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

first of all, you know, to say that the fbi can be, that the rest of the fbi can continue to function is a debatable proposition, but that doesn't answer the question of why they fired jim comey in the first place. i think it is not at all clear, that this investigation will continue. the person who will be -- who will be supervising the fbi, henceforth, will be a donald trump appointee, and it may be chris christie, it may be rudy giuliani, it will be somebody who's loyal to donald trump that's how he appoints people. so the idea that the fbi is just going to be fine, because they're fine agents, there's little basis to support that. and it doesn't address the question of why james comey was fired in the first place. and he was fired because he was investigating the white house. and that is an unacceptable -- that is an unacceptable rationale, to fire the head of the fbi, and no -- and no confidence in the fbi. >> but there are plenty of democrats who have been calling for james comey, who say they don't have confidence in james comey, they are not -- even some of those democrats now

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

but something that had even the head of the fbi. who blindsided him. i don't think he was expecting any of this to happen, certainly the rank-and-file of the fbi not expecting this to happen. i was told that all of this happened very recently as well. when you look at this, and this doesn't have anything to do with anything recent except maybe the testimony that james, gave recently before congress, but this goes all the way back to july face of the last year when he gave that now famous press conference in which he cited all the things that hillary clinton did wrong in terms of the stewardship of her email, which he should have done and on the fact that he said she didn't think that she -- he didn't think that she didn't deserve prosecution. let me read a little bit from a letter from rod rosenstein who is the newly minted deputy attorney general over there the department of justice who said that i cannot defend the directors handling them, the conclusion of the investigation and secretary clinton's emails and i do not understand his refusal to accept

for right now the fbi is stunned. there was a conference call tonight with all these special agents in charge. the executives have been meeting. i can guarantee you that at the last several hours, nothing has been happening on the russia investigation because everybody is just stunned by what has happened here. it's going to take a while for the engine to get back up to speed. i mean, the investigation will still go on. the agents that have their tasking will still do it. the extent to which court processes use to gather evidence, that will all go on. and it's not going to stop. but i think in the short term it will delay it a little bit and then, of course, the political questions about whether whatever it concludes now will have a cloud over it. >> pete, if there is a grand jury that has been impanelled in this investigation, is that something that is now given -- with the grand jury underway, is that beyond the reach of interference from above. >> grand jurys are used at early stage in an investigation, mainly to ga

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

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

the files are being sealed in the fbi and protected. but also the investigations of the two committees. it seems to me you're going to have questions for how this all came about. >> right. we'll be back in session next week and hopefully the judiciary committee who oversees the fbi on the day to day basis will be able to bring before our committee jeff sessions and other members who are involved in this decision to understand just what is the status of the investigation into the president's team because the last thing we want to see is for this investigation to be buried. so it must go on. again, it's in the president's interest, chris, if these are all mere coincidences as far as his prior ties to russia, that he is cleared. and this just made it a lot harder for us to get to the bottom of what happened. >> all right. congressman eric swalwell, thank you for joining me. i'm joined by phillip rucker, white house bureau chief for "the washington post." the big question, why now? why now? why now? >> chris, good to be here. we don't have a

and the attorney general to ask for the termination, to support the termination of the director of the fbi was simply the right decision. we go forward with confidence that the president, as he has done so many times in this administration, he will select that individual who will be able to lead that agency and the outstanding men and women of the fbi back to a place where that agency can enjoy the confidence of the american people. >> [indiscernible] >> as you know very clearly, as has been stated repeatedly in the president has been told, he is not under investigation. as former director clapper said there is no evidence of collusion between our campaign and any russian officials. let me be clear with you. that was not what this is about. that is not what this is about. the president took strong and decisive leadership here to put the safety and security of the american people first by accepting the recommendation of the deputy attorney general to remove director comey as head of the fbi. the american people have to have confidence in the federal bureau of investigation. because of the a

