out and say he had tapes? suppose there no tapes. >> guys, thank you both very, very much. we are going to get a gauge of this and the fall out from all of this as well and big elections tonight in england. so much to cover, so little time. trish regan. >> yes. we are waiting right now on president trump's personal lawyer. he's going to be responding to what we heard from james comey, the former head of the fbi. that testimony he just gave. mark speaking any minute, so we are watching for that. you're looking at the live picture coming into us from dc. now, the fir special response coming after the former fbi director basically went out and called the president a liar and admitted to asking a friend to leak memos to the media about what was said about a private meeting with the president. just so we're clear on this. he woke up in the middle of the night and decided to send

these memos that he had been keeping to a law professor he was friends with at columbia university. and then he had that law professor leak those memos to the press. even though he says he found president trump's request to end the michael flynn investigation, troubling and appropriate, he never alerted his superiors. i am trish regan. welcome, everyone, to the intelligence report. i want to point out that the market has seen new highs today. we're continually seeing green on the screen. you can see up highs on the session, but nonetheless up 37 points. and the reason is investors are cheered by the fact that you probably have no concerns for impeachment here because there does not seem to be any obstruction of justice. now, as we await for the first official response of the president's lawyer, i want to go to our own blake burman who is at the white house. and, blake, i'm told his team doesn't like the way comey was presenting him by saying that comey considered him a liar.

>> well, we'll hear from mark at any moment because the white house officially at this hour has been presilent on the reaction to the james comey hearing. we just got done with a press briefing off camera with the deputyhite houre secretary sarah sanders, and she actually said to us, quother fromere. she said it's a regular thursday at the white house. that's how they're trying to play it. clearly, though, the news on capitol hill has been grabbing the attention of the white house. though, the president on this day has yet to respond. didn't do so on twitter, didn't do so either when he went down the street. spoke for about 30 minutes, the words jim comey never uttered by the president. so they're setting the table here for mark to officially respond. 's personal attorney. and we await to hear what he has to say. however, trish, one note from that hearing, as you know jim comey, one of the

reasons he kept these memos because in his words, he felt the president might be a liar. at that briefing, sarah sanders was asked point-blank is the president a liar? and this was her response, trish. and i quote here. no. i can definitively say the president is not a liar and frankly, she says, i think it is insulting the question would be asked. we hear from him, trish, at any moment here. trish: all right. thank you very much. i want to go to our own adam shapiro on more of what may possibly be the biggest news out of today's hearing. which is the former fbi director asked his friend to leak contents of his memos to the media. adam, i'm disturbed by this because, you know, there's a lot of sleaze around this. you know, if you want to sit down with a member of the media, sit down with a member of the media. don't go writing up thes things and leaking it to your friend and having him do your dirty work.

>> well, i'm happy to anyone who is willing to leak to us. but i have to tell you, trish, mr. comey did admit as he was testifying that it did occur to him that he woke up after the president had made the tweet about there might be tapes of their conversation. and he actually said during the hearing, lord, i hope there are tapes. but then he revealed it was his idea to share the memo with his friend, professor daniel richmond at columbia university to then get them leaked to the new york times. here's what he said about that. >> the president tweeted on friday after i got fired that i better hope there's not tapes. i woke up in the middle of the night on monday night because it didn't dawn on me originally that there might be corroboration for our conversation. there might be a tape. and my judgment was i needed to get that out into the public square, so i asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter. i didn't do it myself for a variety of reasons, but i

asked him to because that might prompt a question of the counsel. so i asked a friend to do that. >> who was that? >> a good friend of mine who is a pror professor at columbia law school. >> and, again, that good friend is daniel richmond who has turned down a request from fox for an interview. the on oth t ithat he did testify that he informed the president on three occasions that he was not the subject of investigation. but of course, there was the investigation of mr. flynn and his issues with russia. and here was the exchange between the ranking member. this would be senator warner and mr. comey about why mr. comey began to write down memos after the conversations with the president. >> i was honestly concerned that he might lie about the nature of our meeting, so i found it very important to document. >> do you feel you need to create this written record of these memos because they might need to be relied on at some future date? >> i knew there might come a day of what had happened.

