wray spoke to our justice correspondent pete williams. >> reporter: nearly eight months into the job as director of the fbi, christopher wray pushed back against criticism from president trump and some in congress who say the fbi favored hillary clinton during the election at the expense of donald trump. >> i have not seen a politicized organization. what i have seen is people fiercely focused on trying to do the right thing in the right way. >> reporter: but what does it do to morale when some of the toughest criticism comes from the president, himself? >> would we prefer not to get criticized? of course. but in many ways, we're our own toughest critics. >> reporter: the fbi admits it failed to follow up on tips about nikolas cruz before last month's florida school shooting. >> we were worried, would people suddenly not want to call in? we haven't seen that at all. in fact, if anything, we've seen exactly the opposite. we've seen a sharp uptick. >> reporter: wray revealed the fbi now has more than 3,000 open terrorism investigations. isis-related cases, other foreign-inspired threat

wray would apply the required assets to clear all of those records by lunchtime tomorrow. they need to impeach lesser officers. impeachment is not just for the president. impeachment is for people who are constitutional officers who are subject to congressional oversight. and if they keep getting told drop dead, whatever the language would be, they need to impeach these people. they can't indict them or try them but they can hold a political trial and that's called an impeachment. and these constitutional officers need to be held to account that way. lou: good counsel to the house. thanks so much, chris. good to have you with us. as always >>> and be sure to vote in the poll tonight. the question is do you believe blizzard's left wing pro-criminal illegal immigrant state government could soon be seeking sanctuary from californians intent on voting them out of office? cast your vote on twitter@low tr @loudobbs >>> a biking legend showing off his skills in a one-of-a-kind motocross track. a seven-time motocross champion. he's retiring from the sport so his friends got togeth

we're going to post those comments from chris wray online tonight if you want to see that. we don't hear from the fbi director all that often except when he's doing congressional testimony. but in addition to him talking about those big foundational issues for the fbi, this remarkable time for the bureau, with the president, the white house attacking the fbi regularly, chris wray has also had some very specific remarks about something the fbi and homeland security department jointly announced and warned about just a few days ago. >> you and the department of homeland security put out a report last week detailing russian efforts to hack into infrastructure, power plants, utilities, the power grid water systems. what do you think the russians were up to there? were they trying to say, see what we can do? so you don't try it with us? what was happening there? >> well, the cyber attack that you're referring to, the, i think first i would say it was the real deal. it's something we take very seriously. i don't know that i want to -- and we're very confident in our attribution of

. >> chris wray has become an embarrassment to the fbi. what is going on at the department? this place seems to be upside down, on its head. what does that tell you about the fbi director? it tells you he's a coward! >> a coward! that's trump's guy! although digenova now is just sounding a lot like donald trump on steroids. >> when i -- when everybody -- not me, when everybody, the level of anger at what they've been witnessing with respect to the fbi is certainly very sad. >> so, digenova joins team trump at the exact same time trump himself is, for the first time, leveling a personal attack against the special counsel himself. here's the tweet. again, it is the first time ever that trump has slammed bob 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 dnc and improperly used in fisa court for surveillance of my campaign. witch hunt. okay, put aside factual inaccuracie

he can ask director sessions and christopher wray to go away. he can do that. but i encourage your colleagues in the media to camp out and follow, ask questions, press director wray. i don't know if he's in a bunker. lou: i can tell you he's in a bunker. there is no question by the. and he's perfectly willing to lie to the american people, the president, the attorney general. if that's relevant in his job. and he simply says that the fbi is just fine. there is no corruption issue. everything is just hunky dory in the view of christopher wray. >> this is another exhibit in my call for the really the abolition, the dismemberment of the fbi. the u.s. marshal service served honorably for 75 years. and they have created an investigative arm. agents can lateral over to the u.s. marshal service and we could do away with the fbi entirely. it would take 6 to 8 months. lou: it's an idea whose time may well have come given the level of corruption and disaffectionate the fbi and doj. >> something has got to change. lou: the critical intelligence committee deadline for i'm

