it's not occasional event at the fbi. i don't think i have ever heard of this, wolf. >> have you heard of a president of the united states attacking the deputy director of the fbi? >> no. to say from the white house perspective they had no influence on the departure of the deputy director is disingeneral would you say. if you are in his shoes, what if the president said for a career civil servant, i understand your wife stepped out and ran for office. any american has that right. i support your role as deputy director. the president could have had a role ensuring andy had a future in the government. the president pushed him out. would dwrou that to a u.s. general or fbi agent? i don't like it. it smells bad. >> you have been doing a lot of reporting on this as well. what are you hearing? >> we are sort of trying to put the jigsaw pieces together. "the new york times" is reporting that there was some hints about the inspector general report containing something that the fbi director, chris wray didn't like and told mccabe a

in the fbi as one of the toughest and best fbi agents there. but by his republican critics who have read a lot of the text exchanges between him and a woman he was in a relationship with, he's become a very polarizing figure. peter struck. what's the significant of peter struck being the person who conducted the interview with mike flynn as you report in your story today? >> well, one interesting thing about it is you have these two figures who played a role in this particular day one year ago. you have andrew mccabe and peter struck. and fast forward a year later and they are both individuals who are under attack from the president and from republicans in congress to some extent, particularly peter struck. so, you know, you could see how that would fuel the perception that this is somehow an investigation that is politically motivated or unfair. and so the fact that the -- those two individuals were there from the start and this significant moment, and are now in the crosshairs currently a year later, we don't know how potentially significant t

it was reported that he would retire from the fbi. he may the number of years in that would allow him to retire soon. he's 49 years old, though, not a time when people typically retire. "the new york times" reported in late december that mccabe was going to retire early this year. axios is reporting mccabe is still there and the fbi director is threatening to quit if mccabe is removed. i should also mention, that mccabe and jim baker, the fbi counsel who sessions apparently has been pressuring the fbi to remove both of them, those were two of the people who james comey confided in when he had conversations with the president that were later described as likely forming the basis of an obstruction of justice case against the president if robert mueller goes in that direction with his special counsel investigation. we've been watching them one by one go after the people comey confided in after he had the conversations with the president to discredit them and get them fired from the fbi would be a way to undermine the credibility of those

to the fbi. public safety, national security i think the whole thing is unfortunate. i think i'm not alone in that conclusion. >> it's interesting. as you say, they're essentially opening pandora's box. it could be yielded by both parties. i wonder because cnn has also learned that president trump asked the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein where the russia investigation was headed. how is it going. and he also asked rosenstein if he was on the president's team. explain why that's not -- >> people talk about being on teams f you're appoint bid the president, in some way, you're on the team. you're on team america, team law enforcement, team public safety. the problem with what is being reported about what the president said there is the tenth or 11th or 12th time you have evidence that the president of the united states, who is supposed to be at arms length with law enforcement, allowing them to do their job independently, without fear of favor, without partisanship and treating everyone equa

the director of the fbi, there is a suspicion there that the new director of the fbi would like to get his team in place. that's totally understandable. >> it is understandable to have team people and team players. they are career people. the purpose of having career-level investigators is you want a continuation across presidential administration, you want the continuation, you want the pipeline of information and into some knowledge. working with fbi agents, i don't want to reduce mccabe's decision to one that has delicate abilities. the key motivation for him wanting to retire was simply because he couldn't take it anymore. there is probably other reasons behind that, but i do think this would have much more weight in the court of public opinion than it would for mueller's investigation given that the nunez memo may be surfacing soon. i'm sure it will be used as fodder to suggest that there was some nefarious reason to expedite his terms of retirement. if the cost reporting is accurate, the mutual decision will play in kind of a way that won't impact much of mueller's investigation

