testimony. let's make sure that you join us for another hour. fair, balanced, and unafraid. the "the story with martha maccs of reaction today. ♪ >> martha: breaking tonight, the u.k. election polls are indicating a shocking development for british prime minister theresa may, the conservative party. her party could lose if parliamentary majority is confirmed. it would be a huge blow for prime minister who called the snap election in april and the whole idea was that she would pick up an even greater majority heading into the brexit future for the united kingdom. it could trigger a hung parliament, which could plunge the united kingdom into political uncertainty during a time when they have too much of that already. the news of this example information has sent the british town tumbling.

more or less as we get it throughout the show tonight. ♪ and good evening from washington, d.c., the only place where you will ever see the particular brand of drama that we witnessed today. >> the administration then chose to defame me and more importantly the fbi by saying that the organization was in disarray. that it was poorly led, that the work force had lost confidence in its leader. those were lies plain and simple. >> do you have any doubt that russia attempted to interfere in the 2016 elections? >> none. >> did any individual working for this administration including the justice department ask you to stop the russian investigation? >> no. >> do you ever wonder why at the thing that has never been leaked is the fact that the president was not personally under investigation despite the fact that both democrats and republicans and the leadership of congress knew that and have known for weeks? >> i don't know.

>> martha: james comey and president trump, although not in the room went mono mono in a very fears he said, he said battle today. the president saying silent, letting his lawyer doing the talking and the punching. >> the president never informed substance, directed, or suggested that mr. comey stop investigating anyone. the president also never told mr. comey "i need loyalty, i expect loyalty." he never said it in form, and he never said it in substance. mr. comey has now admitted that he is one of these leakers. >> martha: fascinating stuff today. paul ryan argued that the president's alleged request to "lift the cloud" was a rookie error. >> the president is new at this. he is new to government.

and so he probably was not steeped in the long-running protocol that establish the relationships between doj, fbi, and white houses. he is new to this. >> martha: to respond live from our borough and washington, d.c.,'s kellyanne conway, counselor to the president. thank you for being here. the president watch the testimony live today? >> so today the white house is business as usual. of the president hosted his array of meetings. he had the infrastructure assignment and a couple of senior staffers at the freedom conference where he received multiple standing ovations. -- >> martha: so he did not watch at all? >> he was aware of the testimony. he had a lot of meetings with the team. general mcmaster, also attending a couple of private policy meetings, so he of course, every single day is doing something at that white house. he is moving the agenda forward. today was no different.

i do want to make the case to everyone that where washington said it was going to shut down, literally people took the day off from work to watch this. the president did not. he worked for the american people. and infrastructure. he has committed at least $200 million, probably upwards of a trillion dollars for the public private partnership to restore bridges and roads, and also to make a more modern, better run, more accessible, less hasslefree, i should say, airline system. people will spend less time on the tarmac, we will have a safer system. that affects all travelers part of that is a nonpartisan issue. it will be great to have some bipartisan support on things like infrastructure. >> martha: just to get back to the reaction for all of this. and i understand that business when the head as usual. he had a he had a lot of meetings coming he wants to keep the agenda moving forward. but nonetheless, this testimony was significant today. what was his response to the

things that he did hear from it or the pieces that he did see? >> well at the white house we have been referring everyone, martha, to his private lawyer, and today i'm happy to report, i can actually refer you to mark estimates, the president's private lawyer statement, and you ran some of it, i really would tell the public if you want to see the full statement, go ahead and pull it out, i'm sure you can access a publicly if not through the white house website. and it is an important statement, because it reflects the president's opinion, his lawyer's characterization of the particular testimony. because if this was a classic legal case, you would have one side going the other side go. that's not how congressional testimony works. the other side does not respond. it is very important that he responded and said -- >> martha: he responded to two very specific things. he said that the president never said, i hope we can get past this with regards the comey testimony, and he said that the

