Committee the bureau was ramping up its own investigation. We will get reaction from jim himes, a member of the House Intelligence Committee who joins us now. First of all, your reaction to the senate Intelligence Committee issuing a subpoena to general flynn for documents regarding his interactions with the russian officials . How significant is that . Its evidence that the two congressional investigations, particularly the one im involved with on the house side, suffered setbacks. That suffered shortly after an open hearing at which director comey acknowledged an investigation of the Trump Administration and campaign. Now, of course, the firing of comey after sally yates testimony. I would suggest thats not a coincidence. The fact that theres subpoena for documents from Michael Flynn indicates that the senate investigation, like the house investigation, continues. Thats not a substitute for an impartial fbi investigation. But thats a good thing. By that implication, you think that the president sees these open hearings, watches them, gets annoyed and wants to try to slow them down or interfere in some way . You are saying after your first one, thats when nunes made the trip to the white house and claimed to have gotten information that he brought to the white house, even though they would have known about that information and now he saw comey and comey gets fired . Exactly. Devin kn dev devin nunes didnt cook that up on his own. That scheme resulted in all of the mess on the house investigation and his ultimate recusal from the investigation, that was that scheme was the product of rage and concern within the white house which were at a point now where if you read the memo from the Deputy Attorney general, if you hear whats coming out of the white house, clearly donald trump had had enough. The sally yates testimony and the questions about the 18 day period in which Michael Flynn remained as National Security adviser, this is a president who i guess to put it kindly reacts intistinctively to thinks he doesnt like. This is the second time we have seen this letter. This letter from the Deputy Attorney general, you think its part of a scheme that kind of provides cover for the president to get rid of the director . Let me be careful here. Im not saying the Deputy Attorney general was part of some scheme. I think that the white house decided that comeys behavior had been difficult. Theres no dispute about that. This is something we have been arguing about ever since the director made the statement and had the press conference. This has occupied legal minds and others for months and months and months. Lo and behold, after donald trump praises comey and says he is doing a good job, it just happens that a day what are we 110 of the administration, right after the sally yates testimony, all of the pieces fall into place to fire jim comey. You read that memo by the Deputy Attorney general. If you have a legal mind, if you know if you have read a department of justice memo before, wait a second, quoting editorials and quoting people in a legal memo, a bit odd. Theres no question in my mind this was something that the president just decided had to get done. You put out a statement in which you said the investigated has fired the investigator and said that the interference appears political and adds to a narrative of deception, denial and obs few skags. The white house is saying this has nothing to do with russia. The president is not being investigated about russia. This has nothing to do with russia. Anderson, nobody believes that. This has been one of the perplexing things about this investigation, which has been going on for a long time now. An innocent white house that wanted to get beyond this would behave in the exact opposite fashion that this white house is behaving. What they would do is they would say, we need to move on to our legislative program, our agenda, which now with the firing of comey has taken a huge step backwards and starting months ago they would have said, as many resources as you need, all documents are available, no bun needs to be subpoenaed, we will provide them, we need to move beyond this. Instead, lo and behold, people who have been doing the investigations, whether director comey or sally yates, list goes on and on, the house investigati investigation, we have seen obstacle after obstacle thrown in front of the investigation. Somebody who operates in politics, its a little perplexing to me. All the white house is doing by generating this is making their own legislative agenda an awful lot more problematic and raises more questions. Appreciate your time. Thank you very much. More now on white house claims that theres no evidence. S its been a steady refrain theres no there there. Today it went beyond that. The Deputy Press Secretary suggesting investigators have all but reached such a conclusion. Jim sciutto joins us on the fact check. You spoke today to members of congress leading bone the house and senate investigations. What did they say . The white house claim is untrue. I reached out to both the republican chairman of the senate Intelligence Committee, richard burr, and the ranking democrat on that committee who gave on the record comments saying that the possibility of