of course, the president nominated chris ray to be fbi director this past summer, after he fired the previous fbi director james comey. james comey testified to congress he was fired after he refused to let go of the fbi investigation into the president's national security advisor mike flynn. but this reporting tonight about the pressure being applied by administration to james comey's successor chris ray, this is new. we've known that republicans in congress have for a long time wanted to get rid of the number two, they wanted to get rid of mccabe and attacked him as compromised and the fbi investigation of hillary clinton and e-mails, they think he's compromised in part because his wife ran for office in virginia as a democrat. republicans have kept on attacking him month after month despite the fbi recently releasing records that showed that in fact, the fbi did not believe he had any conflict of interest in the clinton investigation and handled all matters with the clinton e-mail investigation and his wife's candidacy. he handled them within fbi ethics guidelines. we knew about th

the fbi and the department of justice. every member of congress now who has read the classified intelligence memorandum detailing fisa surveillance abuse seem deeply disturbed to say the least. our next guest is calling for the release of the classified documents and demanding a purge of officials at the politically corrupt fbi and doj. joining us tonight is republican florida congressman francis rooney. vice chairman of the foreign affairs committee. congressman, good to have you with us, first of all. this is now reaching a level that i don't think many anticipated. and that is two institutions that are at the foundation of the special counsel are obviously corrupt and working against the public interest. >> well, first, lou thank you for having me on. i really appreciate it. no one would have foreseen the depth of the rot that you're talking about. who could have thought such behave yoor would be conducted right inside the doj and the fbi. that's why the memos need to be released to let the american people see what's ha

the fbi in respect general is looking into it. late today the bureau director hinted the upcoming report playpla played a role in mccabe's departu departure. right now the only thing in the open is open suspicion of the man. there were tweets. how many days until mccabe's benefits vest. and the report the president met with mccabe at the white house and asked him who he voted for in the last election. the president denies doing that. the president has also taken aim at rod rosenstein and considered firing him as well. he's publicly attacked special counsel mueller and ordered him fired and then backed down after the white house councsel refuse to do it. he has spoken out against the attorney general for recusing himself from the russia probe. >> i am disappointed in the attorney general. he should not have recused himself almost immediately after he took office, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me prior to taking office, and i would have micked somebody else. >>> bear in mind the attorney general is one of

campaign against the fbi. why some republicans are circling the wagons with conspiracy theories. >> when struck and page described the secret society, that doesn't surprise me. >> and why did he wait two days to tell investigators. >> and one the most interesting man in politics might be about to prove our point again. this is "mtp daily" and it starts right now. ♪ ♪ >>> good evening. i'm chuck todd here in washington. welcome to "mtp daily." trump won the popular vote. obama was born in kenya. ted ted cruz's father was involved in the kennedy assassination and the nod is state. you are called a conspiracy theorist or the president of the united states. the president attempt to destroy the fbi credibility on the russia probe and the elected republicans who appear to be helping him do it and frankly in some cases you would think know better. mr. trump fired the fbi director last year after allegedly asking him to pledge his loyalty. and as the wash post now reports, that he then quickly summoned the fbi acting d

intelligence committee to the fbi. begin an investigation as to whether classified information had been mishandled. a request to get mccabe's text messages because they believe there was contact between mccabe and agents of the bureau at that time telling them basically to back off, not to do anything until you return from overseas and that matters because there's been so much discussion about whether mccabe should have recused himself from the clinton email case, he went to the ethics people inside the fbi, they felt the donations to his wife by the democrats, was not sufficient for him to remove himself but as we've seen in the most recent text messages between strzok and page, director comey's chief of staff felt differently and mccabe ultimately recused himself from the clinton email case, just one week before the election. it was a recusal in name only, really. >> harris: catherine herridge, thank you very much, we appreciate you taking questions and digging deeper. interesting maybe now to get a democrats perspec

the fbi inspector general is looking into it. late today the staff general hinting today that the report played a role in mccabe's departure. for now, the only thing out in the open is the president's antipathy of the man. tweets how many days until mccabe's benefits. a washington post report. the president denies doing that. the president has also taken aim publicly and in private of deputy attorney general rod rosenstein and threatening to fire him as well. the president has loudly and publicly spoken out against his own attorney general for recusing himself from the ruche probe. >> i am disappointed in the attorney general. he should not have recused himself. almost immediately after he took office. and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me prior to taking office and i would have quite simply pick somebody else. >> bear in mind the attorney general is one of the president's original supporters and it goes without saying he is a republican as is others. as are a large number of fbi special agents and top bras