president never asked jim comey for pledge of loyalty. now you have a situation where jim comey says that he wrote the copious notes, he has declared what happened in the room. we hurried marquess with its statement saying what the president's recollection was, and today we heard jim comey say, lordy, i hope that there are tapes. so are there tapes of the discussion between the president or jim comey? >> i cannot comment on that. but everybody is going to look at jim comey, but you should also look at the other statement, that is important in this case. the other thing that i would mention -- >> martha: why can you not comment on whether or not there are tapes? >> because i work in the white house. >> martha: but if there are no tapes, can't you just say that? >> the president has also said that he will not comment any further on that. >> martha: in terms of the agenda, you know, given every thing going on with the testimony today, what is the white house's plan in terms of the next few weeks, because obviously you would love to head

into the fourth of july with other things to point to you and say, we are getting somewhere in health care, the senate, what are is your plan for the next few weeks? >> thank you for asking, martha. my grievance is not only coverage, i think that we are seeing a lot on the last couple days, but my agreements is incomplete coverage, thank you for giving us a platform to talk about all of the other issues. >> martha: the american people do care about all of what you have to say a lot are frustrated with the lack of things that they can actually look at as achievement so far from the white house, so what can they expect? >> part of me. so the president went to cincinnati, ohio, he had around people victims of obamacare, reminding us why it is so important to get rid of this plan that did not help all americans as it said it would help. and you see the obamacare victims, you realize the important of having increased quality, access, lower prices, some people have the worst possible outcome, they had the health insurance card that they could not use because the

premiums were so high that they could not afford to use a paired health care, moving the pace in the senate, mcconnell and his team feel very confident that they will be able to get a vote on sometime soon, and the packages moving forward. >> martha: sometime soon, he met with leadership the other day, so sometime over the course of the summer you expected? >> before the august recess, we have been living with obamacare for a long time. seven years. it takes a long time to turn a sinking battleship. but the infrastructure and jobs, it will continue to go on the road and take his case to people. continue to announce on special projects. just today he met with governors, municipal leaders, and also tribal leaders. china instituted the public-private partnership why? because they moved out money from the federal government to the government, you are moving this data source. he is trying to bring it closer to home so that hypothetically the federal government provides

20% of the funding, you are encouraging to get the 80% from the private piece. you are encouraging their mayors and the governors in the tribal leaders who are closer to those who will invest the money and create the jobs who will execute and complete the projects. it is very exciting. this is called stimulus under president obama, a fraction that is 10% made it to infrastructure. at the rest goes in the big black hole programs in washington, d.c., that don't really fix those roads and bridges and don'ts buildings. and he and secretary elaine chao and tomorrow, the tomorrow will have the roads and announcement after the infrastructure. people should tune into large head, because it affects every single person in this country as they try to move from point a to point b, and the more seamless place away. >> martha: before he let you go, the president said he was under siege. what is the total due at the white house in terms of how to deal with what is simply not going away anytime soon? >> we are dealing with the

agenda. i am just one person there. i was in six different policy meetings today including a few with him. a few with the vice president. so we are plotting forward, and in addition, the other items are the budget, spending, and certainly tax reform. you have heard secretary, and today up at the principals out there, by law the senate has to score through the cbo, and its plan before you go forward with the health care plan before you go forward, tax plan, this calendar year, possibly after the august recess, i don't think the calendar is as important as the principles laid out. >> martha: the inspirational message from him to you guys, but keep on your work. >> you don't need inspiration, nobody there -- it is what the report say we are. we are a shakeup, where is that? we have been hearing this for four and a half months, it is completely ridiculous, the president continues to move forward with his team every single day. on behalf of the american people that i know are watching.

more importantly, everybody who is in the doghouse, still works in the white house. one everybody to focus on that. >> martha: including jeff sessions, he is not going anywhere, right? >> and people who work with for him, it is very simple. everybody assumes that their bosses have confidence in them because they are working here. we as a country, every year we spent about 7 billion hours in $250 billion complying with the tax code. that just has to stop. we have to simplify and modernize and make it fair for small business owners. it is a very sudden time, if people would focus beyond the silly gossip and who is testifying on which day, and really focus on the real papal. >> martha: kellyanne conway, thank you for stopping by with us. have a good night. 15 minutes early or appear on the roof, joining me now, chief speechwriter for president george w. bush, a fox news contributor. and for dnc advisor.

