they're at the white house, they're shaking hands. he's saying, i think you're more famous than i am. everything looks like it's going just fine. all of this time, if you look at the timeline, all of this was very positive for donald trump in terms of what james comey did. it produced a positive effect. here comes a big change. all of a sudden in march, comey confirms, when he's speaking to congress that, yes, the fbi is investigating possible russian collusion in this election and that includes looking at the trump team and what they might have been doing. we move on to the most recent testimony where he talks about the clinton e-mails with huma abedin and everything, and there seems to be false statements being made there, where the white house can now say, these were mistakes of his. and there's this question of him asking for more money or resources for the investigation, which the department of justice says did not happen. but it all leads up to comey being fired here. if you listen to what the white house is saying and what the p

the white house says that the deputy a.g. went to the white house for a visit with jeff sessions, by the way, the attorney general, and shared their opinion about director comey. and they felt that he had, sort of, lost his ability to i guess leave the fbi. and president trump said can you put all of that, your opinions and thoughts on paper? and that became the predicate for firing him. what do you think of that narrative and if rod rosenstein was somehow duped. >> well, looking at the reporting that's now available, it looks as if the original white house narrative that this was spontaneous combustion over in the department of justice, that the new deputy a.g. was so surprised by what he found that he crafted the memo and brought it to the white house and that was the cause of the action, current reporting suggests that is not what happened, that the decision had already been made to get rid of director comey and the white house was looking for some documentation on which to publically base the decision. and i think the depu

they go to the white house, they go to the office the white house counsel. this is the white hse counsel, done mcbegan. again, attorney genel, we believe the national security division chief at doj, they rushed to the white house without even waiting for the fbi agents to write up their report on their questioning of mike flynn. they rush to the white house to notify the white house counsel about what they have learned about the national security adviser mike flynn. heading into today, everybody thought this was going to be testimony that would be kind of a letdown, that we already knew everything sally yates was going to say. but right off the bat, she gives you that incredible timeline and that incredible you do about how they went to the white house and how fast. and then she said this. i don't think anybody has any idea what this means exactly. >> so i told them again that there were a number of press accounts of statements that had been made by the vice president and other high ranking white house officials about general flynn's conduct that we knew to b

a strange stunt at the white house where he claimed to be rushing secret documents to the white house, even though it turns out he got the documents from the white house in the first place. specifically, he got them apparently from one of his own former staffers and from a former protege of national security adviser mike flynn who had been left behind at the national security council, even after flynn left and despite efforts by the new national security adviser to get rid of that guy. but devin nunes canceled the sally yates hearing. got himself taken off the investigation altogether. he's now under investigation by the house ethics committee for potentially having disclosed classified information. that was the house intelligence committee. then the house oversight committee. they decided they'd look into a very specific part of it. they'd look specifically into mike flynn's payments from foreign sources. and despite their very narrow focus on just that piece of it, the house oversight committee appears to have stumbled on to something unexpectedly rich. their inquiries turned up the

that is the statement from the white house as we wait for more. no doubt, this will renew the question about whether there is indeed a system inside the white house that could back up to either side of the story. if the story is true, did james comey reported to his bosses at the department of justice after he had that conversation with the president? a lot of questions tonight. the white house desperately tries to move off the story and the one from yesterday and onto the president's oncoming trip abroad. this has proven to be next to impossible in this current environment. on capitol hill before this news broke, this was bought by side by majority leader mitch mcconnell. >> i think we could with a little less drama from the white house. on a lot of things. so, we can focus on our agenda. >> martha: that was even earlier tonight he said that. we have a huge lineup for you on this quickly moving story tonight. the senate select intelligence committee member james risch is with us. plus, former senior advisor to president george w. bush, karl rove,

>> well, since i don't work in the white house and i haven't spoken to the president about this, i can't to a conversation i wasn't a part of. >> the detail itself, how can the white house say that's not a threat. >> comey ran a pretty leaky shop, it was pretty evident that there were leaks, and cats wede are question crying the leaks during the election. nobody cares that comey got fired, i haven't heard anybody out on tv saying that jim comey was doing a good job. >> it was mostly the timing of it. the white house could have had a tighter job in announcing that. i wish the president would have fired comey when he took office on january 20th. >> a tighter job, that's one ware to describe it. it was a pretty discombobulated job, with outright falsehoods being said. >> in fact i think the white house probably misses jason, because the white house is pretty much in shambles. i want someone to tell me what donald trump did by asking the fbi director, i believe it was three days after the fisher interviewed flynn, it was a day after sally yates came over and warned him that his national secu

