but he has just tweeted about andrew mccabe. i think we know which one of these stories he wants us to concentrate on. he just tweeted fbi director andrew mccabe is racing the clock to retire with full benefits. the president was eager to get this done before this retirement date. but it's so striking that with the stormy daniels story breaking in less than an hour after it broke that the president was trying to move that into federal court within the hour of that news breaking jeff sessions executes this firing. >> yeah, we've gotten pretty used to nasty business coming on friday afternoon or evening. and here you're right. we have a double dose of it. i think he is going to want to tout the mccabe point, which again serves only as a kind of petty gesture in favor of opponents of mccabe, just stripping him of his pension for no good reason. and he is going to want to dampen the fact that this motion requires him to acknowledge his role in the stormy daniels controversy. he has moved to take this case from state court to federal

andrew mccabe had been criticized repeatedly by name by the president. so no matter what happened -- and also, people were well aware of the sessions' own desire to please the president. so no matter what he did, if he said mccabe should be fired, as he done, people will criticize him for that. if he said mccabe shouldn't be fired, that will upset people at the white house. >> pete, thank you for joining us with this breaking news, jeff sessions firing the former acting director of the fbi, andrew mccabe just two days before his retirement date was to become official. we're now joined by harry litman and ted price, ruth marcus, and david j. johnston. we have a panel who has seen everything. harry litman, i want to go to you first. you've worked in the justice department, what's your reading of this? >> my reading is it's a grave injustice, lawrence. pete's reporting is accurate, and there is a serious mark on mccabe's record. the record overall, though, is 21 years of exemplary service and respect by everyone within the department. what really sticks abo

andrew mccabe was not any random fbi agent. this is someone as you said at the department well over 20 years, senior. overseeing the hillary clinton e-mail investigation and has been accused at least of being favorable to hillary clinton at a time when his own wife was running for state office, as you know in virginia and got hundreds of thousands of dollars from a pact controlled by terry mcauliffe who was very close to the clintons. >> $700,000. that was a lot of money for a senate raise in virginia. and mccabe was central in the benghazi attacks, the russian collusion investigation. he is a central player. and there have been concerns among republicans on capitol hill that he was a political figure. that's not just his failure to acknowledge at the early juncture that his wife was politco, taking the contributions from a very close clinton ally. but he was politically motivated in other ways, too. we suspect that that might come out in the i.g. report. that's why this i.g. report is so key and why the scrupulousness of micha

we have just now learned that andrew mccabe has been fired. that is the word from the justice department. his employment has been terminated. they'll be a lot more on this obviously on don lemon. thanks for watching "360." time to hand things over to don lemon for the latest on this breaking news. "cnn tonight" starts right now. >>> this is "cnn tonight." i'm don lemon. breaking news, andrew mccabe, the former deputy director at the fbi, has been fired tonight. just two days shy of his official retirement on sunday. in an exclusive interview tonight, mccabe tells cnn he denies misleading the inspector general in any way and he says the accusations against him fit into what he calls a pattern of attacks against him including president trump. we have a lot to get to on this breaking news. the firing of the deputy director of the fbi andrew mccabe. >> a stunning blow tonight for a man who had really climbed to the highest etch lops of the fbi just less than two days away from his official retirement on sunday when he turns 50. but now fired tonig

this is from andrew mccabe. here's the realality. i'm being treated this way because of the role i played, the actions i took and the ev t events i witnessed in the aftermath of firing of james comey. what do you say? >> something doesn't mel right in this entire case. maybe he did something egregious and we'll hear from fbi experts about why lying in a case like this is so important and calls for immediate dismissal. i understand that. but we have the attorney general being pressured by the president of the united states to get rid of this person. coming out, accusing him of lying and being -- of conduct that we don't actually know about because the report has not been released publicly. and it just smells very fishy, don. it smells very fishy. this guy might be a witness in the -- in the mueller investigation. he was one of the first people that raised questions and started -- and did some investigative work on trump's ties to russia, and at the very least, why is the attorney general making this decision? why wasn't he -- why didn