ron, your view on the fbi story? >> look, i think there are four big pieces, actually i think there's a fifth, in that the missing fbi text messages, hundreds maybe thousands of them between a couple of key players. i think it is troubling when the president, assuming this is true, tries to press the director of the fbi to start replacing staff. that is typically the province of the director himself. he has great latitude in promoting people from within the organization, bringing in some outsiders and you don't see the president of the united states looking to reach inside the fbi, certainly for political purposes -- >> which is what we know was the public criticism donald trump's own words, that he thought the deputy director, which is what this issue boiled down to was somehow against trump, was a comey ally, was a democrat. listen to christopher wray here when he was asked about president trump which now i think is in a new light. >> has president trump ever asked you for loyalty? >> i never been asked by the presi

the fbi chief of staff last week, that official was let go from the fbi. he says he also conveyed that information to fbi general council who was recently mysteriously reassigned to what appears to be a no show job around christmastime with no explanation. and james comey said he reported the action tuesday the fbi deputy director today who was aapparently forced out of his job as well. the new trump director, christopher ray had threatened to resign in order to protect andrew mccabe against this white house effort to push mccabe out of his job. christopher re christopher ray does not seem to have resigned. he was going resign rather than see these other fbi officials pushed out of their job -- if you were thinking christopher ray was going tory zine rather than let that happen, andrew mccabe is out today. rod rosenstein overseas robert mueller's special counsel investigation into the russia matter since jeff sessions recused himself. the reason i go through that list is just -- i mean to be blunt about it, the president has fired or tried to fire everybody

he's got great respect in the legal community and at the fbi now. mccabe is very popular, very well respected among the rank and file at the fbi. and wray is simply not going to take direction about his own personnel decisions with respect to his deputy. so this appears to be sessions trying to curry favor with the president. he's been out of favor for such a long time and here this might seem to be an easy way to do it, but he's run into the resistance properly of the fbi director in saying, hands off, my deputy. >> how extraordinary is it that the special counsel robert mueller, a self-performer 12-year fbi director, has actually called the attorney general of the united states, jeff sessions, to come and answer questions before his russia investigation? >> it's not at all unusual. it's respected. in fact, that's the reason why it was imperative that sessions recuse himself from the investigation because of his knowledge as a witness, first with respect to the russians, his interaction with the russian ambassador, and secondly, his knowledge about

within the fbi and the doj. and president trump today saying he's looking forward to an interview with special counsel robert mueller. our first guest tonight says the attorney general should publicly announce the creation of a doj/fbi task force and the impanelment of a grand jury. joining me tonight, chris farrell. it's great to see you. i want to take up a couple of things first if we may. first, the overall development, the president saying he's now willing to sit down with mueller and have a conversation. your thoughts about the wisdom and the president's courage here. >> i'm sure the president is looking forward to it like he would a root canal, frankly. look, it's a mistake for him to testify or provide testimony to mueller. there's any number of ways to answer mueller's questions. mueller is out for the president to destabilize or to remove him. this is a perjury trap in the making flp's nothing in particular the president -- lou: by the way want which his lead attorney has acknowledged the possibility i

he has been a career public servant with the fbi. i think he has done an admirable job serving the country. i think this committee and others have done a german is to disservice to mr. mccabe. >> also is there a chance that the memo could be released before the five day window? or do you all have to wait for five days to do which am says? -- what trump says? >> the vote to deprive his marty of having the memo released was on a partyline basis. both of those votes were on a partyline basis. in terms of the timetable, this has never happened in my experience in the committee, so we are in uncharted waters. if the president expresses the view short of five days, i am perfectly copacetic with anything being published that helps me. i don't know they have to wait five days. the white house has made it clear that they want the memo published, even though they have not read it. that should tell you all you need to know about the president's priorities, even without reading it, even without hearing from the intelligence agencies what damage i

