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

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

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

-- and lead the fbi and restore confidence of the american people. this was the right decision at the right time. >> considering the bipartisan concern, why not support an independent panel? >> the evidence, the facts that are in public today are very clear, the former director of national intelligence has said there is no evidence of collusion. the president and i remain confident the committees in the house and senate looking into every aspect of issues that arise out of the election will be able to do their work in an orderly way. the president was informed several times by the former director of the fbi he was not under investigation. the simple fact is director comey had lost the confidence of the american people. the support i heard from them is of the senate today when i was over by the senate chamber, support for the decision being expressed in this capitol building and around the country is reflective of the fact that it was time for a fresh start at the fbi. the president did as he is done in so many cases, he provided strong leadership. to

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

to the fbi. comey,not have to fire he could have kept him there, and we could have had problems because of it. he did not have to, he is president. host: comey with a 10 year appointment, cut down to just over three and a half years after his firing. he was the seventh director of the fbi. brian from houston is next, independent. comey, i think director the way he acted last year, i felt like he was the one that was trying to be straightforward with the american people. finally put this in front of the american people, remove the blocking of all of the bureaucratic red tape. when loretta lynch met with out -- he do it would be horrible for her to come out and say it so he had to do it. the fact that he did not charge her with anything is what excess -- upset the republicans. was undermp investigation and his team was under investigation and he did not mention this at all last year during the election. host: when chuck grassley puts out a statement saying, the effectiveness of the fbi depends on p

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

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

no one at fbi headquarters knew. that letter was delivered to the fbi headquarters for director comey about the time he was in la. but no one at the fbi saw this coming. certainly james comey didn't, none of his people did. they were all absolutely shocked and incredulous when they came out this afternoon. and they're trying to get their footing now. >> pete, do we know -- how much time went by when it was on tv, which is presubly how everyone at the fbi learned about . and when andrew went to the white house to meet with the president. at that point, you have presumably andrew mccabe at the fbi headquarters knowing he's now the highest ranking guy in the fbi, but no one has talked to him and he doesn't know who is running the fbi as of that moment. >> i don't know the timing. i don't know when he went to the white house. i know that when we first heard about this, which was -- i'm trying to think back now, it's been a while, 5:30 or so eastern time tonight. >> approaching about 5:45. >> that was before it was on any

he's out in los angeles with the fbi plane, and he's no longer the fbi director. so will he have the ability to use the plane to fly home? my guess is that will probably happen, but that's sort of the question right now. you know, he didn't know this was coming as pete williams pointed out. you know, this is something we know the justice department had been working on for at least a week. if you read the rod rosenstein letter, it's obviously pretty detailed. they had spent a fair amount of time on this and they had obviously been charged with coming up with these reasons. >> what do you mean by that? that to me seems the key here because it seems what the white house is communicating is that the white house was just going about its business and the attorney general is going about its business. but it's rod rosenstein, the widely respected career individual who made this determination. he passed it up to sessions would approved of it. he passed it up to the president who approved of it. yet it seems possible that the people sent the word that they wanted to find a

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

we are trying to figure out why he's no longer the head of the fbi, we don't know who will lead the fbi and the vice president is saying that the safety of the american people as part of this decision. do you believe that we are safer without james comey? >> i'm not familiar with the context of that statement. i wouldn't want to comment on that without knowing more of what we was referring to. i was referring to what his decision would be to replace him in the process that went into that. >> jenna: do you think we were in some sort of danger with james comey leading fbi? >> not to my knowledge, but i don't have all the information. >> jenna: it was an interesting comment that stuck out to me. we'll get that sound and talk a little bit more about it. as we talked about before the break, there are some that are saying we are on the verge of a constitutional crisis, especially our friends of the other side of the aisle, what do you think about that? are we? >> i don't believe that. i think the process worked the way it was supposed to work. rob rosenstein was confirmed by 94 senators so we