andrew mccabe fired for leaking to the media. could his response afterwards put his old boss, james comey, in hot water? house judiciary chairman bob goodlatte, newt gingrich and former assistant fbi director jim kallstrom join me live on that plus the saudi crown prince set to meet with the president this week at the white house the threat posed by iran likely a hot topic of discussion, i'll talk to former u.s. ambassador robert jordan and billionaire investor venture capitalist sits down with me for an exclusive one on one interview at the economic club of new york why he supported president trump in 2016 plus he tells us what company he believes is the most ferocious company in america we're looking ahead right now on sunday morning futures. and the top story of the weekend follower fbi deputy director andrew mccabe breaking his silence following his firing by attorney general jeff sessions on friday night. mccabe claiming his dismissal is part of an attack on the fbi and on the mueller russia investigation. meanwhile we are a

first, is that andrew mccabe wrote these memos. and second, he got a list of questions from special counsel mueller about what they want to ask him, and that may have freaked him out, caused him to single out robert mueller directly in his tweets. really this is one of those times in american history where we need to stand up as a nation and say we are a country of laws, not of people. >> we've seen the president talk about robert mueller specifically, use his name in a tweet. there was another tweet he talked about the democrats who comprise bob mueller's investigative team. you responded, quote, another twitter meltdown by a scared donald trump. facts you continue, the three people leading the investigation, rosenstein, ray and mueller, all republicans and veterans. how worried are you about the pollicization of this investigation, not to say robert mueller's investigation is political, but that politics are beginning to surround bob mueller's investigation? >> one of the saddest parts of the president's attacks on the fbi and de

we have more from andrew mccabe's statement just released. he writes "the oig focused on me and this report. became a part of an unprecedented effort by the administration driven by the president himself to remove me from my position, destroy my reputation and possibly strip me of a pension that i worked 21 years to earn." he's focusing on the president. the fact that he's going back to trump tells you more about andrew mccabe. he's furious at the president. it's directed at the president. he's going to get a lot of attention. >> he believes this is all about the president. this is about his colleagues at opr that found him, the lack of candor -- >> laura: lying. misrepresenting. >> he lied. a lot of former fbi agents that i spoke to say i hope he's going to get fired. that's all i've heard all day. they realize if they had done this, they would have been fired too. this is not just about michael horowitz at the doj. there's a prosecutor looking into the unmasking, the fisa abuse that has been taking place with carter page in particular. so w

mccabe? host: andrew mccabe. caller: right. if i was fired by jeff sessions, jeffppears to me -- sessions does not seem that vindictive. if i was fired by him, i would be really worried. i get the impression that mccabe might be in some serious trouble. are one thing, but jeff sessions does not seem like that type of person, in my view, that would hold any vengeance. he seems -- host: is it possible the president has tweeted and expressed his pleasure with andrew mccabe for some time. is it possible that jeff sessions, also a cabinet member who trump could fire, was doing this in order to please the president? think thatl, if you is the most important thing in his life, to please the president. his integrity is all he has. he does not seem to me to be a person that would have no integrity. if the president wants to fire him, i am sure he knows the president can fire him, but that would be his major decision. as far as firing mccabe, he has to live with himself also. jeff sessions seems to be a kindhearted person to me. [inaudib

andrew mccabe fired for leaking to the media. could his response afterwards put his old boss, jim comey, in hot water? bob goodlaugh, newt gingrich and jim couchman join me live on that. the saudi crown prince set to meet with the president this week at the white house. the threat posed by iran likely a hot topic of discussion. i'll talk to robert jordan. and billionaire investor, venture capitalist peter thiel sits down with me for an interview.ne why he supported president trump in 2016, plus he tells us what company he believes is the most ferocious company in america. we're looking ahead right now on sunday morningow futures. ♪ the top story of the weekend, former fbi deputy director andrew mccabe breaking his silence, following his firing by jeff sessions on friday night. mccabe claims his dismissal is part of an attack on the fbi and on the mueller russia investigation. meanwhile, we're also learning methat mccabe kept notes on his interactions with the president similar to the memos kept by james comey.to joining me righ