is it possible the fbi, in fact, ba acted badly? the inspector general report hinted at in the last 24 hours suggests there may be some issues there that are worth investigating and worth evaluating. the problem is if it becomes a partisan thing, party-line thing, where one party is focused on it for its own goal, the other party is not focused on it, focused on it in a different way, it leaves obviously a lot of people scratching their heads trying to figure out what it is we're supposed to believe here? >> do you think the fbi director is one we should believe here? >> yeah, i mean, i think, look, he's a guy who's president trump's appointee. he's not obviously got a stake in the previous fbi leadership's handling of this. certainly you would think he would have a more, you know, more reason to be, you know, open about the previous regime's mistakes if he thought mistakes were made, but he's obviously representing the institution. the institution is concerned about the release of this memo and concerned about, perhaps, you know, a

he has been a career public servant with the fbi. i think he has done an admirable job serving the country, and i think that this committee and others have done a tremendous disservice to mr. mccabe. [ speaking simultaneously ] >> trying to vote on the member owe, and also is there a chance that the memo could be released before the finding window or do you have to wait for five days? >> the vote to release the majority memo and the vote to deprive the minority of having its memo released was on a party line basis. in terms of the timetable, this has never happened in my experience in the committee, so we're in uncharted waters, but if the president expresses the view short of five days, hey, i'm perfectly copacetic i don't flow that th know that they have to wait five days, and the white house has made it abundantically clear th they want it published even without having read it. even without reading it, without the intelligence agencies, what damage it might do in terms of public release, it's clear they already want it released. i

the fbi sounding the alarm over a secret republican memo accusing the fbi of abusing its surveillance powers. the fbi issuing a defiant statement just now, saying, quote, the fbi was provided a limited opportunity to review this memo the day before the committee voted to release it. as expressed during our initial review, we have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy. fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy. our crime and justice reporter joins us now with the latest developments. tell us the back story. the fbi is saying this is just fact ch factually incorrect. >> that's certainly their concern. their statement says that they really didn't have a whole lot of time to review this memo. from everything they have seen, that is the fbi director, christopher wray, has seen this memo. from everything he has seen, he has concerns that it is going to be misleading, that there are inaccuracies. this memo, apparently, from fwht i've been told in talking to sources, does not paint a full picture of what the fbi was doing. that's the dang

the fbi director is rattled. he believes the president of the united states is die re directi to shut down the fbi into the president's campaign. he concludes that the president may very well deny that he ever exerted that pressure or said those things to the fbi director:thedirecto director. the fbi director wants can operating support for what he witnessed in terms of the president's behavior and statements so he preserves the evidence, right? he writes it down himself and tells senior leadership at the fbi contemporaneousrly in the moment and when he testifies, he doesn't list the other officials but we have been able to figure out who most of them were based on their titles and this is important for all of us. if the president of the united states is going to be potentially criminally liable for obstruction of justice in this matter, pressuring the fbi to drop the russia investigation, firing the fbi director when it didn't happen, if that's a potential criminal liability for the president of the united states

the president said this. he said how can fbi deputy director andrew mccabe, the man in charge, along with james comey, be given $700,000 for wife's campaign by clinton puppets during investigation? so just a flavor of what he thought about andrew mccabe. so far the white house saying the president was not involved in this. was not pushed at all. it seems hard to believe that. >> all right. at the white house for us. let's be clear when sarah sanders refers to the community. full stop, fact. the intelligence community including the trump administration officials are seriously concerned that they'll do it in 2018, 2020 and around the world. now what we know about president trump and his team, being involved in that. we have no evidence that they were specifically involved but we have evidence that they reached out and we have evidence that people including donald trump jr. and george dp papadopoulos expressed an interest and we have two charges, indictments, of trump workers. >> we see donald trump every day, or seemingly he have

the news tonight, the fbi director has threatened to quit. eve schmidt reacts to all of it, when we come back. cases, sa" bookcase. i thought this was the dresser? isn't that the bed? phone: i'm sorry, i didn't understand. phone: for help with chairs, say "chair." does this mean we're not going out? book-case. see how easy renters insurance can be at geico.com. (vo)just one touch.ith with fancy feast creamy delights, she can have just the right touch of real milk. easily digestible, it makes her favorite entrées even more delightful. fancy feast creamy delights. love is in the details. you or joints. something for your heart... but do you take something for your brain. with an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is the number one selling brain-health supplement in drug stores nationwide. prevagen. the name to remember. >>> i've watched the politicians, i've dealt with them all my life. if you can't make a good deal with a politician, then there's something wrong with you. you're certainly not very good. >> president trump, as yo