this guy's track record under the fbi -- they have great people in the fbi -- hasn't been not stellar. >> but again, jesse, when you look at that long letter from rosenstein, it had nothing to do with any of that. >> they could have made that case. it would have bolstered their case, made it bigger. >> it was tangential to the matter at hand. i think they thought they were i probably on firmer ground. particularly with this being about hillary clinton. for the trump administration to fire the fbi director for his handling of the hillary clinton issue? i mean, regardless of what democrats on capitol hill are saying, that puts you on pretty solid ground legally and morally as well when you are going to take somebody out. like we didn't like the way you handled the trump investigation, that would not have looked very good but if you are saying we did like the way he looked into the investigation of our opponent, that makes him look pretty good. >> all right, john roberts. thank you so much. we will be checking back with you perhaps. let's go now to our chief intelligence correspondent, c

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

fbi over here. the fbi around the clock is collecting evidence, questioning people on the record and they are analyzing data. if they find evidence of something being done wrong here with the department of justice they can pull together a grand jury and actually press criminal charges. is this aimed specifically at donald trump's team? no. it's at the russian investigation overall. but as the departed director has said already, yeah. they are considering whether or not somebody on team trump might have been involved. >> that's the criminal part of this. what's congress up to? >> this is the political part in the middle. look at the committees right there. they can pull the committees out and put people on the spot. summoning witnesses to appear on tv and on the record telling them what they know, establishing timelines, pecking away at the story and keeping the story front and center in terms of the politics and the news cycle. you can expect that with republicans in charge of the house and the sena

we have independence of the fbi. we have ten year terms because we don't want presidents firing fbi directors out of political anger, out of fear of their own investigation. so you are making a neutral statement of why and how this happened, but it's wrong. >> also in terms of rosenstein and feeling bad for somebody, which you hear a lot about people working in this white house, you have to feel for xyz because this is not slave labor. people actually believe in what they are doing. >> but rosenstein could find the findings that he found. it's not like sean spicer every time he gets to the podium. >> but to your point about credibility though, this is where the corrosive untruth that we have heard from this president during the trump and search from the white house on a daily basis i would say with sean spicer, this is very problematic. when you do something like this, if you were going to take this extraordinary step, you need basically to have the public trust aspect of this job pretty nailed and this undermines it

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

i trust the fbi because we are think thate, if you these fbi agents, especially with the fbi having some problems now and people questioning credibility, which i do not. i was a staunch supporter of comey. i think he is a man of integrity. did he do some questionable things? yes, i guess you could argue both sides of that. but i will see -- i will say this. let the fbi do their job. there is no trump or congress that will buy off the fbi. i will tell you why. it will come out through leaks. if you think these fbi agents are going to risk the hard work that they are doing and let this all get shoved under the carpet, no, it will come out in volumes if there is anything going on. i want to make one other point that has been curious. something that maybe people can chew around with. there has been all kinds of leaks, there have been comments in the papers about all of trump's associates including roger stone and others. and there has been little pieces that you can to on and say -- why did he say this or why did men fort have all of this money. i have yet to hear any leaks about from himsel

what happens to that formal fbi investigation? >> that fbi reports to robert mueller. he is now in charge of that investigation. leadership of the justice department has now been removed completely from handling any part of this. they won't be able to know what is going on and mueller will be able to appoint people under him, to help manage the investigation. they don't know where this will go. >> former fbi director robert mueller, new special counsel, investigating. let me read another sentence from the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein. quote. i determined that it is in the public interest for me to exercise my authority and appoint -- [ inaudible ] i'm going to laura jared at the justice department. laurie, you are there inside this briefing. give us more explanation on why this extraordinary decision was made. >> yeah, wolf, we were gathered very swiftly. here at department of justice with department staff, rod rosenstein, here i should mention, but they put out this briefing but they also tried to walk us through the history here explaining the exceptional