the attorney general jeff sessions is absolutely livid with the fbi director wray. give us these documents. in response, director wray promised to double the amount of staff working on releasing the documents and he will double up their shifts. is this too little too late? should a contempt of court order be issued if the fbi doesn't comply with the subpoena? another top story. the media eruptd ed into a frenzy today over a story in the "new york times" speculating that "trump's lawyer raised the problem of pardons for general flynn and paul manafort." one tiny little problem with this story. it's fake news. one of trump's lawyer cobb put out a statement that reads: fake news. cobb could not have been more clear. that didn't stop the corrupt mainstream media from obsessing over the story during today's white house briefing. we have the evidence. take a look. >> are pardons on the table for anyone involved in the russia probe? >> i refer you back to the statement from ty cobb. >> can you say no one here discussed pardons in this case? >> i can say ty cobb is the pers

the current fbi director chris christopher wray told nbc news of the firing was for cause and not political motivated. >> i'm committed to doing things objectively and buy the book. i think that has to extend not just to our investigations, but also has to extend to personnel the sessions and disciplinary decisions. >> on capitol hill today come in public as a democrat worn for 28 midterm elections are in russia's cross hairs. >> what i learned yesterday was horrifying. >> after reading the senate intelligence committee's draft finding on the russia election meddling, predicting the next round will be worse. >> they weren't doing it for fun in 2016. what it looks like is a test. and it was incredibly, as i say, thorough and comprehensive. >> no ballots were change, current and former homeland security warn against minimizing the threat. >> were there any votes affected by this intrusion into any system in america? >> not to my knowledge, sir. >> secretary nielsen? >> we have no evidence that any of these were changed. once these vulnerabilities have been made clear, it is not just russia th

anytime of day or night, wray & nephew. >> desus: wray & nephew is a very strong jamaican white rum that we use for everything from baby fever -- >> anthony: right. >> desus: -- to drinks here in this bar. you get it with cranberry juice, with milk, or water. what water would be in any other borough is what wray & nephew is in the bronx. >> anthony: cheers, thank you. desus is one half of the brilliant podcast team "desus vs. kid mero." it's a very fast freeform riff diatribe on life in the bronx and what's happening in the news in hip-hop, or last night. >> desus: growing up in the bronx, you're isolated from the rest of the city. you know what i'm saying? so, the other city has like, citibike. the bronx doesn't get any of that. we're kind of abandoned up here. people get on a boat and go to staten island before they ride up to the bronx. >> anthony: i -- i got to, reluctantly, have to -- being part of that problem. >> desus: yes. people always say, you know, the bronx is eventually going to be gentrified. that's not happening anytime soon. >> anthony: it's not? >> desus: like, it's not

>> no, but it's hard for him to criticize chris wray of all people. he hand picked him and had him sworn in. he's on the record praising him, saying what a great guy he is. of course, they did that with other people in those positions as well, but certainly is a lot more difficult for the president to be critical of him. >>> up next, the president says everybody wants to work at his white house. so then why are so many people packing up and leaving? they appear out of nowhere. my secret visitors. hallucinations and delusions. the unknown parts of living with parkinson's. what plots they unfold, but only in my mind. over 50% of people with parkinson's will experience hallucinations or delusions during the course of their disease. if your loved one is experiencing these symptoms, talk to your parkinson's specialist. there are treatment options that can help. my visitors should be the ones i want to see. let's take a look at some numbers: there are treatment options that can help. 4 out of 5 people who have a stroke, their first symptom... is a stroke. 8