not just to defend myself but to defend the fbi and our integrity as an institution and our investigative functio f. >> and, trish, for people looking for bombshells from all of this today, there was also the acknowledgment that loretta lynch, the former attorney general under president obama actually went to mr. comey when he was fbi director and instructed him not to refer to the investigation of bill clinton's meeting with loretta lynch at the airport in phoenix. not to call it an investigation but to call it a matter. the problem with that according to mr. comey was that he was concerned it would show the department of justice aligned with the clinton campaign. trish: yeah, we have news crossing right now. we are hearing from trump's lawyer, mr. telling reuters that the president never asked james comey for his loyalty.

so this indeed is part of the fiction. he never asked for loyalty. he never said i need loyalty. this is coming from mark. he's going to be speaking momentarily there. you see the live picture coming in, but that is a big headline just crossing right now. i do want to point out that we here at the intelligence report did ask daniel richmond, the law professor at columbia university that james comey sent his memos on, asked him to come on for a interview, and he said sorry. i cannot do it. so he declined. joining me now for more analysis, we have attorney gregg and ford o'connell. i guess one of the things that i find most striking about this gentleman is the fact that all of those stuff gets leaked; right? but no one bothers to leak the fact that the president of the united states is not being investigated, greg. >> well, it underscores not

just media bias but maybe bias among some government officials including james comey. and it was brought up by marco rubio very effectively and sad commentary on things. trish: i think indeed it is. and i go back to what exactly was he trying to do here? why is it that it was very -- well, i guess we know why it was one sided. he had a certain axe to grind, if you would and was probably pretty darn angry about getting fired, but there is something as gregg says disturbing about now seeing in full display how this all works. the former head of the fbi can actually leak his mem to a law professor who then calls up his reporter buddies and only one side of the story gets told. >> well, let me say this. the leaking of the contents of the columbia professor raises some serious questions and is quite clear that comey knew he might be putting himself in legal jeopardy. i think the question, though, in terms of legal jeopardy for comey is at the time you leak that memo to the columbia law

professor, was it a personal memo or was it a government document? and i think that that's a big thing because -- and also, we know that congress requested this document. but the leaking apparently occurred before that, so maybe comey knew that he was really covering his backside seven days to sunday here. but it does raise a lot of questions and also raises the question about the credibility of comey as a witness overall today. >> let me answer the question as to whether it's his personal government or the government's. it's not comey's document. you look up the law and the federal records act is well as the fbi's own records say anything that you compose in the course of your employment is not yours, it is the government's property. so the question becomes did comey do anything other than violate the federal regulations? did he commit a crime? that's debatable. the document was unclassified, but you can still be prosecuted for leaking an

unclassified document if it deals with national security information. now, the memo itself as far as we know does not do that for the overall investigation into russian interference certainly does. trish: all right. let me share with you guys. this just crossing right now, mark, the president's personalw, and he says, and i'm going to quote right from it here. it just crossed. i need loyalty. i expect loyalty. he never said it. the president also never told mr. comey i need loyalty, i expect loyalty in any form or substance. this is according to president trump's lawyer. you know, given what we have just learned and, again, i go back to comey wanting to influence this story via his friend, via his own accounts getting his side out there, i wonder how this is all going to play out because it is a he said, he said kind of environment, and we know where comey's bias'

coming from, ford o'connell. >> yeah. look, there's no question that comey is basically out for himself, and he's not extremely fond of president trump. i think that was obvious when he said, oh, i never took memos of president obama or loretta lynch, but i'm taking memos of donald trump because i think he's a liar, and i'm basically concerned about what's -- i think what really bothers me in the course of everything here. he said, well, he ordered me to shut down the flynn investigation. me never takes an over action to actually tell anyone else at the time that this actually occurs and give it to when he thought he was going to get his backside in a sling if you will with the clinton investigation. he had no problem speaking out. he also had no problem in 2004 speaking out about the domestic surveillance act. so this doesn't really match his mo. it seems comey was all about comey toda >> you know what wasleazy about what comey did today is that he said the president defamed me.