let me start with you, you watch the testimony today, obviously the white house wants to get back to the agenda, but obviously what happened today was an important, big deal. >> it was a huge deal. it was a really bad day for the white house for a couple of reasons. the first is that james comey came out and said that he believes that the reason that he was fired was because donald trump wanted to change the trajectory, change the direction of the russian investigation. that is a huge admission and a big, big problem for the white house. and to the second thing that is going to be a problem in the long term is that people are saying right now that's well, he said that donald trump was not under investigation when he was asked, and that is true. but what he did suggest very strongly, and some are saying that it is a confirmation that he is currently under investigation because of obstruction of justice, and he did. >> martha: know, what he said was, because i am no longer

there, i cannot talk -- i cannot speak to now, because i do not work there anymore. but i can confirm that he was never under any investigation. >> what he actually said, at the conclusion, i am sure that the special -- will work towards to see what the intention was there and whether that was an intense. he was talking about obstruction of justice. cooperated by the fact that what mccabe said yesterday in the testimony that said, this is either part of a criminal investigation were likely to become part of a criminal investigation, the conversation between the president of the united states and mr. comey. so this is not good news for the white house today. >> good grief, the whole point of the exercise was that donald trump somehow colluded with vladimir putin to steal the election. and comey blew that out of the water today. donald trump said several times, the cnn headline, it was tweeted out in testimony, comey will take the blanket claimed that he was found under investigation. the headline if anybody is

honest is going to be, comey confirms that donald trump is not under investigation and that he did not interfere with the russian probe, at all. all of the end really meant discussion about the flame testimony, different from the russia investigation. and you just move seamlessly from one to the next, why do you do that? >> that is absolutely not true. he said there is an investigation into the campaign that is led by donald trump. >> donald trump is not under investigation. to say it with me. donald trump is not under investigation. >> he said he was not under investigation at the time. taking me to the place where he said donald trump is not under investigation, pointing to the case in the testimony. >> repeatedly. >> he did not say that he is not currently under investigation, he said that he wasn't under investigation at the time. >> martha: i got fired, i don't have the job anymore, so i cannot speak to what happened after i left. that is a logical conclusion. let me ask you this,

politically, there are two ways to look at this. very clearly laid out by both of you. do you think that this is going to -- are democrats going to continue to make this the focus of every living, breathing the breath that they have? are they willing to get involved in the things that kelly and was talking about, tax reform, and try to get something else done? >> candidates are talking about health care and the disastrous republican plan to take health care from 24 million americans. but the russian investigation begins flame and continues to be an important piece of what we need to do to protect our republic and democracy from foreign interference. >> martha: let's speak about the larger picture of what you just had. >> so destructive on what zack and some of the democrats are doing with this. we did in fact come to the dash they wanted chaos and confusion of the government, and all the people who are trying to use this investigation to undermine

donald trump are in fact inadvertently colluding with the russians to help them do that. so they should stop. >> martha: i am leaving there. his act, mark, great to see you both. we are watching what should be a shocking election. exit polls show theresa may code blue's of the parliamentary majority that she has. a life report coming up on that. but one of the most talked about moments today. the former fbi director leaked information personally to the press. did he break the law given that those were federal documents? senator james risch and constitutional law attorney up next. ♪ >> you said after you were dismissed, you gave information to a friend so that the friend could get the information into the public media? >> correct. >> what kind of information was that? what kind of information did you give to a friend? ♪ t