here are the wray's, mother and daughter. the woman sitting down is the mother, and that is her daughter standing. wray wasthis, mrs. problems.ecological there is no doctor. the african-americans would come down from kansas city, and they there is no-- electricity, no refrigeration, so they would trade produce for services. would takeoctors care of the community in exchange for chickens and tomatoes and so forth. mrs. wray has some serious medical issues. her husband says to her, the next time dr. turner is out here, you better have him examine you. woman,ner examines this and he says, man, you need a hysterectomy. you need to be in the hospital. he takes her in his car to general hospital number two at a time when black men are being whistling at white women, and he performs a then takesy on her, her into his own, he and his wife, for weeks while she recovers. that went so well that the next summer, the two little girls, they needed tonsillectomy's. to kansas took them city to perform tonsillectomies on them. i tracked that

everything i was hearing was that that was the case. >> harris: christopher wray has that job because of president trump. for him to say that the president has not spoken with him or put press rure on regardg russia, what does that tell you? >> it tells me. president trump is giving him wide berth and freedom he needs with the fbi particularly with the investigation muler is conducting. the real issue is why isn't rod rosen stein, who is the number two guy at doj. why isn't he putting constraints on that? this is way beyond the boundary and gone way long. >> harris: why isn't he? do you know? >> the way i read it. rod rosenstein helped bring mueller on. this is his buddy. he's giving him lots of room and i think that's a real problem myself. >> harris: hands off but hands on taxpayer money and time to watch this. >> yes. exactly right. so, it continues to go on and on and on and quite frankly, as special counsel is going to go as long as you let them go, because they want to come back somewhere along the way and say this is the work product we've done. >> congressman biggs. if you ste

still ahead, nbc's exclusive sit-down with fbi director christopher wray. he reacts to claims that the bureau favored hillary clinton. >>> and pete williams joins us for that. "morning joe" is coming right back. a car you can command when you're nowhere near it... does that require mind-control? no. just some mind-blowing engineers from the ford motor company and pivotal who developed fordpass, allowing you to reach out to your car from wherever you are to check your fuel level, unlock your doors and start your engine... so when you're ready to go, your car is, too. magic can't make digital transformation happen... but we can. that's the power of pivotal, part of dell technologies. want us to do about what woulthis president?fathers i'm tom steyer, and when those patriots wrote the constitution here in philadelphia, they had just repelled an invading foreign power. so they created the commander in chief to protect us from enemy attack. the justice department just indicted 13 russians for sabotaging our elections. an electronic attack on america that the chi

the fbi, which under christopher wray has done just about everything the president has wanted him to do, not always on his time line, but a andy mccabe son his way out. the general counsel is on his way out. all of the people donald trump has attacked on twitter under chris wray being reorganized, if you will, to the chagrin of many career lifelong fbi folks as i understand it. >> true. >> why is paul ryan going along with the corruption of the house intel committee? >> well, like many issues involving trump and this whole situation on capitol hill, they're trying to remain silent. it's not that he's sticking up for devin nunes in public. he's trying to make this go away. that's usually what, if you see trey gowdy, the oversight committee chairman, one minute he's dee fefending the credibil of bob mueller and everything he's doing, the next minute he's going deep state. he does a straddle if you watch what he's doing. they're trying to keep 1 foot in the land of the trump voter and the other foot in some kind of integrity of yore. i have no idea where this is going to end. when you t

director wray also goes on at length about what he sees as the important nonpartisan nature of the fbi and the crucial independence of the fbi. that also seems important right now to have him on the record about that, especially after the firing of the fbi's deputy director following months of pressure and taunting of him by the president. we're going to post those comments online tonight at madd maddow.com, if you want to see that. it's very interesting to hear him put that stuff in his own words. but in addition to talking about those big foundation an issues with the fbi, that the remarkable time for the bureau, with the white house and him attacking them regularly, they've had some specific remarks, something they jointly warned about a few months ago. >> ywhat do you think the russians were up to there? were they trying to say see what we can do so you doesn't try it with us? what was happening there? >> well, the cyber attack that you're referring to, i think first i would say it was the real deal. it something we take very seriously. i don't know that i want to -- and we're very