that somebody in the white house is under investigation for what? >> we understand that this investigation into russian meddling in the 2016 election has escalated. you're going to see subpoena. now the focus is someone inside the white house. so for exactly what, i'm not sure. we're working to can you be firm who the person is but we understand it is for the president and for conduct tied up in this investigation into meddling. >> do we know what investigation this is? we have about four different investigations going on in the house and now the special counsel. i imagine it is not robert mueller'snvestigation because that's just gun. there's the fbi investigation. who is honed in on this? >> this stems from the fbi investigation. robert mueller won't start from scratch. he will take over the investigation that law enforcement was running. he could bring in new members but that's the investigation we're talking about. the law enforcement investigation. >> this complicates matters for the white house. when someone is under investigation and if someon

look at the picture from the white house the other day. ow the health and human services secretary tom price defends the visual of mostly white male lawmakers celebrating a bill that has a major impact on women's health. stay with us, next, right here on "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. (vo) more "doing chores for mom" per roll more "doing chores for dad" per roll more "earning something you love" per roll bounty is more absorbent, so the roll can last 50% longer than the leading ordinary brand. so you get more "life" per roll. bounty the quicker picker upper. let's take a look at some numbers: 4 out of 5 people who have a stroke, their first symptom... is a stroke. 80 percent of all strokes and heart disease? preventable. and 149 dollars is all it takes to get screened and help take control of your health. we're life line screening... and if you're over 50... call this number, to schedule an appointment... for five painless screenings that go beyond regular check-ups. we use ultrasound technology to literally look inside your arteries..

>> i believe at the white house. >> the flynn interview? >> yes. >> do you know if flynn was represented by counsel? >> i don't believe he was. >> okay. the scenario you were concerned about, you saw all of these statements from the white house that were inconsistent with what you knew. you presumed the white house was being truthful, which means that flynn was misleading them, which means he was vulnerable to manipulation by the russians, could call up the national security adviser and say you have to do this or your career is done. >> that's right. one of the questions that mr. mcgann asked me the second day, why does it matter to doj if one white house official lies to another white house official? so we explained to them, it was a whole lot more than that. we went back over the same concerns that we raised with them the prior day. that the concern first about the underlying conduct itself that he lied to the president and others, the american public had been misled and importantly every time this lie was repeated and the misrepresentatio

the white house. wreck" is the term that one unnamed official gave to the former campaign manager and former deputy trump campaign manager possibly coming to work in the white house, one unnamed source said it would only add to the toxicity of the white house. another said, i gagged. axios reports that they have had discussions about the crisis communication war room that president trump wants to set up to go to war with the news media over the russia investigation. david who was the man who filed the successful lawsuit that led to the citizens united supreme court decision was asked on fox news this morning if he's going to join the white house staff. >> so, they've talked to, you know, many people, including me. >> is that a yes. have you been asked? >> no. i'm not going to say that there's -- that something sitting on the table for me to pick. that would be a little -- i think that's -- it's an on going conversation. i think that's a fair way to put it. >> joining us now, josh, former white house pr

and i'm not sure what happens then, but at that point, the letter from the white house had still not arrived at the fbi. >> robert costa, you were at the white house tonight. inside the west wing. there are reports the communication shop, all the employees there were there late. as you've heard, as "the washington post" is reporting as well, this seems to have taken the west wing staff by surprise in that they did not expect this big of a dust-up? >> it was quite a scene tonight, brian. outside of the west wing, a cool night. sean spicer, the press secretary, came out, and he gave a briefing. but there were no lights on, no klieg lights. it was just reporters with their recorders pushing forward, asking spicer questions. during the course of his briefing outside on the driveway of the white house, he was asked about this grand jury investigation that may be going on about general flynn and russia. he didn't have any comment on that. and the lights were on all throughout the west wing. i saw chief of staff priebus, kellyanne conway, the counselor, having meetings and having intention d

for the white house despite the fact in the past the white house has handled this. ched out to sherry dylan. now, she's a partner at the law firm morgan lewis who has been trump's tax lawyer since 2005. you'll probably remember she spoke about trump's businesses and conflicts of interest at a press conference back in january. so we asked whether president trump had filed his tax returns this year or perhaps if he'd filed for an extension. a spokesperson for morgan lewis applied, we have no comment. okay. so both the white house and trump's personal tax lawyers are refusing to say whether the president filed his tax returns this year, which leaves open the possibility that he simply has not, or maybe he requested an extension, or maybe not. but for some reason, the people who should know are refusing to answer. and the cutting board. we removed the added nitrates and nitrites, by-products, and artificial preservatives in all of our meat. every. single. one. why? for the love of hot dogs. he's a nascar champion who's she's a world-class swimmer who's stared down the be