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

there is a day-to-day person at the fbi in charge of that. it's being led by the counterintelligence division at the fbi, and that will go on. so nothing there will change even though james comey will be gone. so we'll have to wait and see whether he shows up in a couple more hours out in that event in l.a., chris. >> that would be truly astounding. pete williams, thank you for your time tonight. joining me now by tophone, new york times reporter michael schmidt. i want you to tell us your reporting, what it indicates about where this emanated from. was it the fact that rod rosenstein made this determination and passed it up the chain? >> well, first comey will not speak tonight at that diversity thing. the real question is how comey is going to get home. he's out in los angeles with the fbi plane, and he's no longer the fbi director. so will he have the ability to use the plane to fly home? my guess is that will probably happen, but that's sort of the question right now. you know, he didn't know this was coming as pete williams pointed out. y

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

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

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

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

to say that the fbi can be -- the rest of the fbi can continue to function is a debatable possibility. i think it is not at all clear that this investigation will continue. the person who will be supervising the fbi will be a donald trump apoepointee and it may be chris christie. it will be someone loyal to donald trump. that's how he apoints people. and so the idea that the feb is going to be fine because they're fine agents is -- there is little basis to support that and it doesn't address the question of why james comey was fired in the first place. and he was fired because he was investigating the white house. and that is an unacceptable -- that is an unacceptable rationale fire the head of the fbi and no confidence in the fbi can overcome that. for >> there were those that say they don't have confidence in com comey. there were plenty of democrats who said i have no trust in comey. >> and there was never wub republican and surcertainly not candidate or president trump that said anything like james comey should by fired how can it be the whole republican party changed overnight be

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

not just to the fbi but well beyond. and honestly, as between really bad and catastrophic, i said to my team, we got to walk into the world of really bad. i've got to tell congress that we're restarting this, in a hugely significant way. and the team told me we cannot finish this work before the election. enthen they worked night after night and they found thousands of new e-mails, they found classified information on anthony weiner. somehow her e-mails are being forwarded to anthony weiner, including classified information by her as is tant wu h assistan. they called me and said thanks to the wasrdry of our technology, we've only had to personally read 6,000. we think we can finish tomorrow morning. and i met with them, they said we found a lot of new stuff. we did not find anything that changes our view of her intent. we're in the same place as we were in july. i asked them lots of questions. i said okay if that's where you are, then i also have to tell congress that we're done. look this was terrible. it makes me mildl

director is now the head of the fbi. he's now under investigation. >> on capitol hill comey's firing was met with shock across the political spectrum. republicans expressing a range of concerns but then focused on the timing of the dismissal months into trump's term and a year after comey's news conference on the clinton's e-mail. senator corker one of six senators critical of the timing. said this the removal will raise questions. >> senator flake said i spent the last several hours to find an acceptable rationale for comey's firing. john mccain said he's disappointed in the president's decision. marks a rare break with mccain from lindsey graham. lindsey graham voiced support for the firing of comey. >> on the other side of the aisle, democrats calling for a special prosecutor. senate minority leader, chuck schumer. >> this investigation must be run as far away as possible from this white house and as far away as possible from anyone that president trump has appointed. >> president trump ready to fire right back on twit

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

finally, on the acting fbi director andrew mccabe. the president will be meeting with him to deal with this issue of morale. over the last 24 hours i have been working with my colleague, senior executive producer pamela brown, and we talked to a dozen current and former fbi agents. they told us that the decision really was blind siding, that it was a body blow and there was such confusion when it happened, that there was deep concern that the fbi director might not be able to get on to a government plane and fly back from los angeles to the washington, d.c. area. they also indicate to us that they see mccabe as a seat warmer, a place holder. that he may not even be in this job past this week because the justice department is actively looking for an interim chief and that mccabe is in this position because he's the next in line. the criticism of mccabe is two-fold. first and foremost, that his wife in 2015 took $700,000 from democrats for a state senate race, including a major contribution from a pack that's controlled by a clinton ally