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

director's position at the fbi. lou: he was restoring public confidence in the fbi. the first requisite was the firing of james comey to reach that goal. the second will be what? is there a readily available candidate in the opinion of the president to replace comey? >> by default the deputy director becomes the acting director. the president as he said in the letter tonight began the serving process and that was offered immediately. the goal is to act on the recommendation of the deputy attorney general and the attorney general to restore confidence in the fbi. lou: and as i go through all of the memoranda, the letter of the attorney general, the memorandum from rod rosenstein, it's all pertained to the handling by the director of the investigation of the clinton e-mails. why do we presume that this clears the way for a reopening of the iestigation into the hillary clinton e-mail by the fbi? >> it would be improper for me to comment on any investigations ongoing with respect to mrs. clinton in the e-mail. that's up

. >> was the fbi aware -- was the fbi aware that mr. steele reportedly paid his sources who in turn paid their sub sources to make the claim in the dossier? >> same answer, sir. >> here's one you should be able to answer. is it vital to know -- is it vital to know whether or not sources have been paid in order to evaluate their credibility and if they have been paid, doesn't that information need to be disclosed if you're relying on that information in seeking approval for investigative authority. >> i think in general, yes, it is vital to know. >> the fbi and the justice department have provided me material inconsistent with the answers enclosed settings about the reporting relationship with mr. steele, will you commit to fully answering the questions from my march 6th and april 28th letter in providing all requested documents so that we can resolve those inconsistencies even if in a closed session being necessary? >> because as i sit here i don't know all the questions in the letters, i don't want to answer that specifically but i com

locktime observers of the fbi, former fbi agents f new act director. fbi who was the former deputy to james comey, they all say that the trump russia investigations at the fbi will continue. they can't be stopped, nothing can stop or slow down those investigators, nothing can intimate them out of doing their work. and that sounds awesome as a pep talk because, of course, we don't know that for sure. we've never been in this position before. we don't know what's going to happen to those investigations. late tonight, the news crossed that there are four candidates the administration is now considering to be the new director of the fbi replacing james comey. one of them is the andrew mccabe, one is alice fisher. she's very accomplished lawyer, there is some controversy from her time in the george bush administration from her connections to the prison at guantanamo and interallegations at guantanamo. another candidate is judge michael garcia. he's an appeals judge in new york state and a former federal prosecutors and ins commissioner from the george w. bu

today's fbi continues to reflect on fidelity, every every and integrity. it is a model emblazoned on the seal and worth its weight in gold. and for the past 100 years years, the men and women of the fbi have lived up their commitment to fidelity and bravery and integrity and precisely because they have done so they have the reputation that has today. even so these are qualities to be causally burnished by the men and women of the bureau to insure that day did not rust for lack of use. for most of us fidelity is a full to an obligation or trustor duty to the men and women of the fbi fidelity also means fidelity to country and justice and lot. fidelity to the constitution's to equality and liberty bravery is willing to face danger or trouble bravery is not the act of rushing brothers leave but the quiet diligence dedication to face down those who would do less harm and bring them to justice the well-known tennis tibia and arthur ashe once said remarkable heroism is sober not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost but the urge to serve others whateve

this guy's track record under the fbi -- they have great people in the fbi -- hasn't been not stellar. >> but again, jesse, when you look at that long letter from rosenstein, it had nothing to do with any of that. they could have made that case. it would have bolstered their case, made it bigger. >> it was tangential to the matter at hand. i think they thought they were probably on firmer ground. particularly with this being about hillary clinton. for the trump administration to fire the fbi director for his handling of the hillary clinton issue? i mean, regardless of what democrats on capitol hill are saying, that puts you on pretty solid ground legally and morally as well when you are going to take somebody out. like we didn't like the way you handled the trump investigation, that would not have looked very good but if you are saying we did like the way he looked into the investigation of our opponent, that makes him look pretty good. >> all right, john roberts. thank you so much. we will be checking back with you perhaps. let's go now to our chief intelligence correspondence co, ca