jeff sessions finally awakened from his slumber and told christopher wray, accelerate the handing over of the documents. the problem is, we are trusting the fbi and the department of justice to hand over documents that are responsive to the subpoena. >> sean: rod rosenstein didn't want to turn over the 3,000 that we have that to lead to the nunes memo that led to the grassley-graham memo, that the lead to america knowing about fisa abuses, which sara broke in march of last year. march 8th 2017. >> this is why there should be a special counsel. there ought to be a grand jury and not to subpoenas issued to go in ando see these documents. don't let the doj and the fbi decide which ones they want to turn over. they will hide to the incriminating documents or redact material information. get a warrant, sees them, bring in federal marshals. don't let the fbi be involved in policing themselves. >> sean: it's impossible. congressman chaffetz, you have experience in this. i am looking at the process -- and i know the wheels of justice grind ever so slowly here -- but when you put all of this to

we're also learning more, don, about the interactions that mccabe had with the fbi director wray, when he was asked to leave his position as deputy director. he was told on a sunday night, he says in january, by the fbi director, who had called him that he was going to remove him from his post as deputy director and demote him essentially because he had looked at the ig report and was troubled by the allegations. he says that wray would not be specific with him about those allegations, what specific allegations they were. and so instead andrew mccabe told him that he would take a leave of absence. and he also added, don, that in december, this past december, that director wray had asked him to speak to the editor of a major newspaper about a story that the fbi thought would be damaging to their operational capabilities. and so in mccabe's view, he feels he is being fired for something he was asked to do, the same thing he was asked to do in december by the current fbi director that he did in october of 2016 when he authorized the disclosure of that information to the media, don. >> all

wray says the following. i' i'm going to read this to you rather than play the sound. i'm committed to doing things objectively and independently by the book. i think it has to extend to our investigations, our intelligence analysis, but also has to extend to personnel decision ands disciplinary decisions. >>> so, i ask you at this moment, do you think that wrich wray is living up to those words? >> i think by and large he is. i haven't seen evidence he isn't. it was the general's call to fire andy mccabe. that was part of the effort of the president to lean in on his general, to take out and undermine somebody who could be a witness of obstruction of justice in firing james comey. i think it was part of the efforts to stop and undermine the mueller investigation. >> jeremy bash, i just want to say to you, get a twitter account, for god sakes, man. you're making america crazy without your twitter. get a twitter account. it was great to see you on here today. so, thank you for coming by. i commend everyone to go and take a look at jeff session ands donald trump smiling

. >>> in an exclusive new interview with nbc's pete williams, fbi director christopher wray addressed reports he threatened to resign after being pressured by the white house to fire some senior individuals. earlier this year, numerous allies report that wray was pressured by the trump administration to get rid of former fbi deputy director andrew mccabe. here's fbi director wray speaking to nbc's pete williams. >> do you feel any political pressure from the white house? >> no. >> president's never asked you to say anything about it or clear him? >> about the russia investigation? >> yes. >> he's never asked me to do anything with the russia investigation. >> it's been reported that you threatened to resign over being urged to fire people. is that correct? >> you know, i have been very clear from the minute i was nominated, to the minute i walked in the door, to countless opportunities since then, that i am unwaveringly committed to doing this job by the book, independently, following our rules, our processes, free from political or partisan influence. >> so it sounds like you're sayi

it was the same time of work i continue to do under director wray at his request. the investigation subsequently focussed on who i talked to, when i talked to them and so forth. during those inquiries i answered questions as truthfully and accurately as i could. when i thought my answers were misunderstood i contacted investigators to correct them. but looking at that in isolation completely misses the big picture. the pig picture is a tail of what can happen when law enforcement is politicized, public servants are attacked. and people become instruments for damaging institutions and people. i want to get your reaction to that much of andrew mccabe's statement, harry litman. >> it's true and tragic. first on mccabe, the broader story as ben and ned say is one of exemplary public service, respected across from everybody and an unfair tarring. but this broader theme that he sounds at the end of his statement the politicalization of law enforcement is just nauseating and it's continued and continued. what they're trying to do to him now -- trump had his press secretar