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>> martha: so the question is did he, dignity meant obstruction of justice? the million-dollar question that is unanswered about president trump after detailed testimony from fire director james comey, are an guest drilling down hard for the answer today, one of the most

talked about exchanges that happen this morning. watch this. >> he did not direct you to let it go? >> not in his words, no. >> he did not order you to let it go? >> again, those words are not in order. >> he said, i hope. now, like me you probably did hundreds of cases, may be thousands of cases charging people with criminal offenses, and of course you have knowledge of the thousands of cases out there where people have been charged. do you know of any case where a person has been charged for obstruction of justice or for that matter, any other criminal offense where they said or thought that they hoped for an outcome? >> i don't know well enough to answer. and the reason i keep saying his words is, i took it as a direction. i mean, this is the president of the united states with me alone saying, i hope this. i took this as, this is what he

wants me to do. i did not obey that, but i took it that way. >> you may have taken in that way, but that's not what he said. he said i hope. >> those were the words, correct. >> you don't know anyone who is charge of hoping something, is that correct? >> i don't as i sit here. >> martha: senator james risch, good to see you tonight, sir. he is saying that's the way that he interpreted it was that he was getting a lot of pressure put on him in that moment. you are saying what really matters only are the words themselves customer >> well, look, the presidents had words, words matter, but jim comey is sitting there, he has a lawyer, a good wordsmith. if you look at the documents that he put out for us, seven pages, he was very explicit. he was exacting in his language prior to president said that he hoped for an outcome. now mr. comey said, and he is a good lawyer, he took it a different way. this is a big leak, this cannot

be moshe. if you thought the president meant something different than what he actually said, he should have said, well, mr. president, exactly what you mean? from mr. president, are you saying that i should do this? you cannot let this much up. >> martha: and when he went home that night, he perhaps would have made the choice to talk to somebody about it. i don't understand why, why was jeff sessions left out of the loop on all of this? his boss? >> well, jim comey had to do more than what he did if indeed he believed that the president was giving him some direction that was different than what his words were. >> martha: do you believe that he is under an ongoing obstruction of justice investigation as our last guest said was established today? >> i sure did not hear that. you have an expert next to talk about obstruction of justice, i am a prosecutor. i have prosecuted lots and lots

of cases. you cannot prosecute somebody for hoping something. it just does not work. i have never heard of a case like that. >> martha: what about the fact that james admitted to leaking information that were his notes, as i understand they are federal documents because they are written as an encounter between the fbi director and the president of the united states? >> it should not have been done that way. if he wanted to put them out, he should've put out a press release and put them out. kudos to him for admitting that he did date. but it should have been done in a different way. no question about that. >> martha: does a raise question in your mind about whether he was behind other leaks? >> no, i cannot go that far with it. martha, what is lost here on a lot of this is this is just a slice of what our intelligence committee is doing. we have a bipartisan committee that understands how serious this matter is of the russian attempts to influence our election. there are number of us that our prosecutors on there, we have done hundreds of investigations.

this is not on familiar ground with us. we are going to take this to where ever the facts lead. we are going to write a report. we are going to tell the american people what the russians did. we are going to talk about how we can do something about this and fix it and make sure that it does not happen again. >> martha: thank you very much. happy 40th anniversary to the riches. constitutional law attorney and law professor at george washington university joins us as well appear on the rooftop, thank you for being here tonight. i want to play a little bit of sound as we dig in here. let's play that. >> do you send it only makes sense that the president was trying to obstruct justice or just seek a way for my claim to save face given the fact that he had already been fired? >> i don't think it is for me to say whether the conversation with the president was to obstruct. i took it as a very disturbing thing. very concerning, but that is a conclusion that i'm sure the special counsel will work towards.