deja vu here at the white house. the president making his position clear and confirm anything a couple of tweets this morning that white house staff, including the national security advisor last night tried to knock down. let's look at the president's tweets. he said as president i wanted to share with russia in an openly scheduled white house meeting facts pertaining to terrorism and airline safety. plus, i want russia to step up their fight against isis and terrorism. the white house reeling from another crisis. >> the story is false. at no time, at no time were intelligence sources or methods discuss. the president did not disclose any military operations that were not already publically known. >> h.r. mcmaster in a carefully worded statement refuting claims that were not in the story first reported by the washington post, while falling short of denying the president revealed classified information to russian diplomats. >> that the white house is playing word games here to that effect to try to blunt the impact of

yates, what did you tell the white house about mr. flynn? >> sally yates speaks out. >> we believed that general flynn was compromised with respect to the russians. >> for the first time ever, former acting attorney general on what she told the white house about michael flynn. >> the underlying conduct that general flynn had engaged in was problematic in and of itself.

the white house says it was nonsense. w the president shaking hands with sergei lavrov and sergei kislyak. kislyak is considered a russian spy. the white house blocked u.s. media from the pictures. the president apparently did not suspect the photos would be made public. they wound up appearing on russian state media for the world to see. a propaganda win for the russians. the president is not worried about the optics of the meeting with the russians. smiling and slapping each other on the back one day after firing the fbi director james comey who was investigating potential collusion with the trump campaign during the campaign. >>> hard to believe. change of plans for the kushner family. sister nicole and other executives will not attend when the business makes its sales pitch to chinese investors this weekend. it comes after nicole kushner raised eyebrows mentioning her brother and job as the white house adviser while courting for a new jersey developing project. the company apologized. the son-in-law stepped away from t

and the white house denying it. f that is true would vice president pence have known he was under investigation since he was overseeing the transition team? >> it's a good question. the white house is welcome to deny this. they had the opportunity to do that yesterday hours before the story was published and they chose not to comment. today, decided they will comment. i don't know what went on inside that transition. if the warnings they were given were not communicated to vice president pence running that transition, that's another story and a significant problem, too. at what point does this become, you know, a story about an organization that failed to vet properly, didn't take years of investigation to figure out. people were already talking about it in november, that flynn was representing turkey. did nobody do any due diligence here? i think there are serious questions both about the vetting done by the trump transition and why they went forward knowing what they did about general flynn. >> also fascinating, th

once again as we're standing by for the white house press briefing. ia, she's going to have a tough time, the deputy white house press secretary, explaining all of the contradictions, the changing stories over the past 48 hours, why the fbi director was fired. >> in fact, she was asked yesterday directly, isn't it true that the president had already decided to fire james comey and her answer was no. so now she's got to reverse course. i would have to say this is a pattern of the staff being the shovel brigade that we have seen time and time again. whether it started from his first full day in office when he was tweeting about the crowd size at the inauguration or voter fraud or being wire tapped by barack obama. this is just another instance of it. he gets mad. he sees this on tv. james comey angers him. he decides he wants to fire him because he can. keeps it in a close circle. gets a rational for it. perhaps from rod rose instein. handed it to the president. the white house then says oh, here's our reason. and puts it out there. then the president co

the white house says no pledge was requested. the president today also tweeted about the probe into russia's campaign meddling and contacts with his associates, once again calling it a witch-hunt, and as his surrogates trip over themselves trying to keep up with his twists and turns the president concedes he may be moving too quickly for them and suggests the answer to botched communications from the white house may be to cancel the daily press briefings. i'll talk to democratic congresswoman kathleen rice and our correspondents, specialists and guests, they are standing by with full coverage of the day's top stories. with talk of threats, secret recordings and loyalty tests, let's get another busy day over at white house and we begin with our white house correspondent sara mur me. sum it all up for our viewers. >> reporter: this has been a week of surprises and controversies from this white house and today was certainly no different as the president fired off a thinly veiled threat against his former fbi director and administrati