collusion between Trump Associates and russians during the campaign is still a subject of the ongoing investigation. I heard the same thing from multiple republican and democratic members of the senate and the House Intelligence Committees as well. That are investigating russian interference in the investigation, but under the umbrella, the possibility of collusion. They say thats an open question. They are looking at the evidence. They have not closed the case on that question as the white house and the president have repeatedly claimed. We were just talking to congressman himes. The investigations are not going away soon. There are concerns about whether they are funded enough, resourced enough, whether they have enough personnel, what the fbi investigation is going to look like after the firing of comey. They are ongoing. They are. There are questions of partisanship, too, splitting along party lines. In fact, what we have been seeing is an expansion of those investigations. You have the fbi, for instance, as we reported looking for more resources for its investigation. We have federal prosecutors that have issued grand jury subpoenas in the case of Michael Flynn. We know that at least one committee and possibly another senator Lindsey Graham talked about this want financial records to look at possible trump financial ties with russia. Yes, i hear from multiple lawmakers involved, they want more resources, they want time. They are beginning to say theyre getting the cooperation they want from the cia and others. Theyre beginning to ask, anderson, for more resources. Theyre beginning to demand, subpoena people like Michael Flynn to come testify. Invite the fired james comey to come testify. Expanding their witness list. The fact is, these investigations are not disappearing. Its the opposite. Theyre expanding. Jim sciutto, thanks very much. It was a scene today at the white house when the president s brief explanation for the comey firing to his spokespersons most longer visit, to the kissinger visit, the russian visit. The russian ambassador, the acquaintance of Michael Flynn. Understanding you are learning about the president s Decision Making behind firing comey. We are. Were learning about the president s state of mind going into this. I am told by several people familiar and close to the process that the president was growing increasingly agitated, beginning with that hearing a week ago today when the fbi director was speaking to the senate. He said he was mildly nauseous by the role he played in the 2016 campaign. The president did not like that. I am told by people close to him, he kept thinking about that. It kept festering, growing throughout the weekend. Even his small victory on health care, which we talked so much about here, apparently did not allay the concerns. When he came back to the white house on monday, he had a meeting with the attorney general who was intended to recuse himself from any type of a Russian Investigation. He had a meeting with the Deputy Attorney general. The president i am told said that he concluded that the fbi direct director, he couldnt be held responsible for trusted Going Forward with this. It was at that point on monday when the president set things into motion. Over those 48 hours, leading into that, he kept it very closely held to the vest. The white house communication operation, sean spicer, others, had less than an hour of advance warning before any of this happened. Thats why they were caught flat footed last evening. You asked the deputy price secreta deputy secretary about this. That flies in the face of what the president has said who said he has the confidence in him. Sean spicer said that last week. I asked Sarah Sanders what changed. I think one of the big things that took place was the process in the hearing on wednesday. You have somebody the director of the fbi who reports to the Deputy Attorney general going around the chain of command. Thats simply not okay. That along with the corrections that had to take place over the last i believe 48 hours, those are all big problems. Do you regret not doing it earlier, on january 20th or 21st . I believe the president wanted to give director comey a chance. He feels he made the right decision. Many different explanations for the reason for the time line. The president himself in that letter to his own fbi director undercut a lot of this rational by mentioning the russia investigation in the first place. The white house is trying to sort of move forward from this. Again, the president does not have anything scheduled on his public schedule tomorrow. One of the big fallouts, the worry is im talking to advisors and others, what legislative agenda . How will this impact tax reform, other matters he was supposed to talk about this week . Thats an open question that we will watch and see. Jeff zeleny, thanks very much. Having spoken to congressman himes, we will talk to someone else. More reporting on the fallout, including other republicans, including one who is demanding action from investigators. James comey was not first person investigating the president who ended up being fired. Three have been axed. Their stories coming up. Someday youll let me put my way ycomb up there air til then youre beautiful and i just stare scalpel. I have no idea what im doing. Im just a tv doctor. I never went to college. scream i dont do blood. But now, thanks to cigna, i can do more than just look the part. Is that a foot . We are the tv doctors of america. And were partnering with cigna to help save lives. By getting you to a real doctor for an annual checkup. So go, know, and take control of your health. Doctor poses. Cigntogether, all the way. Then youre a couple. Think of all youll share. Like snoring. Does your bed do that . The dual adjustability of a sleep number bed allows you each to choose the firmness and comfort you want. So every couple can get the best sleep ever. 