why was andrew mccabe fired? attorney general jeff sessions says he was just firing recommendations from department officials because andrew mccabe, quote, made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor under oath on multiple occasions. mccabe's statement, for the last year and a half my family and i have been targets of unrelenting assault on our reputation and my service to this country. articles too numerous to count have leveled every sort of false, defamatory and degrading allegation against us. the president's tweets have amplified and exacerbated it all. trump's tweet suggesting that he is racing the clock to retire with ben fullbenefits. >>> ken, let me go back to the statement we were talking about, john dowd statement from president trump's personal attorney. this represents a shift, a turn in how president trump is defending himself, how his legal team is defending himself. how do you read what john dowd had to say this morning? >> as the product of a growing realization among the

we don't know what andrew mccabe is alleged to have done. career officials have compiled a report, accused him of wrongdoing. we do know the president's personal involvement has tainted that process with politics. >> we'll have to see what the ig report says. that's a wrap for me, thanks so much. coming up, "velshi & ruhle." wait until you see ali velshi in a cowboy hat. take this left. if you listen real hard you can hear the whales. oop. you hear that? (vo) our subaru outback lets us see the world. sometimes in ways we never imagined. (avo) get 0% apr financing on all-new 2018 subaru outback models. now through april 2nd. which is breast cancer metastatthat has spreadr, to other parts of her body. she's also taking prescription ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor, which is for postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive her2- metastatic breast cancer as the first hormonal based therapy. ibrance plus letrozole was significantly more effective at delaying disease progression versus letrozole. patients taking ibrance can develop low w

in the dismissal and termination of andrew mccabe. andrew mccabe saying, this is not indicative of my career at all. 21 years he served. tell me what you think about senator ben cardin in his statement as well as that of senator chuck schumer who basically agrees. >> once again we have people criticizing the man-- the manne in which this was done rather than the reason for which it was done. and for the president, him doing a victory lap does not negate the fact that this man misled investigators and was recommended by his own agency to be terminated. >> we don't actually know that because the report hasn't been released. all we're doing is guessing. the president could wait until the ig report came out and then had mckay fired. but he didn't. he had sessions do it friday night when people were paying attention. extents of politicization. >> we don't know what's in it. >> may ask then, perhaps a some people said maybe we should let the dust settle. i think most of michael's point. let the dust settle and the chips fall where they are

patricks day for one andrew mccabe. to garrett ten tenney in washington. >> well dagen the timing of this announcement is significant given that andrew mccabe was just about 24 hours away from retirement and a pension said to be worth $1.8 million all of that is in jeopardy now and last night attorney general jeff sessions said two internal investigations by both the fbi and doj determined mccabe had lied to investigators who were reviewing the bureau's handling of the probe of hillary clinton 's e-mail server and both have recommended he be fired. in a statement sessions said both the oig and fbi reports concluded that mr. mccabe had made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked can dor including under oath multiple occasions. and he goes on to say that all fbi employees know that lacking candor under oath results in dismissal and that our integrity is our brand. now the former deputy director of the fbi is fighting back though and blaming president trump for his firing and he claims that it was done in

lawyering up, fired fbi deputy director andrew mccabe hiring a powerful d.c. attorney, and there's fierce new reaction today from lawmakers. >> 48 hours to go before retirement, i would have certainly done it differently. >> we have to be very skeptical about the reasons for the mccabe firing. >> a new bombshell as the stormy daniels drama continues on just how many years the trump attorney tried to keep that story% a secret. we begin with a president who switched gears in his assault on the russia investigation by directly attacking special counsel robert mueller. this after former fbi director andrew mccabe was fired, mccabe hitting back tweeting, quote, we will not be responding to each childish defamatory, disgusting and false tweet by the president. the whole truth will come out in due course, but the tweets today confirm he has corrupted the entire process. in a tweet trump questioning the political leanings of the attorneys of mueller's team. mueller i should note is a republican. the president again claiming no collusion even though the top democrat on