that's not white house language. the white house is not supposed to accuse the senate of conducting a political witch hunt. the white house has to do business with the senate every day. you can't talk like that. so no one in the nixon white house would allow themselves to actually be caught by name using that phrase then, witch hunt. at 7:52 a.m. today, the president of the united states was awake and tweeting. this is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in american history. last night, the white house issued a statement written for the president in language that he would clearly never personally use saying, "as i have stated many times, a thorough investigation will confirm what we already know there was no collusion between my campaign and any foreign entity. i look forward to this matter concluding quickly." it was a perfectly reasonable presidential-sounding white house statement about a situation like this. but everyone knew that would not be the president's last word about the investigation. everyone kne

this happened during a meeting at the white house the day after the white house fired director comey. the white house says the information was wholly inappropriate. mcmasters said that phrase nine times. today vladimir putin has weighed in finally. he's offered to hand over recordings of the meeting to help settle the controversy, as he put it. much more ahead on the latest reaction from capitol hill. first, we're learning new information about director comey and his memo. for that, we turn to catherine herridge live in washington. >> we just heard a moment from the senior democrat on the senate intelligence committee that wants the comey memos with the crush of reporters there, he says he's confident that comey will appeal and the bureau never asked for additional help. >> i think we have enough resources. that was reiterated by director mckay in public appearing last thursday. and also reiterated that director mccabe said this investigation is extraordinary to the fbi and they're going to make sure they get to the bottom of no matter where it leads. >> in addition to senate intellig

this has been a damaging week for the white house. the credibility of the white house has been really shattered as a result of the changing stories, or certainly seemingly changing stories. i think out in the country, people are still evaluating, but that's the norm in cases like this. these things take on a life of their own inside washington, and depending on where the investigation goes, the country will catch up with that. robert: are there going to be legal challenges to president trump, he makes these calls and has conversations with director comey, what kind of hot water, if any, is the president in for talking to the head of the f.b.i., the then-head of the f.b.i.? pete: certainly the question, am i under investigation, is according to every legal scholar i've talked to not a problem. the question would be, is the firing of the fib director in the middle of the investigation -- of the f.b.i. director in the middle of the information an obstruction of justice. the question is what would be the legal -- there would be legal conse

so why didn't the white house listen? >>> plus, jared kushner's sister wooing investors, name dropping the president, touting her brother's access. one former white house official calls it outright bribery. >> who's going to win the political race everyone is watching. let's go "outfront." >>> and good evening. i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, breaking news. blackmail tarked. sally yates speaking publicly for the first time about general michael flynn's russian connections. it's revealing she warned the white house that flynn had lied repeatedly to vice president mike pence and others about his contacts with russians. these are lies that yates says left flynn exposed to blackmail by the russians. >> we believe that general flynn was compromised with respect to the russians. logic would tell you that you don't want the national security adviser to be in a position where the russians have leverage over him. >> yates says she warned the white house multiple times about flynn. and that news comes as we're learning about y

the white house. nswered question, jim, is what this means in real terms. >> right. >> it certainly is knocking the white house off its game, knocking the republican agenda off its game to the point where it's unclear, frankly, whether it can get back on track. but in terms of this particular issue, the next big thing is going to be jim comey's testimony and then that will open up the floodgates for whatever happens next. >> gloria borger, you talked with a friend of president trump. i'm curious, does the president believe that this one is different? >> i don't know the answer to that. i think these people have sort of given up on donald trump, to be honest with you. and i don't know whether they've said that to him. but let me read to you what this one trump loyalist said to me. he does speak for donald trump quite frequently. he said i always thought that once he understood the weight of the office, he would rise to the occasion. now, i don't. so when you have people who are really close to donald tr

he came to the white house and did not see him enter or leave. esident. the white house is actively searching for a replacement, getting input from cap hull and other places but even when they bring someone n. the reality is this has stirred up something that trump investigation did not want. >> the timing of the fbi chief's firing hasxd infuriated democra and more than a few republicans are also voicing deepÑi concern. let's bring in hour chief national correspondent jim schulto. jim, there are now growing calls for an independent outside investigation. >> the number of democrats calling for the possibility of the independent council which would have sweeping powers. a very small number of republicans calling for a step below that which would be an independent commission in the style of the 9/11 commission perhaps, butÑi privately many democrats and republicans expressing alarm at what appears to many of them appears to be an overstepping of the çóñrpresidei authority. >> reporter: there's still ongoing investigations into  trump campaign associ

you're already looking at live pictures coming in from the west wing of the white house. no sean spicer today. he's over at the pentagon on previously scheduled naval reserve duty. we expect to hear more justification for the firing of the fbi director from the white house, during the questioning at this press briefing, that's coming up. while many members of congress, on both sides of the aisle, have labelled the firing shocking and troubling, president trump offered his rebuttal on twitter and on camera. the tweet, let me read it. comey lost the confidence of almost everyone in washington, republican and democrat alike, when things calm down, they will be thanking me. that's from the president. later, the president said this, during a photo op, with the former secretary of state, henry kissinger. >> why did you fire director comey? >> because he wasn't doing a good job. very simply. he was not doing a good job. excuse me? [ inaudible question ] not at all. >> and in what may be considered by some as unfortunate timing, president trump sat down with the visiting russian f