comey to step down as fbi director. this is what gives hypocrisy a bad name. >> jenna: let's bring in our panel, democratic strategist don calloway and rasmussen report political analyst amy holmes, great to have you. there's a lot to get through, things changed due to my changing moment by moment, we will do the best we can. let me ask a subquestion, the american people, are we better off because of the decision to fire james comey? >> i think we are if we can turn the page and have a fresh start and how these investigations move forward without all of this vitriol and partisanship. i can tell you that at rasmussen reports, we've done pulling on the question of the russian investigation for example, and we have seen that even the american public of unlikely voters are very divided when it comes to partisan view of how this is moving forward. 52% of the likely voters actually want to see the clintons also investigated for their connections to russia. so if we can move forward in a bipartisan or nonpartisan way, i think

tom, you spent a career at the fbi. worked your way up to become an assistant fbi director. when you hear the president say that the now fired fbi director was a show boat, a grand stander, and he left the fbi in turmoil, your reaction? >> first of all, that's insulting obviously. the way the firing was conducted was extremely insulting. most of the people i've talked to at the fbi, actually all of the them, have said it was disgusting how the firing was conducted. you take a poll in june and one in september and the numbers might not match and both could be true. last year in july when director comey had his press conference and fbi agents, former agents like me and others that i was with heard commeyey's testimonyd all of us were the impression wow, he's going to recommend charges skp charges and were shocked when he didn't. the turmoil comes later not when she was prosecuted. but when huma abedin were completely exposed, but when they heard about hillary clinton's interview at the fbi and a lot of people, including me, questioned wait a minute, we wouldn't have done that

if the president is trying to pressure the fbi on that inquiry, it makes sense that the fbi director might try to shield the agents doing that work from that pressure. by not letting them know that that pressure was being exerted by the president directly in the oval office on the agency's director. so, according to "the times" tonight, this pressure from the president that has been denied by the white house but is asserted by "the new york times," reportedly with contemporaneously documentation from comey. if that pressure happened, that pressure was not conveyed to the people who are doing the work of the investigation. now we also know that despite that pressure, despite that reported february 14th meeting where the president allegedly told the director to kibosh the flynn investigation, we also know from other independent sources that the investigation into flynn wasn't stopped by that meeting. that it continued past that point. we know that in part because of the reporting just last week that federal grand jury subpoenas have now been sent out to flynn's former business associat

when the fbi director was in fact in los angeles? didn't he deserve a phone call or a face-to-face conversation? why did he decide to do it that way? >> he followed the proper protocol in that process, which is hand written notification. and at the same time no matter how you fire someone, it's never an easy process. and he -- so he felt like following protocol was the best thing to do. i'm not wear of the conversation. josh. >> was the president aware james comey asked for more resources in the russian investigation and did that factor into his decision? >> not that i'm aware of, and i think that would be a better question for the department of justice. >> on the campaign trail president trump said he actually praised director comey for having the guts to reopen the investigation. how is he moved by a letter that said that director comey was if anything too harsh on hillary clinton. why did that move the president to fire him? >> again, i think you're looking at two very different positions. the president was wearing a different hat

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

was an fbi moment. the fbi was thrown out. i mean how do you explain that? he doesn't even understand the history of the country and the number of times the soviet union was attacking our elections. for 50 years. >> there's a great television series in the reagan years. they have our military secrets now they are in tour party stuff lou: why doesn't anybody say the chinese are coming? because they are here to. >> i've a chinese dr. who is my pride and joy. lou: is she an american citizen? i was talking about chinese nationals. >> she is special though. lou: she's a delightful young lady. let's turn to one other element in that's mccabe. with all of his connection to podesta and the dnc to the democratic party, to his wife the democratic candidate and the fbi didn't find it necessary for him to recuse himself legs are you kidding me? >> he should not recuse himself. lou: they have to have an ig report to know what is common sense and a conflict of interest. >> once we get this thing moving forward and as

but of course we know that the fbi director was really well respected at the fbi. i heard it from a few of the fbi agents i spoke with and we heard it from the acting director when he testified yesterday. he said that director james comey was very well respected, very well received and despite the white house saying morale at the fbi is low, we know in fact morale at the fbi was high. many people respected james comey. so it is unclear at this point why the president is coming out on the attack, especially in light of the fact he was considering the president visiting fbi headquarters today. we know plans are in place for him to go over to the headquarters. they have been making preparations for that at the bureau. but two officials telling us those plans were scrapped because of the timing of this and now the timing of these tweets, the optics of this and the relationship between the president and the fbi seems to continue to erode. the president not doing himself any favors with these tweets. >> how will this be received by the current eastbound membmembe. honest