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first he fired the director of the fbi. then the president asked the guy replacing him, who did you vote for, the reporting from the "washington post" about an incredible oval office meeting shortly after andrew mccabe became the fbi's new acting director. "trump according to several current and former u.s. officials asked mccabe a pointed question. whom did he vote for in the 2016 election. mccabe said he didn't vote at all according to the officials. mick cave found the conversation with trump disturbing." trump vented hissing ander to mccabe to the new acting fbi director about political donations to mccabe's wife who ran for the virginia state senate in 2015 as a democrat. her campaign received several hundred thousand dollars from a political action committee controlled by clinton ally and then virginia governor terry mcauliffe. that campaign happened before mick cave become comey's deputy. today sarah huckabee sanders didn't deny trump asked that question how mccabe voted. >> does the president make a habit of asking c

the director of the fbi -- fired. rt mueller's criminal investigation has already shown why the president should be impeached. you can send a message to your representatives at needtoimpeach.com and demand they finally take a stand. this president is not above the law. fixodent plus adhesives. there's a denture adhesive that holds strong until evening. just one application gives you superior hold even at the end of the day fixodent. strong more like natural teeth. he gets the best deal on the perfect hotel by using. tripadvisor! that's because tripadvisor lets you start your trip on the right foot... by comparing prices from over 200 booking sites to find the right hotel for you at the lowest price. saving you up to 30%! you'll be bathing in savings! tripadvisor. check the latest reviews and lowest prices. ai'm begging you... take gas-x. beneath the duvet, your tossing and turning isn't restlessness , it's gas. gas-x relieves pressure,bloating and discomfort in minutes !! so we can all sleep easier tonight. >>> okay ch

i spoke to the director of the fbi. he expressed strong interest in being able to brief our committee prior to any release of these materials about concerns the bureau and the department have. interest by the director of the fbi to the appointee of president trump. that was -- they were not willing to meet with the director of the fbi to hear the bureau's concerns. instead, they voted against allowing their own members, as well as the members of the broader house of representatives to be briefed by the department of justice and fbi. finally, i moved that if the majority was going to release the memoranda publicly they release the minority news as well. they be released jointly. the majority on a partyline basis voted against both memoranda been released to the public. they then took up their own memoranda and voted it out to make public. we had a separate vote on minority memoranda and the majority voted against it and allowing the public to see it. they released the memo crowd doesn't want to release the memo now. the m

and again, kind of an assault on the principles of the fbi. ng that struck me first, good on director wray for make go it, good for no other reason than to try to defend the great men and women of the fbi. with all the asking you in the media with he the sources and methods, what it dwelled on was the errors of fact by omission. the fact that the fbi would put out a statement with that concern, rather handle the sources and methods. there may be sources and methods of consideration. to me that struck me as quite significant. >> the allegation is that, i haven't seen the memo. but devin nunes and the comments seem to be the officials in the fbi who were seeking a pfizer warrant against carter page relied too much on a political document that, the color steele dossier, funded by democrats, even if you trust word of christopher steele, a former british agent, it was too much reliant on that and that the fisa warrant was obtained in a shady and less honest way than it should have been. >> my experience with fisa, request for fisa authorizations, th