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

i'm told the acting fbi director, mr. in oig, he is very familiar with the investigations going on there, the bureau is a big place. susan collins had it right last night when she said the director was fired, not the entire fbi. there are many capable men and women there. mccabe's wife ran for political office as a democrat. the idea that we don't have other respected men and women who are not seen as part is an or not seen as impaired or impartial -- or not seen as partial and politicized is wrorng. it's a huge place and there are many people involved. and as recently as yesterday, he had a prominent democrat saying he sees no evidence of russian collusion. where is that in the reporting? >> say that again. what happened yesterday? >> you've got democrats saying that they don't see any evidence of russia collusion. >> i get the talking point, but let's being very -- >> it's not a talking point. it's a seven month distraction. >> that's what you want it to be. i get that. >> no, you want to be real. >> what i want is the t

head of the fbi in the middle of that fbi investigation, specifically because he said he was unhappy with that investigation, now that we have crossed that previously unthinkable rube con as a country, you know the world didn't end. we still got to do stuff. we still have to figure out how to make the most of what we've got in terms of our democracy and the rule of law. so now in the wake of the fbi director's firing, we don't know, but there's obviously widespread national concern about what's going to happen to those fbi vesksz. locktime observers of the fbi, former fbi agents f new act director. fbi who was the former deputy to james comey, they all say that the trump russia investigations at the fbi will continue. they can't be stopped, nothing can stop or slow down those investigators, nothing can intimate them out of doing their work. and that sounds awesome as a pep talk because, of course, we don't know that for sure. we've never been in this position before. we don't know what's going to happen to those investigations. late tonight, the news crossed that there

doesn't matter who is running the fbi. the people who are at the fbi, the public servants are looking into this. even some republicans are agreeing with democrats that the timing of all of this looks bat. justin amash, the republican of michigan, is joining elijah cummings in calling for an independent commission to be struck to look into this and take it out of the hands of the fbi. >> shepard: thanks, john. the head of the fbi is looking at this and directly going against the white house and his team. the investigation into russian meddling next. ♪ fun in art class. come close, come close. i like that. [ music stops suddenly ] ah. when your pain reliever stops working, your whole day stops. awww. try this. for minor arthritis pain, only aleve can stop pain for up to 12 straight hours with just one pill. thank you. ♪ come on everybody. you can't quit, neither should your pain reliever. stay all day strong with 12 hour aleve. >> shepard: the new acting director of the fbi shot down today some of the claims from the white ho

the man is the head of the fbi. u do not give him that much respect to bring him into the office and let him know? and then the letter trump wrote him, thank you for giving me the heads up on the investigation they were going to do, and then all of a sudden they fire him on the. -- on the spot. host: here is what we know about the details of the firing and when james comey found out, some of the details reported in politico. president trump wade firing his ghed firingr -- wei his fbi director for at least a week. when he finally pulled the trigger tuesday afternoon he didn't call james comey. he sent his longtime private security guard to deliver a letter. comey had flown on an fbi plane to los angeles for a recruiting event. securityong time officer delivered the letter to fbi headquarters. for they in politico details that came out yesterday after this announcement. we are hearing your reaction. the phone lines are opened as usual. i also want to show you some of the reaction on capitol hill, starting with senate m

the fbi director reports to the attorney general. he was confirmed by the senate on april 252 weeks ago by a vote of 94-6 ls earned bipartisan support and served as the u.s. attorney under president obama. he has been around the department of justice has been mentioned for 30 years. lou: the longest-serving u.s. attorney. >> he made a determination that the fbi director lost his confidence made a recommendation to the attorney general and the attorney general concurred with that and forwarded the letter to the president and terminated the attorney general, the fbi director's position at the fbi. lou: he was restoring public confidence in the fbi. the first requisite was the firing of james comey to reach that goal. the second will be what? is there a readily available candidate in the opinion of the president to replace comey? >> by default the deputy director becomes the acting director. the president as he said in the letter tonight began the serving process and that was offered immediately. the goal is to act on the recommendation