>> martha: what do you think? >> it is not obstruction of justice, not even close. obstruction of justice is a crime. it has elements prior to senator is correct. there isn't any case ever prosecuted on these types of facts. so the question is, how significant is it that the president allegedly said these things? it isn't in my view inappropriate for some of these things to be set if they were said, but we have to distinguish between what is a crime or impeachable and what is bad form. you do not get indicted or impeached because you are clueless or because you are rude, because you say unguarded ill-advised things. >> martha: as an american you have a right to be rude and say unguarded things, right? >> the problem with the obstruction argument is that it does not fit the code. there is no evidence that there was an attempt to obstruct a pending proceeding. no evidence of this conduct that would corruptly influence a proceeding.

so when you hear these types of issues, you know, as the senator said, what were his precise words? words do matter. they constitute the elements of crimes. those elements are not here. >> martha: what about the dinner description of "i need her loyalty. i would like your loyalty." he describes it as a tony soprano as it was mentioned before kind of moment, it is very clear to me what he was trying to do, he was trying to put the screws to me on this. >> martha: even if that is true, that does not make you tony soprano. i'm sure that the president will say that he was meaning something different. as a criminal defense attorney it seems obvious what he might've been talking about, but the president at that point was being pummeled by leaks. there were people in the administration and still are that are leaking information, it is having a big impact. >> martha: where you can delete men concerned about the leak that james comey admitted today? >> i'm very concerned about it. i'm not sure where this has gone

to the wayside. there is a strong argument to be made that they are documents. he wrote the memo on the government's computer during his service of fbi director at about a manner under his jurisdiction. to say that that is somehow a diary entry -- >> martha: the irony of this is when you look back at the hillary clinton investigation, very rich. to say that everything that in the event transpired on that server is government property because she dated as secretary of state and was removing the government documents to this exposed place, that was something that he was deeply involved in. then argue that these notes don't fall under that seems odd. >> that is the question for james comey, is the symbol that you would apply to all fbi agents? if they write something on a government computer to themselves, it is our property? even if it were, why would you give it to a professor to give to the media? i think it raises very significant ethical problems.

evaluates regulation. i could even be a federal offense. >> martha: jonathan turley, thank you very much. great to have you here tonight. eric falwell and assistant director ron hospital are here on what is next for the russia investigation when we come back on the rooftop and d.c., more with the story. >> why do you believe that you were fired? >> i don't know for sure, but i believe -- i take the president at his word that i was fired because of the russia investigation. ♪ award winning design. award winning engine. the volvo xc90. the most awarded luxury suv of the century. visit your volvo dealer to take advantage of our midsommar sales event offer.

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♪ >> martha: tonight, the leaks are one of the made headlines by former fbi director james comey, president terms as announced leaks left and right. but new questions swirling about what info was not leaked, watch this. >> do you ever wonder why if the only thing that has never been lengthy is the fact that the president was not under investigation despite the fact that both democrats and republicans in the leadership of congress knew that and have known that for weeks? >> i don't know. i find matters that are brief to the gang of eight are pretty tightly held in my experience. >> martha: eric falwell who sits on the intelligence committee, he joins me here.

good to see you this evening. i thought that was a pretty interesting moment, because he looked back on the leaks that have until "the new york times," one of which was that james comey had been out to make a loyalty pledge, and then right after that you have the president saying, james comey better hope that there are no tapes. that was followed up by the memo's. the one thing that the president wanted to get out there was can you please let them know that i am not under investigation, the only thing that never got leaked. >> maybe he was following director comey's advice, not to talk about investigation otherwise the director would have to prove a negative. i think the most damaging thing was that he sought the directors loyalty -- >> martha: james comey was leaking things about the investigation -- >> i don't think he was leaking anything. a >> martha: he admitted it today. he wanted to make sure that people knew his side of the story. >> james comey was a private citizen when that was disclosed, so as long as he disclosed it, there is not a problem. he said today after the hearing as i understand that he hopes the memos become public.

which i should. >> martha: he said that i wanted them to be leaked because he wanted a special prosecutor. >> we should have a special prosecutor, now we do. this investigation is now in the hands of bob moeller, we just hope that we can conduct an honest one, it makes progress and is independent. the president needs to stay out of the way. he has caused more trouble by getting in the way of the fbi's investigation in the house intelligence investigation. i hope he learns his lesson and lets us proceed. >> martha: why is it unusual that he would want them to speak about the fact that he was not under investigation given the fact that there was as he said, the cloud hanging over. he wanted to get out of the agenda? doesn't that sound like a fairly reasonable thing to want? he has been told three times directly by the fbi director that he confirmed today, and that was the one thing that the fbi director was not willing to get off of him. >> the reason that director, gave was a valid one.