fbi's andrew mccabe fired late last night. he kept personal memos about his interactions with president trump that will certainly play into the russian probe. team trump tries to silence stormy daniels but so far fails to do so. later, how trump's campaign consultants exploited the facebook data of millions. "new york times" reporter will join us with the latest. >>> we begin with president trump's personal attorney calling for an end to the russian investigation, john dowd releasing this statement. quote, i pray that acting attorney general rosenstein will follow the brilliant and courageous example of the fbi office of professional responsibility and attorney general jeff sessions and bring an end to the alleged russia collusion investigation manufactured by mccabe's boss james comey based upon a fraudulent and corrupt dossier. that, about 12 hours after attorney general jeff sessions fired deputy director of the fbi andrew mccabe. mccabe had, quote made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor, includi

pamela read from the statement from andrew mccabe. but also his representative is saying he believes the i.g. report is distorted. the former doj inspector is called michael horowitz. he blasted the process that led to the firing saying in a statement, this distortion of the process begins at the top with the president, repeated offensive drive-by twitter attacks on mr. mccabe, josh. >> well, i think what we see is a disservice not only to mr. mccabe, but also to the fbi and the american people, because we don't have that i.g. report. we are left to take the justice department word for the statement which they provided which i find fault with high let me give you an example. as i listened to pamela read the statement, they mentioned the idea of misleading investigators which is a serious allegations. if he did that there should be consequences. but in the same statement they say an accusation of unauthorized media disclosures. under fbi policy the deputy director can decide what to authorize to release to the press. it sounds like a h

the president has not been shy about his feelings on andrew mccabe. your thoughts on whether these comments will come back to haunt the president at some point? >> the taunting of andrew mccabe after he's been firing in the framing of this, as we said before, here's my partisan enemy, i'm so glad it happen ed undercuts the notion that this was purely a bureaucratic examination over the candor of the inspector general and so forth. it's reminiscent of a year ago with the story that jim comby was fired when they found a memo on the hillary clinton investigation which was totally destroyed by trump himself a day or two later when he made it clear he had gotten the memo and was thinking about russia when he made the firing. all of that said, though, i want to add the voice to the substance behind what happened here. it is the case that the inspector general of the justice department michael horwitz is not at all a trump figure. he was appointed by president obama. he has a long history as an independent neutral career law enforcement official and i do not

to either embarrass andrew mccabe, embarrass the fbi? 26 hours before the start of his retirement, scheduled for sunday on his 50th birthday i might add, and the loss of a pension. what does that mean, and does he have recourse where he can try to fight to get this back, to your knowledge? >> i know andy is represented by fine lawyers, in fact a former inspector general himself who should know the answers to the questions i'm raising, and i'm sure will provide great representation to andy. i think it's extremely unfortunate that the timing of this happens just 26 hours before his retirement. and although certainly lack of candor is a fireable offense under fbi regulations, again, the sort of haste with which this investigation and the carve-out of this particular investigation seems to have taken place -- again, i can't say that i know every detail about it, but just based on public reporting, it seems like a very unfortunate push to try to obtain this result right before andy's retirement. and, you know, andy is somebody who has spent t

we're awaying the white house briefing and the question about the fate of andrew mccabe. president trump weighing in on a key 2018 senate race and how his tweet could help the republicans. and do you like puppies? we're sure we do. we'll debut our future service dog cam. more on "the daily briefing." >> harris: we're awaiting a decision from attorney general jeff sessions about whether he will fire deputy general andrew mccabe jeopardizing his pension. the line has moved a little bit. it's not 5:00 p.m. today. our sources say they have all day tomorrow, too. let's bring in the power panel. kevin mccullough is here from salem media. great to see you. and jake mcabee. gentlemen, thanks for being here. you say at the very least, andrew somebody cake should lose his pension. why? >> i think he should go to jail. if you're going to prosecute flynn and papadopoulos on lying to the fbi, the very least that the fbi should do is tell their own inspector general the truth. >> harris: you were watching earlier when we had on the assistant director at the fbi, chris swecker that said

remember, this is andrew mccabe, deputy director of the fbi, andrew andrew mccabe, the text messages between peter strzok and lisa page, talking about the insurance policy in case donald trump was actually president of the united states, so that is why this is significant, it wasn't once, twice, four times he lied about leaking information to "the wall street journal" about the fbi. >> laura: congressman meadows, he was adamant in the op-ed that his career speaks for itself, that he was authorized to speak as he did to the press, and yet you guys are saying he lied four times. >> i think it's not our words, it's actually the independent investigation was done by his colleagues. when you read it, it's not about politics. you broke the news, actually, you broke the news right here a little over a week ago now, and what we are finding, everybody saying, this is political in nature, when you read the report, you see it is not political, because under oath, certainly with the investigatio investigation, a real crime. here is why it is critical. attorney general sessions, just talk about e