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 times first reported this. they have a quote from the memo that comey wrote a memo that president asking comey, quote, i hope you can let this go. do you believe that if this is all rak all ra accurate and that it is obstruction of justice and impeachable? >> first there has to be an investigation and the individual needs to know about it. those two features trump clearly knows there is an investigation and clearly it existed. the third part becomes difficult. that's that you have to prove there is an improper purpose, corrupt state of mind. now notably it doesn't matter if

of justice notified the white house council of the situation, the white house counsel briefed the president in a small group of senior advisers." >> i've seen media reports to that effect, but that's all i know is from the media. >> so there was no statement by mr. mcgahn he had either spoken to the president about your concerns with his national security adviser, or with any other members of the white house? >> no, he didn't advise us. in the second meeting, anyone he may have discussed this with the prior evening. >> i guess i want to go to the question which keeps gnawing at me here that mr. mcgahn asked of you, is there anything wrong with one white house official lying to another white house official? >> well, i -- to be fair to mr. mcgahn here, i wovuldn't say tht he said is there anything wrong? his question was more essentially what's it to the justice department if one white house official is lying to another? in other words, why is this something that doj would be concerned about? that's why we went back through the list of issues and reasons why this was troubling to us. >> did y

the white house defends the 18-day delay in firing national security advisers michael flynn after acting attorney general sally yates warned he was compromised by the russians. the white house describes yates as a political opponent. was it more concerned about the messenger than her shocking message? >>> sending more troops? a decade and a half after u.s. forces first went into afghanistan and years after a huge drawdown, president trump is weighing a troop increase. but could a few thousand troops do now what 100,000 failed to do earlier? >>> comey's confusion. fbi director james comey mistakenly told congress that hillary clinton's former top aide forwarded hundreds and thousands of e-mails to her husband's laptop, but comey got it wrong, and the fbi is now looking for a way to clean up his error. >>> and putin's parade. vladimir putin puts on a huge parade to showcase the victory over the nazi. is this just a way to flex his muscles in a time tension? i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> breaking news. first on cnn, senate russia investigators have asked the treasury

that's a definite signal to the white house. ould see major changes based on expectations on capitol hill that they're not capable of pulling their act together under the current configuration. the problem there is, it's not a staff problem. that's the difficulty ultimately. and so it will be a political judgment that members of congress eventually make, assuming that issues bubble up -- legal issues bubble up from this type of matter, whether this is something they'll act on. and it's going to take a lot for republicans to do that. >> we have learned this morning that the administration is working. you talk about what's happening on a staff level, to try to answer these political questions, sending folks to the hill to answer questions from lawmakers or at least talking with them about this. you have been somebody -- both of you have worked inside administrations before. i'll start with you, michael. what is happening behind closed doors in the west wing right now? >> well, there is a reason that this >> there is a reason this a

the white house now saying comey mishandled the e-mail investigation into hillary clinton, that comey overstepped his role in his scathing review of clinton. but many on capitol hill asking -- is the white house really concerned about clinton? or is this about russia? >>> also tonight. vladimir putin, and his reaction. and the news that james comey had just asked for more money for the fbi investigation into russian meddling. >>> also tonight, the afofficern trial. she opened fire on the driver of this suv who at one point had his hands in the air. what we learned today. >>> and the alleged school plot. police flooding the school. a boy pulled from the classroom. his arsenal -- knives, gasoline, and a hit list -- right in his bag. >>> good evening on this wednesday night. we begin tonight with new reporting here after that major shakeup in washington. the director of the fbi, james comey, fired, learning about it on television. the president's termination letter then read to him on the phone. tonight, here, major questions. why fire comey and why now? the white house saying the depart

soil, back in the white house. not about those successes, largely, he has been tweeting about his relationship with the media and calling it fake news, et cetera. i mean, is this setting back the white house, particularly when the president you know said that he just came off a successful trip? >> yeah, i mean, it was interesting to note, fred, that while the president was on this foreign trip that he considers very successful he was not tweeting in the usual provocative ways. there was a message that the white house in a concerted way tried to put out every day. and some days, especially early on in the trip in saudi arabia and israel there was some success there. i mean, this was relatively for this white house, a disciplined operation. and now you know he is coming back. and to alice's good point, the white house, so much of their day, day-to-day is dealt with keeping up with president trump's tweets and the distraction that they create from the legislative agenda that they're trying to push. that president trum