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Whether or not to effectively shut down the senate and to force the special prosecutor to be named, use leverage by gumming up the works here in this chamber. Elizabeth warren of massachusetts, who i spoke with earlier today, said that would not go down as far as to demand a special prosecutor. Theyre weighing other thins to for force the administrations hand, including trying to block the fbi director nominee to get the special prosecutor named. On the republican side, views from across the map. Republican leaders like Mitch Mcconnell and paul ryan say that they support the president s decision. Then you hear concern from very prominent members of the Senate Republican conference, including bob corker, as well as john mccain, the Senate Armed Services chairman who i spoke with earlier today. He raised concerns about the rational behind the president s decision. They have been investigating the Trump Campaigns connections with russia for a long time. I just think that it obviously was not done in an efficient fashion. When you fire probably arguably the most respected person in america, you better have a very good explanation. So far, i havent seen that. You dont buy that clinton email explanation that he mishandled the clintons emails, thats why he was fired . I dont believe that that is sufficient rational for removing the director of the fbi. I regret its happened. We have a lot of issues and challenges. And this just diverts a lot of that attention. Anderson, james comey was expected to testify tomorrow before the senate Intelligence Committee. No longer going to do that. He was invited to testify in a closed session next week. Hes not yet accepted that offer. We will see if he does do that. Theres late word that congress has asked the Inspector General to look into comeys firing. Thats right. This is from Jason Chaffetz, the House Oversight committee chairman, sending a letter to the Inspector General who had launched an investigation back in january looking at the handling of the clinton email situation and looking at comeys handling of the situation. Now chaffetz wants to expand that inquiry to look into the circumstances behind the comey firing. This would be a very significant investigation if the Inspector General does do that. There are 450 employees of the Inspector Generals office. We will see if he listens to the chaffetz request. Comey has been interviewed by the Inspector General. We will bring in the panel. Does it make sense, dana, that the Inspector General investigation w investigation was ongoing and looking into way looking into comeys handling of the clinton emails. That seemed to have been ignored by the white house or they didnt wait for that. They didnt wait which is one of the many potential problems here. Take a step back. There was an Inspector General and is an Inspector General investigation going on about comeys actions with regard to Hillary Clintons emails. Now capitol hill republican on capitol hill is calling for an Inspector General investigation into the president firing the guy who you need an actual one of those homeland maps up on the wall to know who everybody is and where everybody connects. Its beyond confusing. It just kind of speaks to the sort of alice through the looking great nature of all of this. Its mind boggling for us and we cover this every day. Can you imagine being somebody in the real world watching this and saying, what is happening. How significant that its Jason Chaffetz asking for this expansion of the Inspector General investigation . Its amazing. Chaffetz has done a 180 and seems to be taking that oversight role. I dont know how trump thinks about these things. If you are a republican and you see Jason Chaffetz, who is partisan, saying we need to look into this, we need answers, thats an incredibly worrying sign for a white house that is finding its move is not as popular as they thought it would be. I draw the opposite conclusion from what happened. Here we have the most catastrophic act in terms of a firing by a president since 1973. How many republicans have said boo . You have a handful who say im troubled, im concerned. After 19 after the saturday night massacre, you had republicans talking about impeachment. I think the republicans here remain very united can i ask you a question . Wasnt the saturday night massacre after six years of investigation and drip, drip, drip . It wasnt six years. Many years. It was 1973. He had been reelected in 72. There had been a long investigation. Its a fair point that the republicans