i think it is in the following sense. we send fbit in the field and ask them to do important stuff, find missing children, political corruption, domestic violence on reservations, the way we do that, is if people believe the fbi is going to handle the matter in a sensitive, thoughtful way, faithful and honest way. so the more you chip away at that, the more you undermine their work in the field. so yeah, it's dangerous. it's also very, very sad. it's hard to imagine our political leadership undermining the fbi. we ask them to do really hard things. let's support them when we do it. >> chuck rosenberg, appreciate your time tonight, sir. thanks for being here. >> my pleasure. >> we'll be right back. stay with us. shawn evans: it's 6 am. 40 million americans are waking up to a gillette shave. and at our factory in boston, 1,200 workers are starting their day building on over a hundred years of heritage, craftsmanship and innovation. today we're bringing you america's number one shave at lower prices every day. putting money back in the

the fbi being corrupt and terrible. over the past week, that congressman, devon nunes has led a conservative media and republican full-scale, freakout over a memo. a memo that conservatives insist will be magic antidote to the robert mueller investigation and a get out of jail free card for anybody implicated by the mueller investigation. this was written by devon nunes himself. his office wrote it and he and republicans and conservative media and lots and lots of russian bots online are all now insisting with increasing ferocity that this memo that devon nunes wrote, it must be released, even though it contains classified information, because if this memo is released, that will bring down the fbi. devon nunes has written the memo that reportedly says the fbi behaved badly somehow when it obtained search warrants from a court to collect evidence in the russia investigation. this, this memo that he wrote has been an all-consuming thing in republican congressional politics and technically in conservative media and at the f

the fbi encourages dr. martin luther king to kill himself because he's such a threat to the nation in their view. the fbi offers this tape -- king does not kill himself. the fbi then offers to turn the tape over to the press. the press turns it down. imagine such an era. and the fbi backs off in the face of looming congressional investigation into electronic surveillance. the timing works out in his favor, i suppose. lyndon johnson takes over for the assassinated john f kennedy. clamps down on wiretapping and suggests it should be outlawed. there are a couple of supreme court cases. katz versus united states. and these cases the supreme court changes its tune and said wiretaps have to follow the same procedures for a warrant. must be probable cause, the people initiating have to specify the crime they're investigating and the place to be searched, specify the conversation to be seized. in 1968, congress follows suit and sets specific standards for obtaining wiretaps. this will not stop them. cointel pro will

so certainly some infighting within the agency, within the fbi and the department of justice, but the fbi went ahead and did this today. now we're just all waiting to see when the memo will be released. >> thank you so much for that reporting. i want to go around the table to our panel here. i mean, look, when you first hear the fbi is saying, no, no, please don't release a memo that according to our sources very clearly makes the fbi look really bad and not very responsible with regard to one of their most important responsibilities, which is civil liberties of americans and allowing a warrant to legally n infringe on those civil liberties. >> we've been hearing all morning about concerns about -- i think there's a perception the concern from the fbi is reputational, but there are other concerns broadly in the intelligence community about the risking of sources and methods that underlie the intelligence of this report. so those concerns are being brought to the white house this week, and now you're seeing the fbi coming forward and saying, we just don't think that this report is part

he has been a career public servant with the fbi. i think he has done an admirable job serving the country, and i think this committee and others have done a tremendous disservice to mr. mccabe. >> reporter: final vote on the nunes memo, was it along party lines? is there a chance the memo could be released before the five day window or do you have to wait for five days? >> the vote to release the majority memo and though vote to deprive with the minority of having its memo released was on a party line basis. in terms of the timetable, this has never happened in my experience in the committee. we are on uncharted waters. but if the president expresses the view short of five days, i am copacetic with anything being published that helps me. i don't know they have to wait five days. the white house had made it abundantly clear that they want the memo published even though they haven't read it. that should tell you all you need to know about the president's priorities. even without reading it, even without hearing from the intelligence ag

he wouldn't dare publically intimidate the fbi. but donald trump is not half as smart as richard nixon. so he has spent the better part of a year attacking the fbi and the justice department for investigating him. which, of course, makes the need to investigate him all the more urgent. but andrew mccabe will no longer have a hand in that investigation or any fbi investigation. the only deputy director of the fbi and former acting director of the fbi to be publically attacked by the president of the united states repeatedly decided to quit the fbi this morning. a couple of months sooner than he was reportedly considering retiring. and he was only considering retiring then because he believed he had become too much of a distraction to the fbi given the president's public obsession with him. andrew mccabe has had a 20-year career in the fbi, beginning in the new york field office where he was on the s.w.a.t. team, he then became the first director of the high value detain knee gp but all donald trump had to know about andrew mccabe is