the president's team was under investigation, and that is what is important here. the timeline. to the president learns that his team is under investigation at the very latest on march 20. and then you follow the timeline, director comey is called by the president and asked to lift the cloud around the investigation. then fired after. i think that dots connect to director comey not doing what the president wanted, and so he was fired. >> martha: i couldn't do it because there then there would be a duty to correct if we reopened or open for the first time to the president. >> we have never done that before, right? >> martha: exactly. you look back at last summer, so why was the clinton investigation, he wanted to protect them from getting a special prosecutor, and this case he wanted to lead to that credit doesn't that seem like a double standard? >> maybe the director of alt and understood what they dated to the country, right or wrong. so i would not look too deeply into that.

>> martha: eric swalwell, good to have you with me. on my left, ron housecoat, former assistant director to the fbi, you are listening to the conversation, what stands out to you? >> first the director's opening commentary, very powerful and talking to the fbi employees, i communicated with a friend who has still been there for a number of years on the way over tonight, and she said that it moved her to tears. that connected with me too. the way that he was terminated in his ability to talk to the workforce before this committee and i think that he was preserved. i think that this was not over the top presentation. he was very thoughtful and of the senator's questions, and he answer them narrowly. he confined his answers in a way that tried to avoid speculation

about, he does not know what was in the president's head. he was telling us how he interpreted those comments. so i thought he was subdued, he was somber. >> martha: when you listen to him take you through those moments where he feels that he is being pressured to see his way clear and drop in investigation, and yet he does not tell anybody that, he does not go to jeff sessions, he does not say, mr. president, paul ryan says that you are going to adhere to a lot of relationships in washington, but you simply cannot even suggest that to me. why would jim comey? he is a big guy. why would he not have the backbone to do that? >> he has struggled with that answer. that may be a stronger person or a better person will be able to do it just that way. again, i am trying to put myself in jim comey's shoes, imagine yourself in that moment in the oval office, sitting in the green room with the united states united -- president of the

united states and this comes up, what is he asking me for here? so i guess i have to give james comey having worked for him, my bias is with jim comey who i have great respect for. i have to give him that space to try and process that in the moment and now we know what happened in his version. >> martha: do you think it is interesting coming he says he wanted to trigger a special prosecutor? what do you make of that? >> first, i will differ from what your colleague says, on the face of it, it was a leak of information with jim comey, whether it was a leak of classified, i don't think so. was it impermissible of something that was that was privilege? i do not think so. as a private citizen he was in a position to leak it. but in its purest terms, it was a leak. why he did not leak it directly or do it directly? we do not know why he went to a senate leadership person and

give it to them, we do not know. but by his understanding of the fence and his decision, he wanted to trigger a special prosecutor. frankly, people across this town have been calling for that for weeks before. myself included. >> martha: thank you very much. always good to have you here. breaking tonight, we are watching what is turning out to be a very interesting election in the united kingdom. exit polls showing that theresa may could lose this parliamentary majority, lab reports coming up. but first more of the comey testimony. karl rove and bill bennett on the biggest moments that they saw we come back. >> did the president ask you what you should be doing or what our government should be doing to protect america against russian interference in our election? >> i do not recall a conversation like that. ♪