it's outside the way the fbi deals with that. if you look at all of the letters that were put out by the trump administration tonight, they make the clay case that is tough to read all that and go back to trump praising comey about how he handled the email investigation. and that he was a welcomed member of the investigation. it's worth pointing out that at at 109 days, you have a president who has hired his national security advisor, essentially moved out and fired the acting attorney general for failing to move forward on an executive order and has now fired the fbi director in addition to firing 46 u.s. attorneys. all of those things are illegal and can happen. it's his discretion. it's just a lot in 109 days. >> may be that is what training the swamp means. kimberly, what do you think? >> just in question in terms of process but i think you bring up a good point, bret. he did need to get this investigation -- the results found by rosenstein -- otherwise people would have questioned, why did it happen before? unless you have th

would the fbi director, or someone who should be the fbi director. >> or used to be the fbi director -- >> ever had a conversation like that with the president of the united states and assured him he was not under investigation yektly. >> there are guide lines in how investigations are to be handled with respect to the rest of the executive branch. those guidelines certainly do not allow the fbi director to go to the president and say you're clear. so i don't know what the president was basing that paragraph in his letter on, but if director comey said it, he would have been violating all sorts of norms and procedures in terms of how the fbi and the executive branch are to function. >> he should be fired if he actually said that. >> i think director comey deserves the right to have his own explanation of what that paragraph refers to, if it refers to anything at all. >> i think it's crucial that he does. because by the way, he could answer whether he said that without saying the president is or is not -- there are ways you can wordsmith to say they talked about it three specific times

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

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

the president fired the fbi director. it's simple. no, it's not simple, because that's the man that's overseeing the investigation into his campaign's ties with russia. >> thank you! >> it's totally complicated. what we have here now, brooke, is a white house in a crisis of credibility. and it is unbelievable to watch sarah huckabee sanders, for now the third day in a row, needing to adjust her story because the president did not send his team out with all the information, so therefore, they were in the position of lying to the american people about why president trump fired director comey. the entire justification on tuesday night when this happened, from sarah, from sean spicer, from kellyanne conway, was about rod rosenstein's letter. that was it. today, in the interview with nbc news, we learned that president trump, regardless of whatever the recommendation came from the deputy ag, was going to fire jim comey. so we were lied to by the communications staff. president trump in that interview today threw his own team under the bus a

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

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

also, the firing of an fbi director has only happened once before in the bureau's history. so which fbi director suffered the same fate and why? wheat will be live with that. meta appetite control... it's your glass of willpower that helps keep cravings... ...far, far away. feel less hungry with the natural fiber in clinically... ...proven meta appetite control. from metamucil. >> jenna: fox news fox news overcome let's go live to the white house as we await the daily briefing where the firing of fbi director james comey is certainly on everyone's mind and a whole host of other questions as well so we will be talking about that but the firing is historical as well because it only happened once in our history before this. our chief national correspondent ed henry is live in washington with the details. >> good to see you, it's not unprecedented but extremely rare because fbi directors have a 10-year term in office to try to insulate them from politics, did not work this time for the only other time it happened was 24 years ago, then-president boca did fired his fbi director w

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

the matters are directly relevant to the fbi. it comes to illicit russian money, in particular, its potential to be laundered on its way to the united states, what should the committee be most concerned about? we hear stories about deutsche bank, bank of cypress, shell companies, the british virgin islands. i'd like to get your sense -- because i'm over my time, director mccabe, what should we be concerned about with illicit russian monies and its potential to be laundered on its way to the united states? >> i'm not in a position to speak about specific investigations and certainly not in this setting. however, those are issues that concern us greatly. they have traditionally and they do more so today as it becomes easier to conceal the origin and the track and the destination and purpose of illicit money flows, as the exchange of information becomes more clouded and encryption and more obtuse, it becomes harder and harder to get to the bottom of those investigations. that should shed light on those issues. >> thank you, mr. chai