they're going to war with the fbi? f you look at the most critical voices in the republican party, senator bob corker after months ago calling the president and the white house adult day care, he's been praising the president's volatility on foreign policy. senate republicans who have broken with the president rallied behind his tax cut. there is not a goldwater 1974 type moment yet with the republicans going to the white house and raising serious concerns about the russia probe or the federal investigation. if anything i've heard in my reporting a change of tune. a chorus with this president and with this white house. >> robert costa, bill kristol, thank you for being on the show this morning. >>> still ahead on "morning joe," we'll be joined by two lawmakers from different sides of the aisle, republican congressman charlie dent and democratic congressman tim ryan. >>> plus, a new threat against sanctuary cities by the administration has sparked a fight with mayors across the country. mayor mitch landrieu was part of a

it's so rare for the fbi and fbi director to issue this kind of statement because of the concern.it was an all day thing. they had been thinking about this for some time. we know that the department of justice, there were people there who did not want the fbi to put out this statement out of concern, how the president might react to it. right now you have a situation where the fbi publicly is going against a decision that the president has clear ly made. now what happens, we wait and see if this memo gets released, when it gets released. we just don't have any word on exactly when. this is a big deal. it took some time and it was a big decision on their part. so all of it said, we don't even know if he has read it yet. >> someone who has appointed to the fbi director. it is the first public fight or feud between the president and the fbi director. the white house is saying absolutely nothing for all of that. they've not yet responded to that statement saying grave concerns. behind the scenes we're told that lawyers are working through the substance of this memo. it's more complica

the news tonight, the fbi director has threatened to quit. steve schmidt reacts to all of it, when we come back. >>> i've watched the politicians, i've dealt with them all my life. if you can't make a good deal with a politician, then there's something wrong with you. you're certainly not very good. >> president trump, as you may recall, sold his deal-making skills from the very first day of the campaign. however, jonathan lemere and darlene superville, both of the associated press, said president donald trump remained out of sight, suppressing his instincts to make himself part of the story by making a deal or picking a fight. tonight other friends of our broadcast, ashley parker and josh dossey of the "washington post" co-authored a piece we mentioned earlier titled "white house strategy, keep trump contained." they wrote, republicans pursued a clear strategy to keep trump contained during the three-day standoff that ended monday. steve schmidt is here to talk about it and a political analyst. i see you're chuckling. is it best that our pres

the campaign. which is something that fbi agents are absolutely allowed to do. it has been republicans in congress who is pursued the story line that christopher steele's reports and russian intervention in the election, those intelligence reports themselves are somehow terrible. it's bad that they exist. and when christopher steele handed them over to the fbi because he's concerned he stumbled upon evidence of a monstrous ongoing crime, well, then that somehow tainted the fbi as well. and so a year ago tomorrow when the intelligence community put out its assessment about what russia did, there really was a moment of bipartisan near unanimity that this was very bad news about what russia had done. and maybe we as a country should get to the bottom of it, make sure we understand what happened. make sure if there were americans in on that attack, who need to be brought to justice. just one year ago, people pretty much agreed on that, even some republicans, enough to start all these republican-led congressional investigations, at least. but now at the one-year mark,

that's what is happening at the fbi. mueller investigation still exists but if this stunt but house republican the tonight is designed to give the president an excuse to fire rod rosenstein, well, rod rosenstein oversees the mueller investigation. he has to clear ever step. if the president fires rosenstein, the president will then have his choice who he would like to put in the job instead, anybody he puts there would have the power to curtail or stymie or just stop the mueller investigation on his or her own say so. obstruction of justice is a serious crime but there is a reason people risk committing that crime. and tonight, it's working. y mute when this guy got a flat tire in the middle of the night. hold on dad... liberty did what? yeah, liberty mutual 24-hour roadside assistance helped him to fix his flat so he could get home safely. my dad says our insurance doesn't have that. don't worry - i know what a lug wrench is, dad. is this a lug wrench? maybe? you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. libe