, there is a new report andrew mccabe has already sat down with a special counsel for an interview. >>> no collusion, no crime, the president reiterating his innocence and for the first time taking direct aim at mueller. >>> plus, stormy history. reports that trump's legal team has tried to silence the porn star since way before we even thought. >>> our top story this morning, new fallout from the firing of former fbi deputy director andrew mccabe. details on how mccabe compiled memos of his encounters with president trump, similar to those by former fbi director james cokie. an undisclosed interview between mccabe and special counsel bob mueller and how mccabe's memos were turned over to mueller. >>> fresh outrage about the timing of mccabe's dismissal only hours before his retirement. her is former assistant attorney general david chris. >> probably the most significant thing is the extensive statements coming from the president and from the white house criticizing mccabe, effectively calling for him to be fired and celebrating when he was fired. when you politicize law enforcement

it is fair to say president trump has really been pushing for the firing of andrew mccabe, andrew mccabe stepped down from his position in january, was mccabe stepped down from his position injanuary, was due to retire actually today, he would have retired on a full pension after more than 20 years in the fbi. that is now put in jeopardy by the fact he was fired some 26 hours before today, which is his 50th birthday. you have this very contentious argument between them, about what was said and what was done, and all of these details have now been passed on to robert mueller, special counsel, who is looking at allegations of russian interference in the us election back in 2016. i whole range of other matters as well which have shot off from that effectively. sounds like president trump, with his tweet, is attempting to undermine the credibility of the notes. beyond that, andrew mccabe claims that he is trying notjust to taint him and the fbi but taint law enforcement agencies more generally and specifically trying to discredit the robert mueller investigation into these claims of russian

we still don't know why andrew mccabe was fired. we know the president wanted him fired, campaigned for months to have him fired. and we do know that the president did that without having any evidence that andrew mccabe should be fired. and we know the inspector general who did not share his evidence with the president, recommended that andrew mccabe be fired last week. but we have not seen the inspector general's report yet so we don't know exactly what the inspector general found. it apparently involved how andrew mccabe dealt with reporters and the possibility that he was not being completely truthful about how he provided information to a reporter. mccabe says that the inspector general misinterpreted his answers about that. in a written statement as we reported friday night, andrew mccabe said here is the reality, i'm being singled out and treated this way because of the role i played, the actions i took and the events i witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of james comey. andrew mccabe is the witness in the special prosecu

firing him, the us attorney generaljeff sessions said, but andrew mccabe says he has been sacked for political reasons, and he claims that president trump brought much of that pressure. in a lengthy statement, he accused the white house of declaring a war on both the fbi and the special counsel's investigation into allegations of russian interference in the election two years ago. it's less than a year since his boss, the former fbi directorjames comey, was fired by president trump. and mr mccabe claims what he witnessed event was another reason for his dismissal. andrew mccabe had served more than 20 years in the fbi, butjust over 24 hours before his retirement and his 50th birthday, he has been sacked in the full glare of publicity. chris buckler, bbc news, washington. chris bucklerjoins me now from washington. good evening to you. president to top has got rid of or sacked or been responsible for dismissing all sorts of people in the time he has been in office. how significant is this one? technically, of course, this wasn't president trump, his fingerprints are not directly on thi