did anyone from the white house ask him toend the investigation? any surrogates on behatlf of the white house? >> not that i know of. look, i want to find out if there was a problem with an election having to do with russia, or by the way, anybody else. any other country. and i want that to be so strong and so good and i want it to happen. >> president trump just last week said it pointblank, i never asked fbi director james comey to drop the russia investigation but new reports say that's simply not true, according to comey's records. just how much trouble could trump be facing? now to my panel, "new york times" chief national correspondent. steve kornacki is here. john, columnist for the "new york post." and my friend and correspondent steph ruhle. we had pete king seeming to dig in. he seems to be on the defend no matter what side. >> it's 4:30 eastern. let's wait to see what happens at 5:00. >> right. >> because the stories keep dropping at 5:00. so i don't want to say that your show is going to be the news on the show will be preempted by futur

jeff zeleny e begins our coverage from the white house. >> reporter: the white house is back in businessholiday weekend and after the president's first international trip. they are still desperately trying to change the russian ngs. this is consuming the white house in terms of how they're going to respond to it. jared kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior adviser, he is telling associates he is willing to talk to the fbi, he's willing to talk to members of congress about those back channel communications he was trying to set up with russian officials. they say it was simply something that they were trying to offer to do to build the connection with the russian government here. but so many questions about that because they were acting at the time as private citizens but they were members of the transition. coming up, there are some key agenda items the president has on his desk he wants to act upon. first and foremost, is he going to withdraw or keep the u.s. inside that landmark climate agreement he was lobbied last week at the g7 summit in sicily. european leaders urged the pr

does the firing of the fbi director who is leading the investigation into the white house by that white house, the firing of him by that white house, does that restore confidence? >> not at all. in fact, the way the firing was done was particularly striking. director comey is a respected career law enforcement official, public servant. he was fired essentially through the press. he found out that he had been fired while he was speaking to fbi personnel in los angeles. there were press reports that a letter had been delivered to the fbi headquarters. that's about as brazen and aggressive a way as you can fire somebody. as you referenced here, president trump's letter saying you have told me three times i'm not under investigation just seems to protest too much the idea that there's nothing going on here other than sort of clearing the decks. i will remind you, director comey is just in the third year of his ten-year term. if this really was the reason for his firing, why wasn't he fired in the first few days of the trump administration? >> what happens now? democrats can wring their hand

what did you tell the white house? >> i told them that there were a number of press accounts, of statements made by the vice president and other high ranking white house officials about general flynn's conduct that we knew to be untrue. we told them how we knew that -- how we had this information. how we acquired it and knew it was untrue. and we walked the white house counsel, who had an associate there with him, through his underlying conduct, the contents i can't go through with you today. but we took him through the detail, what he had done, and through the various press accounts and falsely reported. we also told the white house counsel that general flynn had been interviewed by the fbi on february 24th. he asked e me how he did and i declined to give him an answer to that. we then walked through why we were telling them about this. and the first thing we did was to explain to mr. mcgan that the conduct was problematic. secondly, we told him we felt like the vice president and others were entitled to know that the

jefferson invited native american chiefs to the white house. that had happened before, but he invited the wives. many of the women in washington, the white women, were insulted, because it put them on par with them. louisa is riding in her diary and says, what next, maybe the magnificent sally will make her appearance. there was a lot of bad blood between the two of them. lesley: let me ask this question, and anybody jump in. can you tell us stories of first ladies who strongly influenced the flow of history, who had a huge impact on her husband's presidency and the direction the country moved in her time? annette: i could start with an influence that is very interesting, eliza johnson, who was the wife of andrew johnson, who is periodically listed as the worst or next to the worst president. in the years since i wrote a biography about him, he made it to being the worst. she taught him how to write. andrew johnson did not learn to read until he was about 17 or 18 years old. he got married -- lesley: i have a crack to make, but i better keep it