fbi was in fact in los angeles? didn't he deserve a phone call or a face-to-face -- >> he followed the power protocol in that instance which is handwritten note face and at the same time in a matter how you fire someone it's never an easy process so he felt like following protocol was the best thing to do. >> reporter: wolf, we're learning a short time ago the president finished meeting with the acting director of the fbi, andrew mccabe. he came to the white house and did not see him enter or leave. he was here meeting face to face with the president. 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 outsid

but as fbi director, he continually pushed the traditions and the core of the fbi. one thing that sort of your viewers might have noticed was he was wearing a dark suit, white shirt and red tie. time as throughout his fbi director, effectively his uniform. sort of the stereotypical look of a hoover era g-man. he was fanatical about his white shirt dark suits and bright or white ties. why,ed him years later even to the point where he would with aids orse agents who came into his office wearing a blue shirt working shirt -- or a pink shirt. i said why the obsession with white shirts and in a way that was actually much more deeply philosophical that i had generally ever seen him and reflective, he explained to me that for him, it was an important leadership moment, that he understood how much fbi,e he was making in the how much she was reorienting and shifting and how wrenching this iod of change for the fbi was, and he felt it was important to keep the look of a hoover era agent for the agents who came in and met with him so they had some simple and some totems of the

robert mueller became fbi director shortly before 9/11 and was at the heart of turning the fbi into a counterterrorism and counterintelligence operation. he extended his term, serving under presidents bush and obama. now he takes the reins of an investigation that led to the firing of his former deputy, jim comey. breaking news tonight. let's start off with chief white house correspondent john roberts. this does take change the dynac grace to go it is surprising, considering we heard from the acting director of the fbi, andrew mccabe, in testimony to the intelligence committee in the senate that the fbi has all the resources necessary to be able to conduct the russian investigation. we've heard increasing cost democrats on capitol hill and some republicans as well for the appointment of a special prosecutor. the american publicd be assured of this investigation is carried out appropriately and to its most thorough form. no response yet from the white house. i would suggest that the white house has signed off on this. they are in charge of the department of justice. they like to give i

supervisor of the fbi. if he goes to the director of the fwi, and says, shhhh, please shut it down, close it down, that's the word that michael schmidt uses in the "new york times" story, that is, as far as i can tell, obstruction of justice. there is a statute many federal prosecutors are familiar with, title 18, united states code section 1503. it is often prosecuted in the federal courts. it says whoever corruptly, maybe i can just read it. i'm sorry to -- yeah. whatever corruptly influences or endeavors to inflew entuence th administration of justice is guilty of obstruction of justice. it is not a complicated law. if you corruptly with bad intent, try to influence or endeavor to influence, do administration of justice, that's a crime. that is something prosecuted often in federal courts here. and i think, you know, it's very important to establish. we are in the beginning stage in this process. first we learned of this conversation. and fbi, white house says there was no attempt to shut down. if there

the morale at the fbi, as well as making an offer to go directly to the fbi if he feels it's necessary and appropriate. we will certainly provide further information. >> they are asking for a voice in the selection process of his successor. is that something the president is for? sec. sanders: i have not have a conversation but i know it's being run through the department of justice. i would refer you to them on what that process looks like at this point time. >> who did the president consult before making the final decision to fire james comey? sec. sanders: he spoke with a number of individuals, but at the end of the day is the president's decision. >> could he speak again with the deputy attorney general or the attorney general? sec. sanders: i know they spoke on monday. i believe the next follow-up was in writing. i would have to double check to be clear. >> is it accurate to follow a from the information we have that monday night the president made the final call and set of want this in writing as a recommendation and took the recommendation as the evidence he wanted to provide th

also acting fbi director angela mccabe and former fbi director john pistole who's the president of anderson university in indiana. deputy white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders took questions on the james comey firing and said the president had lost confidence in mr. comey's ability to lead the law enforcement agency.