it with the leaders of the fbi. our conversation was should we share this with any senior officials at the justice department? our concern is we can't infect the investigative team. we don't want the agents and analysts working on this to know the president of the united states has asked and when it comes to the president, i took it as a direction to get rid of this investigation because we're not going to follow that request and so we decided we got to keep it away from the troops. is there anybody else we got to tell. we considered whether to tell the attorney general, decided that didn't make sense because we believed he would shortly recuse. >> so the senior leadership at the fbi is all in on what the president has just told comey but they decide they are not going to report this to the attorney general, this troubling behavior by the president trying to shut down the russia investigation. and as james comey explains there, they decided not to tell the attorney general because they believe the attorney general wa

king, in view of your low grade -- this is from the fbi. king, in view of your low-grade, abnormal personal behavior i will not dignify your name with a mister, reverend or doctor and your last name calls to mind only the type of king, such as king henry viii, countless acts of adultery and conduct lower than that of a beast. look into your heart. you know you are a complete fraud and great liability to all of us negroes. definitely dudes in the fbi. white people in this country have enough frauds of their own but i'm sure they don't have one at this time that is anywhere near your equal. you are no clergyman and you know it. a fraud and evil, vicious one at that. you cannot believe in god and act as you do. you clearly don't believe in any personal moral principles. let's go down. you're fill the. et cetera, et cetera. it is all there on the record. your sexual originallies. list listen to yourself, you filthy animal. you're on the record, all your adulterous acts, et cetera, et cetera. church organizations that have been helping, protestan

several people in the fbi described it to my colleagues as he was disturbed by the conversation. >> it was interesting to hear andrew mccabe, as you report, say that he didn't vote. >> right but that's pretty normal. a lot of top fbi officials just like many journalists who are involved in this world don't cast ballots in presidential elections or are not affiliated with a party so you won't have the concerns of partisan political activity. as you know, when the concerns are there it taints the findings and taints the work. >> you learned from our legal experts today that is customary because if you're involved in an investigation, you don't want to be seen as partisan somehow, so you sit it out and don't exercise your civil duty or your civil right. did that satisfy the president when andrew mccabe said he didn't vote? >> it's unclear. he brought him back in again for a perfunctory interview to become the permanent fbi director and obviously chose chris ray. since then he talked about the money he took, the fact he thinks he's a democrat. we've seen seen him taunt andrew mccabe on twi

>> of the fbi? fbi and the department of justice. >> there are wonderful agents across the country and this is a serious job. as i think we saw in colorado today, our law enforcement across the country deserves our respect, our support. we had a deputy shot in colorado last night. today is the funeral of a u.s. marshal killed in the line of duty a few days ago. absolutely i have respect for our law enforcement, federal, state, local, tribal and i think most americans do. >> the president of the united states says he's not sure. >> that's not true at all. this president has supported law enforcement more than any president in recent memory. there's a reason police morale is up, line of duty deaths are down. this president has said he's going to tackle violent crime and he has done just that. absolutely, those law enforcement officials across the country support this president because he supports them. >> then why did he say when he was asked whether or not he trusts the fbi that he doesn't know, he h

i wish continued strength for the fbi. america needs you. >>> we learned that chris wray hinted to staff on the clinton e-mail investigation which played a role in mccabe's departu departure. others paint the move as mccabe's call. we have jessica schneider with more from washington. >> reporter: christine and dave, andrew mccabe is out of a job more than a month before his expected retirement. we are told his sudden departure was surprising for colleagues at the fbi headquarters. especially since the exact reason for his early exit wasn't entirely known. the deputy director of the fbi announced the decision to leave he in the meeting monday morning. mccabe said at the meeting it was his choice, but other sources we learned at cnn, suggested to us that mccabe was pushed out. told by the new director chris wray that he would know longer need him as deputy director. president trump has repeatedly attacked andrew mccabe. notably because mccabe's wife jill ran as a democrat in 2015 in a senate race. and the president is taking