the u.s. in a white house meeting last week. cnn has now confirmed the key points of that story first reported by the "washington post." one official with knowledge telling the "post" that trump said, "i get great intel. i have people brief me on great intel every day" before he reportedly relayed the intelligence details. >> the president did not directly reveal the source of the information, but intelligence officials tell cnn the concern is russia will be able to figure out the highly sensitive source, highly sensitive in part, of course, because the information came from a foreign ally. the white house once again spinning into damage control here. cnn's sara murray starts our coverage from the white house. >> reporter: good morning, dave and christine. another day at the white house and another damaging headline. on monday evening, administration officials were sent scrambling, insisting the president did not jeopardize classified information and share it with russian officials. >> there's nothing that the president takes mor

general sally yates who serves for the justice department in the trump administration and warned the white house that michael flynn was vulnerable to russian blackmail. sally yates was fired and now for the first time in her only television interview she's speaking out. the white house has called her pa partisan and opponent to the president now she wants to set the record straight. what did you think when you heard director comey had been fir fired? >> i think this is a really troubling situation there's serious questions about the timing and motivation of the president's action. >> what was he like. >> jim is obviously he held my position deputy attorney general and we had a common back ground and i found him to be shoez boater but he would speak his mind. i don't want to go much more into it other than that. the explanation seemed to changes on what is an hourly basis seems there's only one truth and we better get to that. >> he. >> the idea of a direct yoor of white become asked for some sort of loyalty pledge is that appropriate? >> not to him individually our loyalty should be to the peopl

in a phone call making a second trip to the white house and then we get into the 18 days. how much more warning did the white house need they had a problem? >> you're exactly right. in many ways the most interesting thing we learned today was not in this hearing the exclusive report, president obama in that 90 minute oval office meeting, warned president trump not to hire mike flynn. at the time he wasn't talking about conversations with the russian ambassador because that hadn't happened yet. his general concern flynn was not suited for a job of this magnitude. the obama administration had fired flynn in charge of the intelligence agency in 2014. and to the series of meetings flynn has with the russian ambassador and talked about obama sanctions levied against russia in this election interference campaign and told the vice president he didn't talk about those things and the vice president went on television and said, no, they didn't discuss the sanctions and sally yates knew that was true and if flynn was lying he was subject to being blackmailed by the russian because the

part of the new white house media strategy. he president take that as a plus, he came here to listen, to learn, to get smarter. he's evolving. it sounds like the president came here not knowing what he believed and is is still searching. which is it? >> yeah, it's hard to see, hard to know how he's going take that, but it's a common thing with his aides describing him as someone who's constantly evolving on terrorism, islam. the paris climate agreement. if he's tired of it, he hasn't said so. the message has not been delivered to staff to stop characterizing him in that way. and but i think it's also true in the sense that trump is actually learning about these things and remarkably is going to have to make up his mind in a very short amount of time based on information, some of which he is just internalizing, so that's a lot to ask of him. in some ways, there's a lot of people hoping there's a certain inertia where the existing policy is so hard to get out of and causes so many other problems, it makes it harder for him to make

favor to the white house. apparently on a recommendation, improper communication from the deputy director of the fbi who told the white house chief of staff something about the fbi's investigation, said this story about what we're found and looking at, it's all bs. this is what happened right after mike flynn got fired. that was so screwed up in so many ways, so many days in this new administration, wow, that's a mess, i can't believe that happened. this thing was so screwed up. at every level. the guys making a supposedly independent investigation making phone calls to reporters. and talking on the sidelines with the white house about what is and isn't going on in their investatanion ving the white house about pr advice about bad press they're getting related to that investigation. what was the actual quote from the deputy director of the fbi there? "i want you to know that the "new york times" story is bs." the biggest way this was messed up, what happened back there in mid-february, the biggest screw-up of a

peter alexander is at the white house. peter, let's talk about the comey memo, the white house push back against that, and why did james comey wait to reveal all of this? >> to be clear right now, the white house is lurching from one crisis to another. a memo kept by james comey. we're told he kept memos after every phone and in personal conversation -- person conversation he had with the president. this one says the president asking him to back off of the investigation of michael flynn. the white house is pushing back on that vigorously. they say it is not truthful or accurate. they say at no time would or has the president doesasked for an investigation to be shut down, but it was striking in a conversation that i had here earlier today, they did not deny the memo exists, but they say this is simply the way the president speaks. not that he was trying to shut down an investigation, but he was trying to express his personal affinity to james comey for michael flynn saying don't pile on her, and they are trying to push back