. >>> plus, fall yot from the firing of andrew mccabe. now a number of democratic lawmakers are offering him employment. >>> and in austin, texas, two men injured after a bomb went off and police say it may have been triggered by a tripwire. it's the fourth explosion this month. >>> good morning, everyone. it's monday, march 19th. we begin at the white house where last night the white house faulted the media for questioning whether president trump will fire special counsel robert mueller. now, after the president and one of his top lawyers offered unprompted criticism of mueller this weekend, amid a number of tweets about andrew mccabe, a potential witness in the mueller probe just hours before his full pension eligibility, president trump issued his first tweet specifically attacking mueller by name. quote, the mueller probe should never have been started in that there was no collusion and there was no crime. it was based on fraudulent activities and a fake dossier paid for by crooked hillary and the d this c and improperly used in fisa

kelly: also evident that he doesn't like andrew mccabe and yet the 20-year career for andrew mccabe has come under this cloud of doubt and as a result of that he's now been fired, so what's -- do you think he will face any criminal charge in the future? >> we don't know. there's a story in the wall street journal online right now, we have to see how this resolves right now. he will contest what was said about him and the reasons why it was said about him, he will try to protect his exception. why was this -- kelly: protect reputation too. >> and reputation certainly first and then his pension. why was this announced on a friday night before sunday retirement. kelly: that's a good question, john, we don't have the answer to that one. >> the hr department didn't step up in this case. so i think -- we are kind of at -- we are at the end of the beginning on this. we are going see an appeal, we are going to see what happens with mr. mccabe. kelly: john, i appreciate you coming on in america's news headquarters. julie. julie: new developments now in the investigation of deadly bridge collapse

andrew mccabe is finally speaking out. he hasn't been able to say much obviously while he was at the fbi. heemhere is a statement he put out very anally attacking the president. saying for the last year and a half my family and i have been the targets of an unrelenting assault on our reputation and my service to this country. he goes on to say president's tweets have amplified and exacerbated it. he called for my firing. he called for me to be stripped of my pension after more than 20 years of service. this attack on my credibility is one part of a larger effort not to slander me personally but to taint the fbi. he goes on to say, andrew mccabe, that he believes the real reason is that the president wants to taint him as a witness before the special counsel investigation, destroy his credibility. a big question for andrew mccabe this morning did you destroy your own credibility with your actions within the fbi. rachel: or take down the fbi's credibility as you do that? i think this is really not just about, you know, equal

we saw that this was a vindictive attack on andrew mccabe. it didn't matter what andrew mccabe did or what the findings were. they had an objective they wanted to meet, and this is the method they chose to pursue it. and the problem with all this is we have no idea what's in this report. if the attorney general is going to go to such lengths, i'm sure he knew this would cause a fire storm, as it did last week. then he should have disclosed that report. he should have offered what opr did in the representation, what they put forward in the recommendation, why he made his decision. right now we only have two sides of the story. we don't have the ig report. so it's very hard for the public to make much sense of it, other than if you have to go with president trump's word, which he forecast this months ago, or andrew mccabe's statement, i'm going with andrew mccabe's statement at the moment until i see that ig report. i think it would be very helpful, much like when we went through this process with the nunes memo, for the public to have somethin

if andrew mccabe is getting his pension, that's a win for andrew mccabe therefore it must be a lose for donald trump. >> especially about mump. trump is obsessed with money. >> and he has these two storm clouds over him -- >> which we're about to get to. >> and he has the mueller storm cloud. everyone said i can't do this, i don't that and there would be catastrophic consequences if i do x or y, the catastrophe hasn't happened so he may be starting to think everybody says i can't fire mueller but maybe i can. >> i'm going to take a leap. i think we're being incredibly naive if that's not what he's planning. can he fire him? >> he can. he might have to fire someone to do it. >> would firing him stop the investigation? >> it depends on what the then standing official at doj -- whether it's a new attorney general, new deputy attorney general does. but a new attorney general, a new deputy attorney general could close down the investigation and firing mueller is not the only way for him to accomplish this. he could fire jeff sessions, replace whim a new attorney general who's not recused, a

this comes just hours after the firing of former fbi deputy director andrew mccabe. cnn white house correspondent abby phillip is at the white house, so abby, help us through all of these new steps. >> well, good morning, fred. this morning is really a remarkable development, in part because it contradicts everything the white house and the president's lawyers have been saying up until this point, that they want to see this investigation taken to its logical conclusion, which is what they believe will show that the president had nothing to do with any sort of collusion related to russia. but now, john dowd, who is the outside attorney for the president on the issue of russia, has issued a statement to cnn and to some other outlets saying that i pray the acting attorney general rod rosenstein will follow the brilliant can courageous example of the fbi office of professional responsibility and attorney general jeff sessions and bring an end to the alleged russia collusion investigation. manufactured by mccabe's boss james comey based on a fraudulent and corrupt dossier