. >> i thought it was interesting what christopher wray had to stay. his response is, it's not that we're not cooperating, this has been a slow process. you turn around and you see the double of the process. i don't know, i haven't seen the list exactly all they're looking for. i know it's a treasure trove of stuff. does this really answer the call -- it's different when you give somebody more stuff than if you give them more specific stuff. we don't know the answer to that. >> they're looking for a 1,200,000 pages of documents. when one party controls congress and same party controls the executive branch, they work together. eric holder was held in contempt for not surrendering the fast and furious documents. jeff sessions called up chris wray and say you got a subpoena. get it done. the obama justice department faulty examination and unlawful exoneration of mrs. clinton. that's the document they're looking for. >> what are we still talking about this e-mail investigation that's been long closed. i don't know what else to say. >> i don't know if it is

we know from what chris wray said on "the hill" that both of the ex-wives spoke to the fbi there is no question that general kelly got nfginformatio from the fbi, they should have raise flags by a bucket hole. >> the other thing i don't get is why general kelly would not only try to relitigate this today but also give himself a pat on the back at the same time? >> yeah, it was really was, it was unforced error. we can speculate whether he's worried about his job being on the line and trying to explain and demonstrate to the president that he's got this under control, we simply don't know. what i can tell you from talking to officials at the white house is that porter was entrusted deputy of kelly. i think it is likely that the general is willing to sweep some things under the rug because he needed him. >> we told him everything and if general kelly says he does not know about the physical abuse, that does not make sense. >> if dailymail.com, if they had not done this reporting, would the actions be taken? >> all we do know is that by the next day, they were still supporting him from th

. >> neil: you're talking about the fbi director, chris wray. and mccabe has made a big deal that his pension was denied at the last second. you think it should be denied? >> his pension is not entirely lost. i don't know all the ramifications of it. he's still entitled to a great portion of his pension. the fact of the matter is, i think attorney general sessions may the correct decision based upon reports that mccabe authorized leaks to the media and then gave false information about that during the investigation conducted by the inspector general. we will find out more about the report, but that is the appropriate step taken by the attorney general. there needed to be changes in personnel at the time of the fbi given all the other things that the inspector general has investigated and were investigating related to the fisa warrant applications and how they handled both the clinton and trump investigations during the campaign. >> neil: chairman goodlatte, thanks very much. good seeing you. >> thanks, neil. >> neil: we mentioned hillary clinton

cruz said, i'm going to be a school shooter. >> laura: where is wray? why hasn't he come out? >> i want to know who handled that filing made the decision to not pursue him, and ultimately that led to him going out and massacring 17 people. it should have never happened. the fbi dropped the ball. saw some problems with local law enforcement too that angered me. in terms of oversight, we have oversight over the fbi, and i think we deserve and the public deserves to know just by the fbi dropped the ball in this critically important case. spoon congressman steve squeeze, always great having one. thank you so much, sir. we are going to be giving a close eye on the development in austin. we are awaiting a news conference any moment from our enforcement officials. we'll take it there as soon as it happens. coming up, one city in california has voted to jettison its state's century policy. the mayor is going to be here to the mayor is going to be here to d>> tech: at safelite autoglass we know that when you're spending time with the grandkids every minute counts. and you don't have ti