he's a lawyer. he know the president was expressing an opinion about why he fired him. and an opinion is protected speech, and it is not by definition defamation. so that was a sleazy thing for comey to throw around the word defamation. it was a bit unfair. trish: the big thing was obstruction of justice. people were questioning with regard to our president had stood in the way of this investigation. from what you heard today, any chance obstruction of justice is still on the table? >> none whatsoever. i mean comey exonerated the president of any accusation, however dubious of obstruction. how? because there was nothing more than the memo that he published yesterday, which says that the president hoped he could see clear to clearing flynn and the investigation. hoping and wishing is not obstruction. obstruction by statute requires the actor to be corrupt, and it defines what

that is. it's lying, threatening, bribing, destroying documents, or altering or concealing evidence. none of those things are alleged by comey, therefore there's no obstruction. trish: yet there's this dying sideshow; right? that's consuming the media. we know the media is bias already. but yet it was proved once again by the fact that they were willing to take james comey's memo and not bother to report on the fact -- and perhaps comey didn't want them to be reporting on the fact that the president wasn't under investigation. and yet we're consumed by this. >> absolutely. look, the democrats want to use this as a political weapon to stop the trump agenda, and they basically want to scare out of congressional republicans. let me say one more thing legally that gregg just pointed out. yes, i do agree there's zero obstruction of justice case here.

but if you listen to comey very clearly, comey subscribed to the theory of absolute presidential authority. what that means is he can hire and fire whoever he wants and open and close whatever investigation he wants. basically he said i subscribe to this theory and no matter what, the president is exonerated from obstruction of justice. trish: i'm going to tell you. i'll say it. the president hasn't done himself any favors. i think we can agree on that. however, i guess i just expected a little bit more from a guy who has worked in government, i'm talking comey, who should know certain systems, protocol what you can do, what you can't do. perhaps he knows it in some ways, gregg, a little too well. i mean the whole idea of leaking things. i mean, this is really the root of the problem right now that trump faces. how do you get anything done when you get all of these holdovers in your administration that effectively are out to get

you? >> the president has a real oblem. look, every incoming administration, especially suffers leaks because you've got holdovers. but the president has not moved swiftly in replacing those holdovers. and honestly, i have never seen such a level of damaging leaks intended to harm the president of the united states. and part of the problem is that this president came into office with not a lot of government loyalists. for example, ronald reagan had his kitchen cabinet, you know, ed, the whole can gang. they all came with them, they were all immensely loyal. he didn't have the kind of loyalists in previous experience. trish: it's a good point, and it's not playing out well because you're seeing a little too much politics right now, ford o'connell. again, i want to remind everyone we are awaiting on president trump's

personal attorney mark who will be speaking momentarily. just some headlines from what we can anticipate. reporters will ask questions. he's saying the president never told mr. comey i need loyalty. i expect loyalty. he said he never said this in any form or substance. ford, what do you make of that? >> i think that's very, very important. i hope that trump's attorney can actually prove that statement. but i -- even if he did say it, i do think it was improper. it was crashed. but i don't see it as being illegal when you look at the law. so i mean, i'm glad that he's going out and pushing back because frankly, a lot of what comey said today made him a very bad witness of his own character based on what we know before and at we have seen. but i really hope that he can push back on this. trish: all right. here's james comey. he's leaving his private session that he just had. he was just testifying privately in that closed hearing. you of course heard him earlier today in the open hearing there.

this is consuming washington, consuming the country right now. people have been watching it very carefully. and the big shocker of course today was that james comey was really trying to dictate the narrative as he left office there, as he left his position as head of the fbi by calling up a friend, giving him a bunch of memos, in which he had transcribed his side of things and then having parts of those memos leaked to the press. interestingly enough, the one headline that might have helped the president of the united states the fact that he wasn't under investigation by james comey that never got leaked, yet all the other stuff did. lots of questions as to james comey's motivate here. let's not forget, guys, the history. right, gregg? i mean, what we went through as a country during the election frankly because of what seemed to be the inability to really do his job

properly and privately enough. that's james comey i'm talking about who basically had everybody mad at him. >> you know what? he gave a little bit to both sides. he gave more to trump today than he gave, you know, to the democrats. and what was striking was, you know, his bombshell, if you can call it that, about you know what? loretta lynch seemed to be in bed with the hillary clinton camp, wanting to help her out by saying don't call it an investigation. just call it a matter as if it's some innocuous thing. and of course james comey is the one who said during the clinton investigation we only investigate crimes. so in truth, what comey should have been saying and loretta lyh is this is a criminal investigation of hillary clinton. trish: i remember that well. in fact, i remember some of