i search the fbi's data bases. that search necessarily will also touch the information that was collected under 702. so that we don't miss a dot, but nobody gets access to the information that sits in the 70 it data base unless they've been trained correctly. if there is -- let's imagine that terrorists overseas were talking about a suspect in the united states, or someone's e-mail address in the united states was in touch with that terrorist. and that information sits in the 702 data base. we open the case in the united states, and put in that name and that e-mail address, it will touch that data and tell us there's information in the 702 data base that'srelevant. if the agent doing the query is properly trained on how to handle that, he or she will be able to see that information. if they are not properly trained, they will be alerted there is information. then they have to get the appropriate training and oversight to be able to see it. but to do it otherwise is to risk us where it matters most, in the united sta

at the fbi field office in los angeles. the news flashing on the tv screen around the same time people got either a phone call or an e-mail or a text telling them the news in the room. he was not told about it in person. in a letter announcing the firing, the president exonerated himself. and in a letter from the justice department, comey's firing was blamed on his mishandling of the hillary clinton e-mail investigation. you'll recall trump, the candidate, praised the fbi director back then and embraced him after taking office. the white house was caught off guard by the police backlash from this. but with some democrats in congress saying, we are now in a constitutional crisis, tonight the democratic leader in the senate, as you heard mentioned, chuck schumer of new york is now demanding an independent prosecutor be named. >> if deputy attorney general rosenstein does not appoint an independent special prosecutor, every american will rightly suspect that the decision to fire director comey was part of a cover-up. >> as we m

the president has the right to fire the fbi director. he serves at will to the president. as jim comey, in his own letter said, i believe that a president can fire an fbi director and he doesn't really even need to have a reason. he made up his mind. he did what he did. the investigation, if nothing else, it goes on. in some ways it may heat up. all of these people are gonna bend over backwards to make it very clear that none of this has impacted their job. >> maria: yet it's frustrating to constantly hear no evidence of collusion. it's almost like is this a waste and distraction? what do you think in terms of this situation distracting congress as well as the president from the agenda? we know the people want healthcare repealed and replaced. we know tax form is necessary. >> they need to just keep this going on its own track. the only names that have ever been discussed are michael flynn, who's been subpoenaed. we'll see what happens with that. carter page said they are happy to discuss this and happy to get their testimony. let that track be what it is. let it continue.

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

director of the fbi in the middle of an investigation by the fbi of the president's own campaign and the attorney general has participated in this firing even though he also worked for the trump campaign and he lied to the senate in his own confirmation hearing about his contacts with the russians. this russia thing is going on and on. it is a very serious problem. and this is a lot worse than watergate. watergate was a third-rate burglary by a bunch of burglars that didn't know what they were doing. it didn't involve the russians. didn't involve a threat to our country except for the way the president nixon handled it. but president trump's wave hamging this situation with russia and the russian espionage and the collaboration, whatever collaborated with the russians it is a very, very bad situation at this point. i have urged that the house judiciary committee needs to have a hearing and start the process of thinking about whether or not the pre has abused his power and whether he is fit for office. >> ari melber i'm tempted to say well, if you put it that way, it sounds like what

who runs the fbi? who's the appointee there? is it somebody you're going to look at and say this is somebody sent to to do trump's bidding, would that person win senate kwirp confirmation, or does he send someone in who continues the investigation. >> and here you have sean spicer on record saying they want an investigation. they want to get to the bottom of this. they want to be thorough. so the president has put himself in a political box here. and to steve's point, who does he appoint to the fbi? you would make the argument that it has to be someone on the straight and narrow, it has to be someone that's objective and it has to be someone that wants to get to the bottom of this. >> well, we know rudy giuliani paid a visit to the white house last night. jeremy, this only gets stranger in that today, ofll days, president trump is meeting with russian foreign minister, sergey lavrov. our own andrea mitchell in there as always tried to ask him about all this. i want to share that moment. >> is the comey firing casting a shadow ov

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