just a few months ago, mccabe was put on leave after current fbi director christopher wray was reportedly informed that mccabe was going to be exposed in the upcoming inspector general's report. i can't wait for that report. then also tonight as we have predicted for months, the disgraced former fbi director jim comey, oh, is he prepared to cash in on his new found fame. did i predict that you know, in just a few weeks, comey is going to kick off his whirlwind book tour. he has tough interviews with stephen colbert, clinton sycophant george stephanopoulos and ladies of "the view." according to that you report from axios, comey is planning to come out hot and correct all the so-called lies about him and the fbi. for months we have literally been bringing you the american people on a nightly basis breaking news, hard-hitting, investigative reports about the corruption at some of the highest levels of our government including the shocking details about the abuse of power at the very top of the phish. fbi. james comey you want to come out hot? you want to answer hard, important questions? you

going to be giving evidence against them. >> then you add to that, the current fbi director, chris wray was widely reported to threaten to resign if they in his view improperly removed andrew mccabe. and that seemed to happen friday under unusual circumstances. our own pete williams asked him about that, and he did not decline those reports which is notable and might frighten the white house. >> it's been said that said you would resign if the president started firing people. >> it was from the minute i walked in the door to countless opportunities since then that i am unwaveringly committed to doing this job by the book independently following our rules and our processes free from partisan political influence. >> so you're saying these reports are not wrong? >> i'm not going to talk about specific conversations. >> evan, how do you view that? and could we end up in any kind of proceeding where the current and former fbi director and deputy director and rod rosenstein who was involved in the firing of comey are all witnesses? >> well, look, so on mccabe, it appears the circumstances are

the political appointees, jeff sessions, rod rosenstein and christopher wray and have to take seriously their obligations and to respond to legitimate congressional inquiries. >> harris: you're mentioning in christopher wray's points and jeff sessions, people that have come on board with the current administration. you're saying they need to take a closer look. i caught what you said. one million might be pages, actual documents. we don't know yet. why do you say cover-up mode? could there be any other reason why all of this is coming together now and you have all of these missing pages or documents? >> we asked about the clinton-lynch tarmac meetings. they said they had no documents. >> yes, they did. >> they did. they gave us those documents. then it turns out, they had texts between peter strzok and lisa page. also talked about the tarmac meeting. we didn't get those documents. even after we caught them red-handed in one other cover up. we asked the fbi what is going on here. we still are getting the documents being released publicly. they should have been released to us months ago.

wray writes "the actual number of documents is likely in the thousands regardless, i agree that current pace of production. by expanding the number sorting through documents, shulkin is defying republicans who said "this subpoena is intended to speed up the production to pivot the discussion back to other clinton and divert attention from the chaos surrounding the trump administration. the order to beef up the bureau's staff assigned to help congress came straight from the top. senior staff on both sides have met on this and the fbi is getting called to the carpet. the attorney general is angry with how slow the process has moved when it comes to requests from congress to the fbi. some republicans still think sessions is acting like an obama appointee. >> i am sorry but attorney general sessions, i don't see much of a difference between him and loretta lynch and eric holder. what is the difference? when you issue a subpoena from congress, it's a suggestion. it's just a request. there is no urgency that you have to hit it by the deadline? >> the extra fbi staffers working to speed up the

and too slow, the fbi director christopher wray finally responds. he says he will double the number of personnel assigned to reviewing the gop's request for documents in the investigation of the clinton e-mail investigation. what you need to know coming up. saudi arabia bets on solar. the major investment the company is making on a solar park in the kingdom. too sexy for the aisle? why walmart is removing cosmopolitan magazine from the checkout lanes. all those stories are coming up. joining me is dagen mcdowell, kevin kelly and mary kissel. great show so far, you guys. >> great to be here, maria. >> we haven't covered the kim jong un meeting as much i would have figured. i figure this is a big turning point in the relations between china and the united states, given the fact that the south china sea is a big contentious issue, what's going on with japan. i think this is a bigger deal than it's being played out. >> dagen: i don't know about that, kevin. maybe i'm cynical. i've been covering this story for so long, both in asia and here in the united