the next day, sally yates called the white house counsel, yes, she decided that the white house counsel could come to the justice department to see the underlying evidence in thelynn case. she doesn't know if the white house counsel ever did that, because that same night she was fired by the president for refusing to try to defend the president's unconstitutional travel ban in federal court. the president's executive order on banning entrance to the united states buzz blocked by federal judges from boston to seattle and was clearly so desperately unconstitutional that the president eventually completely with drew it. while the president was trying and failing to get his travel ban enforced, he took no action to ban michael flynn from access to highly classified material, even though the white house had been warned that michael flynn could, quote, be blackmailed by the russians. >> general flynn continued to hire key senior staff on the national security council, announce new sanctions on iran's ballistic missile program, met with japanese prime minister shinzo abe along with president t

the white house is denying this. the "the new york times" report, partly today on two people who they say read the james comey memo. part of a paper trail that comey documented as the times put it, improper efforts to influence the ongoing investigation into flynn and russia. >> reporter: they didn't see this memo themselves but they source these two people they say they read it. the action has been has pouring in. they're talking about the possibility, raising the justice. that's of course a federal crime. one senator said we may be talking about an impeachment process. this just came in, i don't think we could be stunned anymore given the past week. the same reaction at the white house tonight. >> another long night ahead for you, cecilia. >>> i want to bring if in pierre thomas, who covers the fbi. pierre, you confirmed this evening that comey did write a memo to document his interaction with president trump. the president trump allegedly asked him to go easy on flynn. >> david, the source said he's seen the comey

the white house received almost any advanced notice before the news. for jeff sessions who was at the white house when the news came down. it is unclear how the mueller news will impact the white house. one official describes staffers exhausted after 72 hours before the president leaves on the first foreign trip. christine and dave. >> jim, thank you. kpil i capitol hill insiders were caught off guard. speaker paul ryan did get a head 's up, but others were not. lawmakers are an applauding the choice of robert mueller. >> that is for those who have seen their agenda pushed back. one republican aide tells phil mattingly that members are happy to have the issue as someone else's problem for now. we get more from sunlen serfaty on capitol hill. >> reporter: good morning, dave and christine. the response initially on capitol hill has been overwhelmingly positive and certainly seems to have gone a long way to lower temperatures up on capitol hill. praise coming from both democrats and republicans. saying that bob mueller is someone respected and with great

that is the deepening crisis in the white house itself. senator corker, the senator from tennessee said this week that the administration was in a downward spiral. that got a lot steeper today. we haven't seen this since the nixon administration. the white house itself lost control of the narrative. they are no longer able to tell their story because it's so drowned out by the cascade of leaks and things the president has said or done that he shouldn't have done. he would have been wiser not to have done. look at today while they were in the air going t saudi arabia, that long flight, they are landing in the midst of more chaos and more uncertainty in a story that overwhelms what they are doing in saudi arabia. that is not a good spot for a president to be. it's a dangerous place to be as a growing member of people in the country wonder whether trump himself is a danger to the country. >> the irony here, some of the most debilitating leaks is not coming from the intelligence community, but inside donald trump's own white house. >> this spea

it's extremely serious. >> there is a lot of talk in the white house that people in the white house werehappy to see james comey fired, that countless people e-mailed or texted or spoke to sara huckabee sanders, the deputy white house press secretary, about how happy they were that the president decided to fire james comey. acting director mccabe disputed this yesterday. let's take a listen to what he said. we don't have that sound bite. >> director comey enjoyed broad support within the fbi. i can confidently tell you that the majority, the vast majority of fbi employees enjoyed a deep and positive connection to director comey. >> i've heard from countless members of the fbi that are grateful and thankful for the president's decision, and i think that we may have to agree to disagree. i've certainly heard from a large number of individuals, and that's just myself. and i don't even know that many people in the fbi. >> there you have andrew mccabe and you have sara huckabee sanders saying they were happy about it. there is also a lot of discussion about whether or not this is going to ham

the fact that the white house officials had the opportunity to look at the classified materials, prompting a concern of d.o.j., undercuts white house spokesman sean spicer's assertion that d.o.g. gave a heads up. and it took 18 days to take action against flynn, only after a "washington post" report revealing that d.o.j. report to white house officials. >> thank you, pamela brown. i appreciate that. want to bring in john dean. john dean is the former white house counsel for president richard nixon. he is the author of "conservatives without conscien conscience." thank you for joining us. what did you think of the hearing today? there was more detail. there was furtherer evidence this white house is not inclined to deal with this issue. they are stalling and sto stonewalling, if you will. he could clear this up so quickly if he wanted to. that's why everyone thinks there's something there. the way she's responding to it and dealing with it. >> how can he clear it up quickly? >> he can say, anybody on my staff who has hinted at being involved, will testify in front of any forum, grand jury,