what he said of hillary clinton at the time when he said this is not a criminal investigation, yet it kind of had to be if it was at the level that it was at. let me go to blake burman right now. he's joining us more with what we will hear momentarily from mark. >> the president's personal attorney kind of breaks down his statement into four areas. four distinct areas. in a statement first outlining as he says that today james comey said that the president was not under investigation by the fbi. and two, nor were any votes changed. that was the top part of the statement. and then he goes on to push back on the as it relates to michael flynn and loyalty. saying that the president never suggested to jim comey that the fbi stop investigating anyone. also saying that the president had never asked for what amounted to a loyaltiy pledge from the president. and then the fourth part of this, trish, the back end of this statement is where he goes on to slam the revelation from jim comey himself today that he handed over the memo

that he had kept from a law school professor to have them turn over with it to the media to get a special vegetation of. and kasowitz went a step further, trish, by suggesting that maybe law enforcement should look into the matter. kasowitz writing we will leave it in the appropriate authorities whetr thleaks should be investigated along with all of these others being investigated. he goes on to say, trish, in some, jim comey vindicated the president by saying he was not under investigation. as of may 9th that comey did not have any evidence that the president was personally under investigation. and then kasowitz goes on to slam the leak that appears to have handed over.

trish: the leak shows you what we're talking about here. and i go back to all the leaks, we never had it leaked that the president was not under investigation, blake. >> and that was the line of questioning from marco rubio. the republican senator who kind of went through all of the instances and said "on why didn't that part get out?" trish, i will tell you this much. at the briefing today, i asked sarah sanders the following: i said, look, the president was not shy talking about about russia. both on camera and in tweets. and if he had been told all along on three occasions, as we now know from jim comey that he was not personally under investigation, do you know why the president didn't personally say, hey, i know this. why did he wait until the end until he fired comey? i asked sanders and she told me she did not. one of the outstanding questions on this. the president sat on that information but then again,

the information too didn't get leaked out either. trish: blake burman, thank you very much. we'll keep checking in with u, again, reminding everybody that we're waiting on donald trump, the president of the united states personal lawyer mark kasowitz who's going to be coming out and making a statement. we have already heard some excerpt from what he's going to say. he will point out for one thing that the president never asked james comey for loyalty. and that's so much of what we heard today of the testimony that he gave. so what are the political costs here? joining me now, editor of the national review, and gregg and ford both lawyers, by the way. so good to have on a day like today. they're still with me as well. i'll start with you. what do you think? is this basically vindication for donald trump? for the president of the united states? >> i think you have to separate two things. one is the way president trump conducted himself, which was improper and inappropriate and

a lot of respects. and then there's a legal case. and i don't think there's a legal case against him. he brings up the flynn thing once, never brings it up again. just says he hopes he can let mike go after he has is you find enough. and what trump was overwhelmingly obsessed by was the fact that he wasn't under investigation, and he wanted to get that out. so maybe he shouldn't of fired comey over that. but firing him is not a criminal offense. trish: and yet we have the media trying to suggest that it is and we have taxpayer dollars being put in the effort. is this one giant, colossal, waste of time in your view, rich? >> no. i don't think it's a nothing burger. i think it's important to know what's the truth? did trump and him for loyalty or not? if he did ask him for loyalty, that's improper in the universe. you never want to have the president asking the fbi

director that. trish: i agree with you. but it's not like he can get away with it because you still need to understand what's at stake. but he's a little loose, shall we say with his terms, with his speech, what he says and sometimes, you know, we -- we watch him, and we say okay. but i think earlier meant this, but he's saying this. again, no excuse for anyone. you are the president of the united states. >> another instance. we saw this throughout the primary campaigns, throughout the general election. trump would say or do things that would kill dead anyone else. and this comey testimony if they're any other republican president, we would be talking about this person melting down before our eyes and leaving the next day. but there's this different standard that somehow trump establishes for himself. and democrats have been so hysterical. trish: they've been so tough and frankly, i keep getting back to the issues that matter; right? and that's that people need to take care of themselves, their families, they need to feel secure and

donald trump has promised them that. and he is also promised to go in and break up a system that has become in many ways quite corrupt. i mean, he uses the term swamp. but you get big money controlling a lot of stuff and a lot of people. and people are sick and tired of it. so he is for them their last hope, is he not? >> you know, there's no question that the american electorate that voted for donald trump was looking to blow up the system, to change things, to get away from career politicians and politics as usual, and i think because, you know, he's a billionaire, because he was, you know, a businessperson, they saw his motivation as maybe less self-serving than the traditional american politician. and so, you know. i think that's a contributor factor and i think why donald trump does get away with more than the traditional politician because people see