government trade war wray he follows harrisonn s sel anand aluminiumum importstss earlie this month. and so the panels in february the journey showed slides the moves as political posturing waters at a rapid escalation of. tensions is not go to a a boarding points is not and goes to a point where i chinese to retaliation and ms one of tom's mandates is getting tougher on china so he needs to be seen to be delivering if pushed beijing is more likely to hit back by targeting you decide corporate [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is accusers awaiting the who the accusers to show at least some piece of evidence that indicates that i committed any c c c c c c c c c c c c c c hat i was in the presidency. now, what is behind that is the

washington post" and this is coming just about 48 hours after his old boss, fbi director christopher wray told ntsb news that the termination of andrew mccabe was totally by the book and by the regulations. so, this op-ed on its face is really challenging the version of events that was presented by wray earlier this week. >> martha: just one last question for you, catherine. >> sure. >> martha: i want people to understand what he was accused of. what are the things that surfaced in that report that forced his resignation, his stepping aside and then ultimately his firing? >> okay. so, the inspector general was charged with looking at the handling of the clinton email case by the fbi and the justice department and they also looked at media leaks. in this particular case, there was a conversation with a reporter at the "wall street journal" in october of 2016 and that's kind of where there are different views on what happened. mccabe says he was within his rights to talk to that reporter about the clinton email investigation and the foundation investigation. and that he had the approval fro

according to cnn, fbi director christopher wray has made it clear that he's frustrated that president trump is not listening to his advice. regarding a controversial memo claiming the fbi abused surveillance laws. you're surprised trump didn't listen to advice? [ laughter ] this is the same guy who heard about the eclipse, and told the sun to bring it. [ laughter and applause ] so -- president trump yesterday, praised chicago cubs co-owner todd rickett's appointment as the rnc's new finance chairman, calling him a great addition. yeah, great if you want to win one election every 108 years. [ laughter and applause ] republican chair of the house intelligence committee, devin nunes, yesterday claimed the changes made to a controversial memo about the fbi before he sent it to the white house were minor grammatical edits. that's right. he had to make the grammar worse so trump could read it. [ laughter ] [ cheers and applause ] take these commas out. [ laughter ] president trump today said that senator orrin hatch called him the greatest president in the history of our country. i guess ha

i look at the way chris wray does his job with all this going on. he doesn't even look like he's affected by any of it. that's the leadership we need -- >> you would counsel jeff sessions to stay. >> i would counsel him to stay as long as he thought he was serving the president, the justice department and the country in the best way. as a former chief executive, the president has the right to do what he wants to do. if the president has no confidence in the attorney general, the president has to act. not just criticize, but act. he has the right to do that. as a former chief executive, i wouldn't deprive him of that right. in terms of jeff sessions' decision, he has to decide if i'm effective and am i serving the country well and the people of the department of justice well because it matters. >> chris christie, reince priebus, thank you. we'll dig into the debate on guns. you saw the president seeming to back democratic proposals. take a look. >> 97% of americans want universal background checks, yet we can't get it done. there's nothing else like

the fbi director christopher wray is shooting down all of these liberal media lies. let's take a look at what he is saying about mccabe's firing. >> i want to be careful about what i can say about the process but i will tell you that my commitment to making sure that our process is followed, that it relies on objective into it and most importantly, it is not based on political or partisan influence is something i am utterly unyieldinghi on. >> sean: here with reaction, two of the lawmakers wrote a letter to the attorney general jeff sessions, congressman andy gibbs and congressman matt gaet gaetz. let's talk about this letter, it is important. >> absolutely. in the swamp of washington, d.c., and andy mccabe was one of the loch ness monster is. there is a report, and final form, prepared by the office of professional responsibility, the details, the basis for firing mccabe and we believe the judiciary committee and the american people should see it. when we synthesize this report with w what we have learned in congressional investigations about his office come potenti