arent really speaking out against this. Jason chaffetz is leaving. He announced he is retiring. You need somebody who is actually, i think is going to be around for a while. The only way anything is going to shift is if republicans do change their position on this. Richard burr, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee says im troubled by this. Mitch mcconnell runs the senate. Mitch mcconnell is going to protect donald trump. Burr issued a subpoena today to Michael Flynn. Theres steps. Theres no great breaking of ranks here. But there certainly are steps that i dont think we might not have seen a month ago. Its more of an argument for the independent investigation. We need an independent investigation. We need somebody who donald trump cant fire. We need somebody who is not a partisan, which is basically whats happening on the hill. There have been signs today theres so many different contradictory things being said. I watched last night. The sense i got was that the assumption was that there was something nefarious that had taken place. This was all about russia. Maybe it is. It could be about russia. Today when i was reading, theres a reuters story that says, comey regretted what he said about Hillary Clinton but not what he said about trump. Its starting to look theres a plausible theory that Donald Trumps ego, not the coverup of russia stuff, but the fact he took it personal what comey said and hes an egomaniac might have sparked this. In the new york times, you read that the countdown to dismissal began with the comey testimony about where he said he was slightly nauseous at the thought that he had helped elect donald trump. Donald trump is a narcissistic guy. I think he might have taken that personally and fired comey. That doesnt put donald trump in a good light. It means that they lied to us yesterday when they said it went back to the Hillary Clinton emails. Its not the same as our assumption that its a coverup of the russia not to be underestimated here is the role of conservative media, which is 100 in the other direction. In terms of its affect on Public Opinion and senators and members of congress. The message there is that the people in washington and the elite media and on capitol hill hate donald trump. That is whats driving this and Everything Else is just flowing from that. I would just suggest that when that happens, if in fact thats accurate, that thats a problem. Then eventually people will see that you are not driven by facts. You are driven by con testimony for pers who is not drive bn by facts . In general. If you in the generic sense are doing whatever you cant stand the president thats the framework the problem with this is the framework the white house created. This is the framework that the president s campaign created, which is that theres no neutral set of facts, theres no central middle ground everybody can agree on. Theres black and white and two sides thats not actually how life works. Thats not the case. Thats the way its seen. The republicans on the hill, they have been gutless. They will find their courage when the American People give it to them. The polling today its today. Its before this comey firing. The congressional generic ballot, the democrats lead by 16 points. I have never seen it that high. Its not going to be that way the election will be a landslide. Trumps favorable among republicans where he must have gotten 95 . Its down to 84 . 84 is high. When you are collapsed with independe independents, you have to do better than 84. I talked to one of our pollsters that i used to advise that took on mr. Trump in the campaign. His line is 80. He is one of the best pollsters. If trump goes below 80, you will see i have to say, theres people listening tonight who remember these same conversations during the election where a lot of democrats are talking about polls and the polls show that and it didnt turn out to be that way. Are you not skeptical . Im always skeptical. There is evidence that the guy is doing a bad job. Voters are saying, i think hes doing a bad job. I think it actually as george w. Bush said, it resignates. When nixon fired the special prosecutor there was outrage. By the time we got to ken star, there were people in the Clinton Administration who he didnt get fired but they so did in his reputation that he was rendered ineffective. If theres a move for the special prosecutioprosecutor, to after the we have to take a quick break. One recap. Its mind boggling. Jeff zeleny is reporting that sean spicer had an hour advance warning the comey firing was about to happen. James comey is the latest but not the first to be fired by President Trump. Who do these three have in common . All were involved in investigating President Trump. Thats next. Allergies with nasal congestion . Find fast relief behind the counter with claritind. [ upbeat music ] strut past that aisle for the allergy relief that starts working in as little as 30 minutes and contains the best oral decongestant. Live claritin clear, with claritind. [fbi agent] youre a brave man, your testimony will save lives. Mr. Stevens . This is your new name. This is your new house. And a perfectly inconspicuous suv. You must become invisible. [hero] ill take my chances. Atmore than