g lte network... ...and 5gigs of high speed data for $35 a month. make it rain, beth. total wireless. available at walmart. you need one of these. you wouldn't put up with an umbrella that covers you part way, so when it comes to pain relievers, why put up with just part of a day? aleve, live whole not part. tell you what, i'll give it to you for half off. hi..and i know that we have phonaccident forgiveness.gent, so the incredibly minor accident that i had tonight- four weeks without the car. okay, yup. good night. with accident forgiveness your rates won't go up just because of an accident. switching to allstate is worth it. >>> he has been fired now for ten days and americans still haven't heard from the fbi director james comey