according to one fbi official who knows comey. more important is the question does the president's discussion of his private conversations with comey using it as a public defense does it put in jeopardy possible future claim to present privilege to prevent those conversations from being made public. back with the panel. there's this alarming breath taking report. every two minutes my phone goes off. the washington post is reporting it was president's decision and then after rosenstein had been given as the reason cast him aside as the decision. >> if this is true the washington post reporting that rosenstein that's been on job two weeks threatening to resign because they hung the entire justification on him as to why the president fired the fbi director who is overseeing the investigation into him. clearly this helps to explain why we saw if true a shifting rationale starting with the president out of the oval office saying he wasn't doing a very good job. mike pence was on last night's talking point when he was on the hill but th

charlie. >> how important was it for the fbi director failure to come out of the fbi -- >> i think that was prob one of the many factors. i mean, you can't deny somebody that that wasn't a probm. i think that's just another one of the many reasons that he no longer had the confidence that the president or the rest of the fbi. >> can we expect more firings from the justice department? not that i'm aware of today. >> going forward, does the president want the department of justice to shut down what he call the taxpayer funded charade? >> he wants them to continue what he sees appropriate and continue any on going investigations. look, the bottom line is any investigation that was happening on monday is still happening today. that hasn't changed and, in fact, we encouraged them to complete this investigation, so we can put it behind us, and we can continue to see exactly what we've been saying for nearly a year. there's no evidence of collusion between the trump campaign and russia, and we love for that to be completed so that we can all move on and focus on the things that frankly i think

lost confidence in the director. >> the fbi director had broad support within the fbi and still does to this day. i don't think there is a crisis of confidence. >> reporter: the trump administration suggesting firing comey would help end the investigation into the russia election meddling. >> we want to come to its conclusion with integrity. we have by removing director comey to take steps to make that happen. >> reporter: something the interim director vowed. >> you cannot stop the men and women of the fbi from doing the right thing. >> reporter: the president claiming he wants answers on russia. >> there is no collusion between me and my campaign. if russia hacked and did anything having to do with our election, i want to know about it. >> reporter: insisting he did not try to interfere with the fbi investigation. >> did you ask him to drop the investigation? >> no. >> did anyone from the white house? >> i want the investigations. >> reporter: president trump explaining why it took 18 days to fire national security adviser michael flynn after sally yates met with the white house co

in the fbi. many people believe this doesn't restore confidence in the fbi. a lot of people are raising questions about it destroys people's confidence in the fbi, that whoever the president appoints will now be in charge of an investigation into people who have been close to the president during the campaign. any potential collusion with russia. >> today's actions had zero to do with that. >> the president himself in his letter three times mentioned he's not under investigation. he himself brought up the investigation with russia and thanked the director. >> we don't know what those instances were. sean spicer was asked about that. sean spicer did not know when those instances were that james comey told the president he was not under investigation. >> deputy fbi director is now the head of the fbi. he's now under investigation. >> on capitol hill comey's firing was met with shock across the political spectrum. republicans expressing a range of concerns but then focused on the timing of the dismi

saying the rank and file of the fbi deeply support mr. comey. >> i can tell you also that director comey enjoyed broad support within the fbi and still does to this day. i can confidently tell you that the majority of the fbi employees enjoyed a deep and positive connection to director comey. >> reporter: this comes as comey was invited to testify on tuesday before the senate intelligence committee. no word yet if he has confirmed that appearance, but this would be a classified closed session and that means it is off limits to the public. we do know that other people in the administration plan to talk to some senators. rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, also at the center of the comey controversy. he was invited to discuss the comey firing. this issue is not going away anytime soon. christine and dave. >> thank you, manu. >>> rod rosenstein denying reports he threatened to resign in the aftermath of the james comey firing. the washington post reported rosenstein was angered about the memo used as the prime justification for dism