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mr. president, this is wrong? i cannot discuss this with you? >> that's a great question. if i was stronger, maybe i would have. i was so... stunned by the conversation that i just took it in. and to the only thing i could think to say, because i was playing in my mind. i remember every word he said, playing in my mind what should my response be? that's why very carefully chosen words, look, i have seen the tweet about tapes. lordy, i hope there are tapes. >> martha: lordy, i hope there are tapes. he says on the explosive day behind me. james comey speculation tonight about one finding moment that could go down in history. from today's hearing, what will people be talking about in the years to come? here now karl rove, former chief of staff to george w. bush. and bill bennett, both are fox news contributors. we have that moment i would just watch. jim comey sort of self reflected up in that moment thinking about

why he did or did not make a different choice there. and i want to play one other moment, then i will get bill bennett to react to both of them. this is the one that stood out for him. let's play that. >> the president put it on friday that i hope there is not tapes. i woke up in the middle of monday night. there might be cooperation for our conversation that might be a tape. my judgment was, i needed to get that out into the public square. i asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with the reporter, i did not do it myself for a variety of reasons, but i asked him to because i thought i might prompt the appointment of a special counsel. >> martha: that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel, bill bennett, what do you think? >> knocking me out of my chair. you know, the president talking to him on several occasions talking about league's command by complete can do about the leaks, and comey is leaking. he gets out of the job and leaks. he wants to get in the public

square, wakes up in the middle of the night, but he does not do it himself, he gets to the columbia law professor, because he is worried about siegel's in the press picking at him. it knocked me out of my chair. leaks, maybe the only indictable, probably the only indictable offense and all of this. and it turns out that comey is a leaker. this will be part of the history when it is written. by the way, can we get rid of this locution about comey finding space, spaces, crying at the fbi. what do they need at the fbi? safe spaces, puppies, raffi music. all of the psychobabble, let's get in the real world. john turley, your real professor in the real world. and the leaks may be a violation of law. i think he is right. >> martha: karl, what do you think? >> i agree. frankly, look, the piece of tape

that you ran, i cannot make heads or tails of it, it sounds to me like he woke up in the middle of the night saying, how am i going to get my revenge on that as ob in the office? he decided to leak accordingly. this was a petulant response, the best thing that he should have done, if he was the self-righteous, only honest man in town that he claims to be, leaving the president tweet on responded to. >> martha: i thought it was so interesting, carl, and just about to call for one moment, that he said, he was asked during the bush administration, you w a letter of resignation because he felt so strongly about what transpired at the hospital, and i do not want to get into that story right now, but why did you not do the same in this instance if you felt that it was so egregious and you are so concerned about while you were hearing from the president? to karl and then to bill. >> well, it does not make sense. comey, the only legitimate

answer is not that comey was somehow frightened into inaction by sitting across the table from donald j. trump, but i think he was. it never crossed his mind that that was inappropriate. the president is the head of the executed branch. if he directed him to end an investigation. don't investigate flynn, he would have to say "yes." if he did not like it, resigned. creating a political problem for the president, but not a legal prod from. the director of the fbi is not an independent force unto himself. we had a guy like that, j. edgar hoover, he did a lot of things in retrospect because he thought he was independent of political control, not good. >> karl is absolutely right. i'm glad he brought it up, my old professor has been writing about this for weeks. he has been going crazy. i heard him on fox talking about it today. all of the stuff about did he obstruct? the i hope language, i hope you will see clear on flynn, if he

had said throughout the flynn investigation, there would be perfectly constitutional or legal, not prudent. and politically, there would be fallout. but he can do it. here is the observation i would make. i would be interested in carl's reaction. we heard a lot of the i-word today. i have watch the democrats on your show and others, i think that they have lost a lot of their case. to some of it because of what comey said today. >> martha: let me mention, john roberts is reporting that jared kushner is in discussions to testify in front of the senate intel committee. karl, what is your read on why that would be? why they are going forward with that? he has said that he would be happy to do that. interesting that it comes on the heels of what we saw today. >> if there is nothing there, it is better for them to get out there and say that there is nothing there. to explain what happened in the meeting with the ambassador, to

explain what happened with the representatives of the bev, the state-controlled bank that he met with, under sanctions from the united states. and transparency will be better. as long as it is guided by the lawyers and is done enough air environment. to pick up just a second on what bill said, there has to be an element of corruption in order for this to be involved in an obstruction of justice." what is the corruption and saying, i have just fired the guy, he is spreading out a government? they would have to be some corruption involved in that. flynn had money from the russians for appearing at the speech in moscow, and he share them with trump credit that would have to be something like that. >> martha: thank you guys. bill bennett, thank you so much. karl rove, always a pleasure. thank you, gentlemen. coming up at 10:00, donald trump, jr., will join sean hannity. that is tonight at 10:00, we will bring you that with sean hannity and