now, the whole thing with andrew mccabe, remember, was sort of set in motion before chris wray became director. and what we saw as the maturation of that in late friday. it all began with -- in october of 2016 when andrew mccabe did an interview with a reporter for the "wall street journal" who was asking about, he was trying to check out what he had heard which was that the fbi was slow rolling an investigation of the clinton foundation. so, he called the fbi and said, is this true? mccabe authorized talking to him to say, no, it's not, that the fbi was pushing ahead, but they were getting resistance from the justice department. the meantime, after the election, the inspector general, the justice department decided to do an investigation of how the fbi did the whole hillary clinton case and found out about this, and what we're told now -- and the trouble we have here is none of us have seen the inspector general report that triggered the mccabe firing. but what we've been told is when mccabe was asked about this, he didn't tell the truth and that's why they fired him. >> there have b

i mean as director wray testified, director of the nsa testified, and today -- or yesterday, i guess, whenever the secretary of homeland security testified, and they're all apparently working things in their own lane. what's needed, though, is an across the government approach and some leadership and direction and most importantly a sense of urgency across the entire government, and for that matter across society. i mean the president, you know, his word carries huge weight. so if he is the leader in terms of educating the public about what the russians are doing, that carries a lot of weight. so good on each of the parts of the government that are doing things in their own lane. but what's required here is leadership and direction overall. >> well, i mean if one uses that benchmark, then, i mean he's educating or trying to lead the public to follow his beliefs about, you know, corruption at the highest levels of the fbi or problems with the department of justice or whatever it may be. he's tweeting very little about russian interference in the past election or concerns about it in th

. >>> a new revelation today from fbi director chris wray making it clear he threatened to resign earlier this year when he felt pressured by the trump administration to fire some senior officials. he made the remarks in an exclusive interview with nbc's pete williams. >> do you feel any political pressure from the white house? >> no. >> president's never asked to you say anything about it or clear him? >> about the russia investigation? >> yes. >> he's never asked me to do anything with the russia investigation. >> it's been reported that you threatened to resign over being urged to fire people, is that correct? >> you know, i have been very clear from the minute i was nominated to the minute i walked in the door to countless opportunities since then that i am unwaveringly committed to doing this job by the book, independently, following our rules, our processes, free from political or partisan influence. >> so you're saying those reports are not wrong? >> i'm not going to talk about specific conversations. >> you can see more of our exclusive interview with the fbi director tomorrow mor

>> my reaction is it's good that chris wray is saying the things that he is saying. that's just a small snippet. i haven't seen the full interview. but i think at a time when people have concerns that there is political interference, a time when people are concerned that the president is telling people what to do and the fbi is not handling his responsibilities in an arm's length way, it's incredibly important for the leader of the fbi to make clear, look the american people in the eye like he appears to have done in that interview and say that he is above politics and he is not going to be interfered with for any reason having to do with politics. so i hope he means it. everything i know about chris wray suggests that he is a person of integrity and independence, and he has to really care about not only what the public thinks about the fbi, but what the internal folks at the fbi who are charged with keeping us safe every day from all sorts of harm, what they think about it. james comey and andrew mccabe. they are speaking out. is it appropriate considering their rol

earlier this year, chris wray announced that rybicki was out. that followed republicans in congress taking shots at rybicki, trying to construe him as a partisan. also the general counsel of the fbi, james baker who remains at the fbi for now, but he has mysteriously been reassigned to a job nobody can describe with responsibilities no one can name. the president has also been taking shots at jim baker publicly. and of course there is andrew mccabe, deputy director of the fbi who the president publicly denounced for months and who is getting retired out of the fbi at the ripe old age of 49 until attorney general jeff sessions fired him, 26 hours short of his retirement. for months, we've been reporting this, that the clearing out of comey's inner circle really looks like a coordinated concert aid tempt to discredit not just james comey, but also the witnesses who could corroborate comey's account of his interactions with president trump. all the time that we've been reporting this, none of those witnesses themselves has ever spoken publicly abou