him as a businessperson, as an entertainer. they make the assumption that, you know, he isn't choosing his words, as you even said, trish. so that's one of the reasons why he probably is not necessarily imploding. let me say one very quick thing. i don't think we do know the, quote, unquote, truth in any way of definitive certainty because it is a he said, she said. and there's a reason why we do not allow cameras in federal courtrooms because we try to allow -- and i'm not a lawyer. but we try to allow the justice system particularly in federal court to be absent of theatrics. and what we're having here is theatrics on both sides latching onto things and the real substance is in these closed hearings that we will never see. >> ford, i imagine a lot of democrats are salivating at all of this; right? they probably have strategies mapped out. it's all how is this going to play in 2018? let's resist, resist, resist, and make sure he gets absolutely nothing done.

no repeal replace. no tax reform and consequently they think they will fail him. >> yeah. look, they're going to use this as a political weapon and say gee, it raises more questions. well, it might not be obstruction of justice. it might not be collusion, but maybe it's impeachment. it's improper, it's wrong, it's my feelings, it's my emotion. unfortunately, none of it is the law. and what kills me in this whole deal is when marco rubio asks why didn't you make public that the president was under vegetation of? and he goes i didn't want to have to correct the president. i promise you the answer is no. imagine if you're donald trump, and you're sitting in that white house, and you know it, the fbi director knows it, and everyone is slamming you, you're taking slings and arrows from the media, from republicans, from the democrats, and you can't say anything? i would have gone berserk more than he did on twitter. i mean, this is absolutely insane.

he may not be a sympathetic character. donald trump may not be insane. but the bottom line is right now, he's not under investigation and the entire trump collusion is a myth to hurt the american people. trish: you know, to your point, he may not be a sympathetic character. however, when you learn that the media was basically, you know, getting sold this story from james comey's friend on behalf of james comey nobody bothers to say the president is not under investigation, you see firsthand close up exactly the kind of bias that exists, gregg. >> it wasn't until he released the statement that the american public learned that the president has not been and is not now under investigation for collusion, which, by the way, isn't even a crime. only a antitrust law.

trish: well, i hear you, although collusion, what exactly is collusion? if they're going to try to actually say there was, quote, unquote, collusion, they need to define what collusion is. and that means, you know, you're working with the russian deliberately to hack into some voting machine -- >> it would require an overt act by somebody in the trump campaign to aid and abet in the hacking of systems, computer systems related to the election. other than -- and there's no evidence of that. trish: hang tight. here he is. mark kasowitz, everyone. see what he says to defend his claim donald trump's personal attorney. he will be making a statement and not be taking any questions. >> ladies and gentlemen, i'm mark kasowitz. president trump's personal lawyer. contrary to numerous false press accounts leading up to today's hearing, mr. comey has now finally confirmed publicly

what he repeatedly told president trump privately. that is, that the president was not under investigation as part of any probe into russian interference. the president -- mr. comey also admitted that there is no evidence that a single vote changed as a result of any russian interference. mr. comey's testimony also makes clear that the president never sought to impede the investigation into attempted russian interference in the 2016 election. and, in fact, according to mr. comey, the president told mr. comey quote it would be good to find out, closed quote, in that investigation if there was quote some satellite associates of his who did something wrong, closed quote.

and he, president trump, did not exclude anyone from that statement. consistent with that statement, the president never in form or substance directed or suggested that mr. comey stop investigating anyone, including the president never suggested that mr. comey quote let flynn go, closed quote. as for the president publicly stated the next day, he did say to mr. comey quote general flynn is a good guy. he has been through a lot, close quote. and also quote and how general flynn is doing, closed quote. admiral rodgers testified today that the president never quote directed him to do anything illegal, immoral, unethical, or inappropriate,

closed quote. and never, never quote pressured him to do so, closed quote. director said the same thing. the president likewise never pressured mr. comey. the president so never told mr. comey quote i need loyalty. i expect loyalty, closed quote. he never said it in form, and he never said it in substance. of course the office of the president is expected to title loyalty for those serving the administration. and before this, the president -- and from before this president took office to this day, it is overwhelmingly clear that there have been and continue to be those in government who are actively attempting to undermine this administration with selective and illegal leaks of