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>> martha: we are back, americans are focused on the comey testimony, but may be a

major shift in power happening in the united kingdom. we will go live to mike tobin in london with more on this tonight. what is going on? >> well, martha, if the exit polling numbers are accurate, a couple of explanations that the tories are learning the hard way. one is that the antiestablishment passion is not going away. two, a downside to risk. they took a risk with the brexit voting. the prime minister theresa may took a big gamble calling for this early election, antonella according to the exit poll numbers, she has lost her majority. the labour party, her opponents gained seats, but not enough for a majority either. the british pound is taking a big hit. bouncing back a little bit, but down considerably. make no mistake about it, terrorism did play a role in this outcome. theresa may went in thinking it would be a one issue election, all about brexit, but campaigning was stopped twice because of terrorist bloodshed.

that open the door for her opponents, jeremy corbyn to criticize their republicans for measures that they say undercut police. couple that with the fact that theresa may lacks a sizzle on the campaign. she refuses to take place and debate. the way things are working out with 11 days to go before the brexit negotiations were supposed to begin. theresa may went in hoping to enhance majority, consolidate her power, if you believe the exit polls, the plan backfired on her. we expect official results in the small hours of the morning. martha. >> martha: huge, huge story. thank you very much. executive director of the georgetown university and public policy, he has a fox news contributor and is in london with students for the election. this was supposed to be a way for theresa may to call an election very early to get a big vote of confidence as they headed into brexit, completely gone the other way, why do you think that is?

>> yes, that is exactly right. she thought she was going to widen the majority, and the question is if she can hold onto it. by extension, even hold onto her position as prime minister. i think it is a couple of things. i think there is an antiestablishment feel on the ground. and it shows, this is a lesson we can learn in the u.s. too. it is nonpartisan. nonideological. it swung for brexit last time, now against the tories this time. anybody is susceptible to it. she also made a lot of mistakes on the ground. her whole message has been strong leadership. and she had a lot of missteps in this campaign, a lot of high profile flip-flops on some key issues. she let off her campaign talking about an issue of foxhunting, which is not exactly a top of mind issue for a lot of the working-class voters. that supported brexit. it turned out tonight.

>> martha: let me jump in if i may, i am curious, so what happens now? will she absolutely lose the prime minister shape, or a hung parliament, explain to everyone what happens now. >> when you have a multiparty parliamentary system, if one party does not have an outright majority, you have to form a coalition. that is the first step if the exit polls hold and they fall short of the majority. now some jockeying and coalitions to see which party can control the prime minister shape. most people think it will be the conservatives, but she took a huge hit personally within the personal party for taking the big risk and calling for the early election, that has backfired, or will backfire, and just in the last few minutes, you are seeing some serious jockeying from other leaders within the conservative party like boris johnson, the former secretary who used to be the mayor of london. very colorful figure, already

making some calls apparently. >> martha: i have to leave it there. thank you so much, mo elleithee in london. thank you for watching, everybody tonight. from d.c., "tucker carlson tonight" is up next with more on comey's testimony. ♪ 's going good evening, welcome to "tucker carlson tonight," fire director james comey finally got around to testifying before congress this morning, the most anticipated moment so far in this endless russian investigation, the hearing lasted fou hours, that was just the beginning. the analysis is next. the partisan line, the moral preening, the purely unsupported b.s. that you see run on the loop on the screen. that will no doubt go on first weeks if not years, each faction tries to get a jump on writing its version of history. our advice, approach at all with skepticism. an awful lot of propaganda out th