one talking about fake memos andrew mccabe could have been keeping. we're told the memos are in the hand of robert mueller. what does the president anticipate will come from those? >> first off, as i said earlier, there's no collusion, no obstruction, no findings of wrongdoing will come from the special counsel's investigation. when it comes andrew mccabe, he was let go by the department of justice based on the findings from the office of personal responsibility in the department of justice because of his actions. i think they'll be documented in the inspector general report. it's going to go through the actions he did that led career officials to recommend to the attorney general he be fired. so i think he is responsible for his firing and own conduct and has nothing to do with the white house. >> sandra: i have five seconds left, raj. does the president think mark zuckerberg needs to testify on the data misuse story? >> the president believes americans' privacy should be protect. without knowing the specifics it's difficult to talk about whether an

the problem is donald trump wanted to see andrew mccabe go. he made that very explicitly obvious in public statements. now andrew mccabe is gone at the last possible moment that he could have been fired where he would have this punishment of not being able to receive his pension. it's impossible to extricate from that donald trump's pressure on jeff sessions, too. you were just outlining the pressure he put on the fbi, but also put a lot of pressure on jeff sessions. >> does this give sessions a little more, a little more gu gumption, i guess, maybe, with donald trump now w the president? >> yeah, i think that this -- donald trump will look at what jeff sessions did approvingly, yes. if donald trump did not have a direct hand in saying, you have to make sure this guy goes. we'll wait and see. so glad you're both with us. thank you. >>> the president's attorney claims that stormy daniels violated a nondisclosure agreement and could now owe up to $20 million for what she's already said about an alleged affair with the president and an agreement

andrew mccabe, though, is defending himself, saying that's just not true. let me ask you this, though. the president, as we've seen, is now going after robert mueller directly. we read tweets. he's calling him out by name. do you regreet with your fellow republicans in congress, senators graham and flake, who if mueller is fired, it would be catastrophic for this administration? >> well, the president has repeated over and over again that he is not going to fire, he has no plans to fire, he's not talking about firing director mueller. i'm sure that the president would want director mueller's investigation to end, especially as it relates to -- here we are, it's well over -- >> why does he want it to end, though, if he's 100% innocent? why does he want it to end -- >> because we're talking about this. >> mueller's broader investigation is about figuring out and getting to the bottom of russia's election meddling, no? >> yeah, but when you get to the bottom of it and there's nothing there and the president knows that there's nothing there, you know, here we a

andrew mccabe stepped down in january amid heightened scrutiny. since then he's been using up vacation days so he could retire today on his 50th birthday, making him eligible for a lifetime pension. instead, the attorney general, jeff sessions, waited until 24 hours before the pension was set to kick in to fire the fbi's former deputy director and given that president trump has repeatedly attacked mccabe on twitter and suggested he should be fired, lawmakers are also concerned that politics were involved in this decision. >> it just seemed mean spirited to come down on a guy within 48 hours of his scheduled retirement, he had 21 years of exceptional service in the fbi, so it was clearly rushed and i think there are questions about that and whether the administration was putting pressure on the justice department to take this action. >> reporter: the attorney general said the basis for his attorney to fire mccabe came from internal investigations that the fbi and doj did which determined mccabe lied to investigators who were reviewing the probe of

eboni: more father with a friend of fbi or andrew mccabe. lawmakers on both sides are sound enough this morning. garrett and he joins us with more. reporter: we have lawmakers on both sides who are unhappy with how this went down. the biggest issue is that the timing of it. andrew mccabe was 26 hours away from receiving a lifetime pension when he was fired in the basis for inspiron basis for inspiron is a report by doj inspector general which is expected to be released in the next couple weeks. we haven't seen that, but that report by mccabe lied to investigators during the probe of hillary clinton's e-mail server. some republicans urging mccabe is simply paying the price for his actions, but others like marco rubio said the decision to fire him appears to be a bit rushed. >> after he had retired comment that report would've indicated wrongdoing or something actionable. there are things after-the-fact. >> it was the appropriate decision given the reports of his having leaked internal information to the media and then giving false information