classified information and privileged communications. mr. comey has now admitted that he is one of these leakers. today mr. comey that he unilaterally made unauthorized disclosures to the press of privileged communications with the president. the leaks of this privileged information began no later than march 2017 when friends of mr. comey have stated that he disclosed to them the conversations that he had with the president during their january 27th, 2017 dinner and february 14th, 2017 white house meeting. today, mr. comey admitted that he leaked to friends of his purported memos of those

privilege communications. one of which he testified was classified. mr. comey also testified that immediately after he was terminated, he authorized his friends to like a the content of those memos to the press in order to -- in mr. comey's words -- quote prompt the appointment of a special counsel, close quote. although mr. comey testified that he only leaked the memos in response to a tweet, the public record reveals that the new york times was quoting from those memos the day before the referenced tweet, which mr. comey's excuse for this unauthorized disclosure of privileged information and appears to be entirely retaliatory. we will leave it to the appropriate authorities to determine whether these leaks

should be investigated, along with all of the others that are being investigated. in some, it is now established that the president was not being investigated for colluding with or attempting to obstruct any investigation. as the committee pointedut today, these important facts for the countrto know are virtually the only facts that have not been leaked during the course of these events. as he said yesterday, the president feels completely vindicated and is eager to continue moving forward with his agenda with the business of this country, and with this public cloud removed. thank you. trish: that was mark kasowitz going on the offense there saying james comey may have done something really, really bad by leaking that information. i'm joined now by the whole team here. gregg, your response to that.

>> well, if it's true as the attorney says that comey leaked something that was classified, there is no justification for that. that's ten years behind bars. unclassified, it would have to deal with national defense information. so in this context, that's debatable. but classified information, that's absolutely a crime by comey if it happened as the attorney said it did. . >> but comey said in his testimony i wrote all of these memos to be unclassified. >> that's what i was going to say. >> with a shrewed maneuver, he knew he would have to spread these around at some point. >> i never heard comey to refer to a classified document. only unclassified. trish: i'm on the same page. what is the difference? maybe ford knows the answer to this. ford, if it's privilege versus classifi. >> in lawyer said privileged but comey said he made them --

he made them constructed to be classified. trish: so he was thinking this whole thing through; right? from the very beginning. we know that at some point he thought i may have to come forward with all of this. >> it seems like it was a setup by comey. i'm going to keep this document. i'm purposefully going to make it unclassified so that i can leak it, harm the president, defend myself some time down the road if it comes to that. trish: wow. i mean, what happened to just doing your job? i mean. >> this is classic comey. he is bureaucratically agile to the max. he's a great media manipulator. and as a practical matter, whatever the merits of the decision to fire him, firing him and doing it this way ensured that he would do everything he could -- >> so it's retaliatory. he was trying to get back at the president and, you know, it just -- it reinforces what donald trump's base already feels, which is that there's a system that has been rigged against him from the start.

. >> that's exactly right that there's a system that's against them that does not represent their interest, and he's the last, best chance to turn things around in washington and to make america good for everyone. not just the folks on the coast, the smug republican elites, and the democrats. to them, this is vindication for trump. what i did see kasowitz was trying to do is reverse by saying wait a minute, you call it classified, i call it executive privilege. in that case, you may be in legal jeopardy here, comey. but helso set up another legal defense, which was interesting. he's saying he said, trump versus comey's word. tie goes to the president. and the other point he was basically saying is comey is a weak witness. he engages in bad behavior. it may not be illegal. this is very interesting what kasowitz is trying to do here. he's not playing politics. he's playing law. >> i don't know what the term privilege means in the context of which kasowitz was

referring to it. an executive privilege only the president can invoke it. nobody else can invoke it. so i don't know what he's talking about here when he says a privileged conversation. members of congress have conversations with the president all the time and, you know, they sometimes start talking about it publicly afterwards. there's nothing technically and legally privilege about having a conversation with the president. trish: well, maybe this is more about the narrative; right? scare tactic it could be. >> that's exactly right. exactly what it is. trish: hey, maybe it's comey that did something illegal and basically trying to shift the blame in some ways. by the way, very quickly, your thoughts on attorney general loretta lynch and how she may have been in cahoots, so to speak, with the hillary clinton campaign. james comey seems to think, capri, that was the case. >> you know, i found that very interesting as well. but the fact that jim comey