one flavor, oruch texture, or color. Ing. A good clean salad is so much more than green. And with panera catering, more for your event. Panera. Food as it should be. P3 planters nuts, jerky and whaseeds. At . I like a variety in my protein. Totally, thats why i have this uh trail mix. Wow minty. P3 snacks. The more interesting way to get your protein. The president of the United States fires the man investigating his campaigns possible ties to a foreign government. Safe to say not many people saw the firing coming. Not even the fbi director himself who learned about it from it appears on television. It does fit a pattern. Comey is not the first person on the chopping block who was involved in investigating the president. Reporter its a phrase donald trump came to be known for on reality tv. Youre fired. Youre fired. Youre fired. Reporter this is not a television show. This is washington, d. C. Those investigating President Donald Trump have a curiously short tenure. This is part of of a deeply troubling pattern from the Trump Administration. Reporter january 30 this year, acting attorney general sally yates was first to go down. After instructing the department of justice not to defend President Trumps first travel ban. As someone who has chosen to lead a departmnt, she was rightfully removed. Reporter white house declared in a statement that yates was weak on illegal immigration. Yates had questioned whether the president s travel ban was lawful. Sally yates also played a key role in the investigation of trumps former National Security adviser Michael Flynn. Just four days before she was fired, she warned the white house flynn may be compromised because he lied about discussing u. S. Sanctions with a russian ambassador. 5 1 2 weeks after her firing, the president fired preet bharara. On march 11, bharara tweeted, i did not resign. Moments ago, i was fired. All 46 us attorneys across the country were asked to resign. Bharara refused. The president let him go. Bharara was stunned, given his meeting last november at trump tower. President elect asked to meet with me. To discuss whether i would be prepared to stay on. We had a good meeting. Reporter bharara headed the Southern District of new york and would have played a key role in investigations like the Trump Campaigns alleged ties to russia. As well as trumps claim that president Obama Wiretapped trump tower. Just this week, fbi director james comey was fired. Comey will clashed with the white house on supposed wiretapping at trump tower. With respect to the president s tweets about alleged wiretapping directed at him by the prior administration, i have no idea that supports those tweets. Reporter he was investigating russias meddling into the u. S. President ial election. Just last week was looking for more resources for that investigation. That includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and the russian government. Reporter signs that comeys tenure as fbi director was in jeopardy likely started to appear last july. After he cleared Hillary Clinton in her email scandal. Today is the best evidence ever that we have seen that our system is absolutely, totally rigged. Its rigged. Reporter comey announced he was taking another look at clintons emails 11 days before the election. This time, trump praised him. I have to give the fbi credit. Reporter trump parted ways with director comey, the white house blamed it on his handling of the clinton email investigation. Critics pointed to comeys investigation of russias alleged ties to trump. Whoever takes over may have good reason to wonder if they will meet the same fate as those who dare to investigate President Donald Trump. Randi kaye, cnn, new york. Shortly before air time, i spoke with james langford, member of the senate Intelligence Committee. Your committee subpoenaed Michael Flynn documents. Can you explain why you did that . He didnt turn them over. We will given him a deadline of may 9. Why wouldnt he turn them over . We dont know. His counsel advised him not to. We told him thats not an option. We made a request for documents and he didnt turn them over. So we will subpoena them and get them with a subpoena. Have you scheduled a time to have him come in to speak . Typical investigation, you get all the documents. Helps you know what questions to ask so you are fully ready. We have done our own investigation separate. We can gather documents and go through documents he will present that adds to our information. Then we will have him with us. There was talk his attorneys were looking for immunity. Is that a possibility . Thats not something the Intelligence Committee would do. Were gathering information. Thats up to the chairman and Ranking Member to work through that. We made a request for documents. We expect documents to be there and meet with him. The white house says you are among a group of senators who met with the president. Did the firing of director comey come up . We were meeting on tax policy. We went to issues where we were trying to spin things, the Health Care Tax issues with comey and Everything Else. I did have a side by side with the president to ask him personally. My question was the question i had all along in the last 24 hours, why right now . Why at this