particularly andrew mccabe's credibility in that investigation. he said, the idea that i was dishonest is just wrong. this is part of an effort to discredit me as a witness. and, of course, he means as a witness in the mueller investigation. he went on to say, andrew mccabe did, it's incredible unfair to my reputation, after a 21 year career, the real damage is being done to the fbi, law

eric: the firing of former deputy fbi director andrew mccabe. but the revelation that he kept detailed notes of his meetings with president trump. hello, welcome to "america's news headquarters," i'm eric shawn. arthel: i'm arthel neville. the president is slamming the makeup of mueller's team saying it's populated with hardened democrats. president trump also tweeting about mccabe's claims they had memos on their meetings. trump said her in took notes when he was with me. probably at a later date. can we call them fake memos? ellison barber is live with us from the white house. reporter: yesterday president trump's personal attorney says he hopes deputy attorney general rob rosenstein would bring the mueller investigation to an end. he was speaking in his own personal capacity and not that of the president. but the president is sending out a series of tweets saying why does the mueller team have 13 hardened democrats, some of them big crooked hillary supporters and zero republic cabs. does anyone think this is fair and yet there is no collusion

andrew mccabe fired for leaking to the media. could his response afterwards put his old boss, james comey, in hot water? house judiciary chairman bob goodlatte, newt gingrich and former assistant fbi director jim kallstrom join me live on that plus the

would andrew mccabe have been fired per se? >> yes. based on on the reporting and what seems to be his admission in his own statement that he lacked candor. now, the term "lack of candor" is a term of art. it basically means you didn't tell the truth, whether you lied, whether you perjured whether it was under oath or wasn't under oath. none of that really matters in terms of fbi's code of conduct. if you lie, you are fired. leland: it's important to point out because some are making this about the issue well, did he talk to the media or did he not talk to the media? that's not what we are talking about here. >> that's not what we're talking about. leland: we are talking about did he tell the truth to the people he was supposed to about that. >> it's become a term of art in washington that the coverup is worse -- is oftentimes worse than the offense and that's true. and the corollary in the fbi is that lying during an inquiry about your conduct will get you a harsher penalty potentially than what you are being -- than the conduct that'

for example, what did you know about andrew mccabe's leaks and andrew mccabe's lying under oath. why did you tell president trump that clinton, that bought and paid for dossier was bought and paid for why did you say that an unverified meeting at trump tower, but three months earlier in october of 2016 you were using that same dossier to get a warrant to spy on carter page and that was the bulk of the fisa application? mr. comey, come on the show and tell us why the fbi also never corroborated or verified the dossier. and did you know it used current and former russian government sources? it's supposed to be a big deal. did the fbi make any attempt, did you make any attempt, to look at christopher steeles russian sources and interview them yourself? did anyone at the fbi ask him about his sources? did you pay christopher steeles? is there reports that you did pay them? what about fusion gps? did you ever ask glenn simpson or anyone at the company if they ever tried to verify the dossier, because the answer is no, they didn't. by the way, then there's the fire support. mr. comey,

i want to see what andrew mccabe has in the way of response. but even if you assume for a moment that the report said he did this -- he had violations of the code of the fbi, if you will, my problem is the timing and the way it all worked. just seems mean spirited to come down on a guy within 48 hours of his scheduled retirement, he had 1 years of exceptional service in the fbi. so, it was clearly rushed. i think there are questions about that and whether the administration was putting pressure on the justice department to take this action. the whole thing appears, at least at this point we'll find out more in the coming weeks, but it appears to have been compressed in order to take vengeance on this guy for some prone. and i don't think that's the way we should be governing. we have to find out the facts of what he did, if he did then some punishment was necessary, to rush it through in order to take his pension away from him within a few hours of the end of his tenure strikes me as i said, mean spirited. >> brennan: your fellow intel committe