kind of admitted that loretta lynch was trying to shape that narrative by utilizing the term i think matter as opposed to investigation, the fact that he did admit that i think did help his credibility a little bit because it showed that he was willing and able to be critical of the previous administration. >> he may have thought that one through too, though. this is someone who knows how to play the media. >> that hurts the entire i think merit of all of this. i mean, i think there are a lot of things that the american public deserves to know about, you know, the russia investigation and whether or not paul manafort, for example, may have been involved in one way, shape, or form. but because of how this has unfolded, because there are so many questions of credibility and motivation by james comey, that hurts the integrity of this investigation for democrats, republicans, and americans alike. trish: and that was part of kasowitz's point. you can't trust him. and this is a narrative you will see many members of the right spin. thank you so much, rich, capri, ford, and gregg.

so good to have you. all of you. terrific analysis. we go to markets. it's hanging on there. basically flat lined down eight points. investors are taking all of this news in stride. in fact, the dow earlier hitting a new all-time high just as that james comey hearing wrapped up. we're going to talk about this. what is the market reaction? i will tell you, investors are not worried. find out why, next think again.

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new lower taxes. and new university partnerships to grow the businesses of tomorrow today. learn more at esd.ny.gov trish: all right. we've been watching the markets right now pretty much hugging the flight line. it had hit an all-time high just as james comey finished his testimony. and we're off 12 right now. however, the nasdaq is up 9. what i would point out is that this is a market that is taking all of this news in stride. in other words, if people really thought that the president of the united states was about to be impeached or the president of the united states was going to get embroiled in some sort of watergate-like controversy

again, then i can guarantee you they would be backing off. you would see a big plunge in markets. it hasn't happened. so what is it that is exciting to investors right now? joining me program chairman brian along with our own nicole petallides who's down at the new york stock exchange and, nicole, i was talking to some people in the financial world earlier today, and they were all gathered around the tv watching this. they are captivated by this. but you know what? it's not affecting trading. >> that's 100% correct. that's exactly the conversation i had down here. just finished talking with a trader who said, look, nicole, the whole thing, the whole comey hearing, everybody was watching it. did not move the markets in a way that was negative. on the contrary, they didn't get anything bad from it. it was all good for the most part; right? and we move to new record highs, and then the trader finished the conversation by saying, nicole, if you see any selling of the back half for the day, that is because we're at record highs. that is because stocks have

been breaking out to new highs and people might take profits or sell off a little bit. there are some concerns about oil. it is nothing to do with president trump. on the contrary, you think small caps acting great. trish: that's right. you need strong earnings, strong employment. you got those. as long as you don't have a president that's impeached or some world war iii scenario, it would be helpful if we get a few other things like repeal and replace obamacare. if we would get tax reform. that would be helpful. but as a whole, the market seems to be telling us we're doing okay. >> yeah. here i think wall street actually think soke. mainstream wants to know is there something illegal or not? is the president going to get impeached or not? that's what wall street is saying as well. as long as those answers aren't "yes," let's go to work, let's trade based on

earnings, based on fundamentals in the economy. you know, it's funny to see in dc you have everybody congregating at the bars and pubs to watch comey. the people of the united states were working. they're building the place. so it's funny to see the contrast between dc and wall street here. drama doesn't move traders the way it moves pundits. trish: because there's the reality that you need to make money; right? i mean, if you were so easily influenced by every little drop, and let's not forget a lot of this isn't entirely -- i hate to use fake news, but it's not all real. the fact i keep pointing this out. everything got leake right? about comey, except for the fact that the president of the united states was not under investigation because guess what? the people doing the leaking, they wanted you to think the president was under investigation. >> i have to tell you your point all traders expect now going forward because they

know it to be true, people -- there's a lot of people who don't like the current president who don't believe in his policies and the like. and they're going to try to get him or some sort of witch hunt over the next several years. the traders expect it. what they're watching, though, are the headlines, and they're positive for the president. the president was on point. there's no obstruction of justice or collusion with russia. i mean in the end, there was no big bombshell revelation. there was no smoking gun. in the end, everything worked out just fine and the president will go on with his job as he has been. >> you know, i always think it's important to look at the market's interpretation of these events, brian because they can be pretty telling. yet, you know, as we go around, i'm just looking online at some of the other media outlets, it's possible that the media will still cling to this because there's some hope i think by some members of the left if you ask