moment . I understand theres been controversy about director comey thats been there for months. It depends on the week whether republicans or democrats likes him or who hates him. Why right now . One of the things you said is the American People need clarity and deserve an explanation for comeys firing. Did you get clarity . I did. He said it was rosenstein, he brought him on. He was senate confirmed. He met with comey. Had the opportunity to meet with him, talk about things. They had disagreements. Whatever that was he didnt get into on that. He said, this guy is not going to work out longterm for us. He has controversy. He said, this is not going to work longterm. Rosenstein said longterm we have to resolve. There has been reporting, cnn and others saying that director comey asked for more resources from the department of justice. The department of justice denies that that request was made. Do you believe the Russian Investigation had any impact on the president deciding to get rid of comey . I didnt bring it up. Were working through our own investigation. It wouldnt be appropriate to bring that up with the president one on one. I didnt get close to that. He didnt mention anything on that in our conversation. I would say director comey would get whatever resources and assets he needs. I dont know of any request that he made either to our committee or to anyone else. You cant comment whether or not you think the russia investigation, President Trumps obvious concerns about it or dislike of it had any impact on his decision to get he didnt mention it when i brought it up to him. I asked him why right now . The russia issue never came up in that conversation. The number of people who have been fired so far by this president sally yates, director comey, the attorney all u. S. Attorneys. All u. S. Attorneys. Pretty much everybody had some form of investigation going on or did something the president didnt like. Sally yates was a carryover from the obama administration. That person will be and has been replaced. All the u. S. Attorneys, every president clears the deck. Those two dont surprise me. The transition of the fbi director, obviously if they lose trust of the American People and the administration, thats serious. Typically, they are there ten years. The reason they are there ten years is to have that nonpartisan perspective. The challenge that you have is with jim comey, who i have respect for and i think worked incredibly hard, he has been a lightning rod. He has been in front of the media a lot. The more you do that, you more the attract that. Do you think this will have a chilling affect on the fbi investigation . It should not. We will do oversight to make sure it does not. The career investigators are doing the investigation. Director comey is not doing the day to day investigation. There are documents, there are interviews that have to go to the top to get signed off. Theres things director comey has to go to his b to those who say, it looks like they are ratcheting up the pace, you are saying thats not going to have any impact . It shouldnt have impact. Our committee has a responsibility to make sure that doesnt have an impact. The same authorities are there, the same people are still involved in the process. They have the resources to accomplish it. We started from the beginning on this. Were going to go where the facts go. I do not have an obligation do coverup for anybody. Neither do i have an obligation to try to send out a message thats inconsistent with the facts. Where the facts go, the facts go. Thats a commitment we made. I appreciate your time. You bet. More ahead, including one senators warning about where the comey firing could lead. Perhaps impeachment. Perspective from Carl Bernstein who reported nixons political demise. Tired of paying hundreds more a year in taxes and fees on your wireless bill . Only tmobile one gives you unlimited data with taxes and fees included. Thatll save you hundreds. Get two lines of unlimited data for a hundred dollars. Thats right. Two lines. A hundred bucks. All in. And now, the brand new Samsung Galaxy s8 is here. So what are you waiting for . Get the new galaxy s8. Plus get 2 lines of unlimted data for a hundred bucks. Taxes and fees included. Only at tmobile. Iwithout writing a single word. This mothers day create a gift from the heart that could only come from the pandora boutique at jared. A world of pandora. Including exclusive pieces designed just for jared. Ready to be mixed, matched and stacked with help from jareds own pandora expert. The one gift that speaks volumes, youll both treasure forever. Thats why he went to jared. In the 24 hours since President Trump fired the fbi director who was investigating whether his campaign colluded with the russia, the aftershocks keep coming. I spoke with richard bloomenthal. I asked him about how serious this could get. It may well produce another United States versus nixon on a subpoena that went to the United States supreme court. It may well produce impeachment proceedings. Although, were very far from that possibility. Earlier today, trump slammed senator bloomenthal. They demanded they turn over documents. This after flynns lawyer ref e refused to supply them. Joining me Carl Bernstein and