asking to stay on as fbi director. don't you see how that's a conflict of interest? the fbi director saying he wants to keep his job and the president is asking whether or not he's under investigation? >> i don't see that as a conflict of interest. neither do the many legal collars. >> the suggestion there that if a guy is trying to keep his job, maybe it's to tell the president what he wants to hear as opposed to what's going on. senator grassley said that he was told very much the same thing by the fbi director, that president trump was not a target of the investigation into russia, shep. >> shepard: you asked a question about democrats and others that had said that they were in favor of the removal, the firing of, the resignation of this same director comey. and that those same people are now complaining about the timing thereof. >> yeah, there's no question sarah huckabee sanders read a long list from the democrats saying that he needed to be fired, resigned, whatever. this was all in the wake of his october 28th p

after all he is the acting fbi director, his title still essentially deputy fbi director and while he's still on some sort list to become the nominee for the fbi director, which obviously would have to be confirmed by the senate, there's some question as to how he's going to respond to all this. meanwhile, dan coats, and mike pompeo, are going to be sitting alongside we can expect republicans to ask about the question of leaks and unmasking. this is a topic they've hit time and time again, chris. >> mike, thanks so much. i want to bring back in mike lupica. this is going to be fascinating to watch. now we hear that trump was not happy with the testimony by james comey, right, and he ends up without a job, maybe no cause and effect. you make your own conclusion about that. but now this guy is the brand new acting director. he has to come in, democrats frankly are loaded on this. what do you expect to happen here? >> obviously being the head of the fbi and now could make you as vulnerable as it used to be being a baseball manager when george steinbrenner owned the yankees. the life expect

director. >> the fbi is calling on the deputy attorney general as well as the acting fbi director, andrew mccabe to come to congress and brief them immediately. feinstein said the timing is beyond curious. she said the director then had promised to keep congress updated on the probe. >> it was rather comprehensive for this kind of briefing. the fbi director was precise and he presented us with substantial information. it was clearly fbi was was taking its job seriously and that a substantial investigation was underway. >> my law enforcement contacts are pointing me to april 25th as a turning point for the fbi director's future. that was the day that deputy attorney general rod rosenstein was confirmed and then he was cast. fbi director comey had it colored outside the lines. he had gone beyond his responsibility as a federal government's lead investigator and he put on his prosecutor's hat, recommending against criminal charges and the mishandling of information by then candidate clinton. this morning on fox news, the former attorney general was also consulted by rosenstein about the fbi

why did he have one of his longtime security advisers hand-deliver the letter to the fbi when fbi director was in los angeles? didn't he deserve a phone call or a face-to-face conversation? why did he decide to do it that way? sec. huckabee sanders: he followed the proper protocol in that process, which is a handwritten notification. at the same time, no matter how you fire someone, it is never an easy process. and so, he felt like following protocol was the best thing to do. naudible] sec. huckabee sanders: i'm not aware of the conversation. >> is the president aware that james comey asked for more resources in the rush investigation, and i did that factor into his decision? sec. huckabee sanders: not that i am aware of and i think that would be a better question for the department of justice. >> to follow up. on the campaign trail, president trump said -- he criticized the department of justice for not being harsh enough on hillary clinton. he praised director comey for having the guts to reopen the investigation. why was he moved by a letter that said director comey was too harsh on hil

the fbi has been in turmoil. you know that. i know that. ever you take a look at the fbi a year ago, it was in virtual turmoil. less than a year ago. it hasn't recovered from that. >> reporter: the president said he decided to fire comey well before the deputy attorney general weighed in. >> he made a recommendation, but regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey. >> reporter: in his letter firing comey, the president claimed the fbi director had told him he was not under investigation three separate times, including during a dinner at the white house, a dinner he said he believes comey requested. >> he wanted to stay on as the fbi head, and i said, i'll, you know, consider it, we'll see what happens. but we had a very nice dinner. >> reporter: the president said comey also assured him he was not under investigation in two separate phone calls. >> i said, if it's possible, will you let me know, am i under investigation? he said, you are not under investigation. i know that i'm not under investigation. me, personly else. i'm not