someone for their loyalty, granted maybe you shouldn't have done that. we talk about how he tends to speak a little off the cuff and doesn't have the same procedural knowledge about how you should be approaching something. so if he says, hey, i want to make sure i have your loyalty -- by the way, he denied through his lawyer that he ever, ever asked for james comey's loyalty. but that's -- that's what they're going to keep running with because they want to somehow basically make this leak from the loyalty ask to obstruction of justice. >> yeah. -- >> the market's not making it. >> there's no question the story's going to go on. but i do think markets are going to come back to that fundamental question. do we have something hard here or not? we're not interested in the hearsay. and, look, there's a lot of information we don't know, trish. of course they're having hearings behind closed doors or even the public hearings that we saw. the one thing i think the president can do here. we saw a strong reaction here. i want to see him actually move on to the big issues as we talked about.

>> thank you so much. brian, good to have you here and nicole petallides, thank you as always. hard to believe but one of our greatest presidents ronald reagan, he faced a crisis that threatened his presidency as well. president reagan was able to shake it off, and he became a great president. our economy thrived, can trump do the same? es are now just $4.. we cut the price of trades to give investors even more value. and at $4.95, you can trade with a clear advantage. fidelity, where smarter investors will always be.

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trish: big newsday here. of course we just heard a short time ago from mr. kasowitz, he's mr. trump's personal lawyer. and he made the point that james comey might have done some really bad stuff by leaking information to his friend, the columbia law professor who then went out and leaked it to the press. we know this white house has a big problem with leaking. and now we have learned that, in fact, james comey may have

been part of that problem. joining me with his analysis of all the news we've heard today. we have ed rollins, form campaign manager for president reagan. good to haveere set, sir. >> thank you. thank you. trish: what did you think? how did james comey do? what does it mean for trump? >> he's a very credible witness. he didn't lay a glove on trump. i mean, the whole question loyalty any president is titled to loyalty. the follow-up question he should have made when the president asked him can you be loyal? what do you mean by loyal? trish: kasowitz never even asked -- >> i saw that. he said, she said whatever. that's the debate that's going on on from now on. i think the only mistake is let comey go away. comey's done now, let limb go away. the president basically i think has been vindicated. he needs to go on and do his job. trish: let him go away. but doesy really want to go away? has he had his moment in the sun? >> if he wants, he can be doing four hearings a day. but i think from his perspective, he's a guy who

has had credibility in the past. you don't want to go through a two- or three-hour session every day. house committees, judicial committees, he could spend the next all summer testifying before congress. trish: yeah, i have to tell you i was surprised to hear that about -- i mean, everybody assumed it was comey that was leaking the memo. but nonetheless to learn that he woke up in the middle of the night and thought somehow he should get this out who sent it to his friend who then sent it to the media. it tells you what the president is uagainst. that there are many people there and in this case he had already been fired. but many people frappes that are still there that want to get a different narrative. >> the majority of the people served two tours of duty in the white house and the administration. there are a lot of republicans in there that are against republican and more than ever against mr. trump, president trump. so my sense is even half his white house staff were not

loyal to him before he became president. so i think the reality is he has to step forward and do the job. . trish: how does he turn it around now? and you have experience with amman who, in fact, did that. president reagan. >> reagan had big buildup before that. he won 49 states and he and everybody else around him said was the biggest mistake and most inconsistent thing he had ever done. but the premise there was he was trying to rescue hostages. so his motives were honorable motes. how it happened is not something that the media rehashed. but at the end of the day he came back because the country loved him and the country thought he had done good things and let him out of the game. but he suffered plenty. his integrity went down, people didn't believe him, and it hurt him badly. trish: you said the country loved him and the reason the country loved him is he was able to do great things. >> that's right. and that's a credible thing for president trump. >>hank you, edollins. we'll be right back

trish: tomorrow, i'm going to be joining me friend sandra, harris, and megan. all tomorrow on outnumbered over on fox news, so i do hope you tune in to the fox news channel at 12:00 noon eastern. in the meantime, we still have lots of news to digest and a market that's up 22. connell mcshane in for liz claman. connell: hey, trish, played out moments ago as president trump's personal attorney played offense and defense in what turned out to be a blistering statement saying the inflammatory fbi director comey testimony confirms the president never saw to impede the russian hacking while simultaneously accusing the former fbi director of leaking privileged information to the press. that happened just over two hours after comey concluded his own testimony before the senate intelligence committee. what a day. just ove