David Axelrod and michael haden. General, you wrote an oped for the hill. You say, its beginning to feel a little like nicaragua around here. How do you what do you mean . In 110 days, the president has fired a National Security adviser, an acting attorney general and the director of the fbi. I was trying to capture what that must feel like for people on the outside looking in at america and by the way, my International Network has checked in with, you are going to be okay, right . I was trying to describe that this kind of behavior is not normally associated with a mature western democracy. Its associated with autocratic populist states. Do you feel that could be the thats where were heading . Look, i have lived enough in the world. America sent me to places that werent happy at the moment. I have seen how thin the veneer of civilization is. You walk through we think its solid. But you walk through say what smieks you h strikes you how different there are snipers. You just have that concern. People, be careful. Were not guaranteed this kind of life that we have experienced for the last period of time. David, thats chilling. Why do you think the white house thinks its a good strategy to continue to say theres no evidence of kcollusion, theres nothing to see here, when republicans and democrats on the Intelligence Committee are telling jim sciutto, its an open question. There may not be anything there but they are investigating. Absolutely. I think this is being driven by donald trump. Every time the subject comes up, he becomes unhinged. You can see it many those tweets about senator bloomenthal this morning. All the reports we have seen suggests that it was he who really triggered this yesterday and the set of events we saw yesterday. A degree with general haden about the fragility of our institutions. The thing i have said about President Trump was that policies come and go and thats the nature of democracy. Thats not my concern. My concern is his disregard for institutions, whether it was the Intelligence Community or the courts or the media or the former president who he d denigrated. Now the dismissal of an fbi director who was investigating his associates and in the midst of a very tense and freighted issue for the country. At the same time, we see him reaching out and embracing auto considerates all over the world, whether its duterte he is fascinated with people who dont have to deal with democratic institutions. Im not sure i would be as dark as the general was. I do think theres a resilience to our democracy. Its being tested right now. The president is the one who is testing it. Carl bernstein, what do you think stands between a further slide to becoming what the general describes . I think that donald trump destabilized his own presidency. He has done it through hir tweets. He has done it through his lies. He has done it through undermining a legitimate investigation of the most serious National Security consequences. Remember, we are at a very dangerous moment. Why . Because a hostile foreign power destabilized our electoral process according to all the intelligence agencies of the United States government. And in connection with that, there are serious allegations that the campaign of donald trump, his close associates, perhaps the candidate himself, colluded with russians. Instead of opening up, instead of saying, look, lets get to the bottom of this because i the candidate and the people around me had no such collusion with hostile powers, this president has chosen to undermine, demean, obstruct and impede a crucial National Security investigation. In the process, through his lies, through these tweets, through his temperament, he has destabilized his own presidency to the point where quietly, a lot of republicans are saying to each other i have talked to them. I think probably david has as well. They are worried about they are worried about the temperament and stability of this mans presidency. General hayden, outside sarajevo, there were serbs firing, easy for a society to crumble. When theres not an outside factor, what causes a society to crumble . Anderson, great question. As somebody who has experience with covert influence campaigns, let me tell you, they never create fractures in a society. They only work when a society has preexisting fractures. What the russians did, perhaps they knew us better than we knew ourself, they went after the fractures in american society. Look,apocalyptic. I agree with david. Weve got resilient institutions but we cant take them for granted. It also requires people of good faith to stand up and be honest and respect the truth and respect those institutions. The truth really matters, the processes really matters. The separation of powers, coequal branches, competing branches of government really matter and they need to be respected. David, how much can actually change unless i mean, look, politicians on both sides of the aisle stand up and, you know, arent just kind of looking out for their own political sides. Theyre actually looking out for the good of the country. Yeah. Look, i think one of the things the white house is counting on is that this thing gets depicted as in the minds of many as kind of a partisan squabble rather than a serious constitutional issue and a serious issue about whether there are foreign powers trying to destabilize our country, anddisappointed, frank some of the comments of senator mcconnell today, who seems like hes going to try and stonewall the notion of a special prosecutor or a commission to investigate this which could restore some confidence in these probes and i was also, you know, frankly senator blumenthal i thought should not be talking about impeachment at this juncture. Yeah. I dont think democrats should be using that kind of heated rhetoric. Lets be responsible. Yeah, David Axelrod, Carl Bernstein, general hayden, thank you so much. Coming up, something we try to do as often as we can on big stories, get outside the beltway, go to iowa, to speak to Trump Supporters. It is intriguing. 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This victory aided by the support of the owner and many of the customers in this deli in the county seat of manchester, iowa. People we talked to not troubled at all by controversial things the president has done since taking office. Thank you. Reporter so we were surprised to hear quite a few of them say the firing of james comey is different. Because theres an investigation going on with alleged ties between his campaign and russian officials, does it bother you the timing of the firing of the fbi director . I would say my opinion, yes, i think that with his reputation that he has for, like, all the americans, not everyone agrees with his decision but he should have let the investigation go through before he made a decision like this. Reporter deli owner, shelley schrade schrader, didnt sound concerned. What do you think of the decision to fire the fbi director yesterday . I think its a good one. Reporter why do you think its a good one . I think he should have done it a long time ago. Reporter but after a followup question the attorney general recommended the firing to President Trump. Attorney general sessions. Correct. Reporter attorney general sessions has recused himself from the russia investigation. I know. Reporter but yet he recommended the firing of the man who was leading the russia investigation. Yeah. Reporter does that trouble you . That, it does. Reporter you voted for donald trump for president. Yes, i did. Reporter how do you feel about the decision yesterday to fire the fbi director, the timing of it, the decision . Yeah, it was all of a sudden just like that. He should have told the people kind of his feelings or should have probably done it sooner. If he knew what was going on with the fbi. Reporter you dont think he was open enough about why he did this. No. Thats the way trump is. Hes quick on action. I dont think he should be that way, but sometimes its good, sometimes its not good. Reporter theres no question, many Trump Supporters in Delaware County are completely fine with how the comey matter has been dealt lwih like this former mayor of a nearby town. I think he walked into a tough situation there. I would give him an a for what hes done. As a former politician, when you start to clean up a mess like that, youre not going to be the flavor of the month with a lot of people. Reporter does it trouble you that donald trump fired the man whose investigation could be imperilling his presidency . Not at all. Not at all. He needed to go. It just happened that it may be investigating him. He needed to go. You know that. I know that. Reporter but even among those comfortable with the president firing comey, we did hear this from some. Do you think maybe it would be a good idea now to have an independent investigation of these possible russia ties with this campaign . I think that would be the best decision to have, to make to do that. To investigate theres no favoritism, theres mutual people involved, you know, trying to investigate so theres not favoritism to one side. Gary joins me now. Youve been speaking with Trump Supporters ever since the campaign. Do you see any change in tone from this supporters now . Reporter theres a little different feeling right now, apd s anderson. Weve been talking to Trump Supporters for almost two years. Theyre very loyal. Its very rare a trump supporter criticized donald trump on our television cameras. Of course, it happened last year during the access hollywood videotape that was released, donald trump walking off the bus, his microphone remaining on on the bus. It happened then. We what were seeing in iowa today and tonight, in people talking to us, Trump Supporters who are concerned whats happening now could imperil the future of his presidency. And thats the new vibe were feeling. Anderson . All right. Gary tuchman, thanks very much. Thanks for watching 360 tonight. Time to hand things over to don lemon. Cnn tonight starts right now. Thanks, anderson. Lots more on our breaking news right now. Growing outrage over President Trumps firing of fbi director james comey. This is cnn tonight. Im don lemon. Sources telling cnn the president was measuher and more agitated about the russia investigation, decide ed he couldnt trust the fbi director. Another source telling cnn trump was white hot, thats a quote, angry and cursing about comey testifying he felt mildly nauseous that his actions last fall could have influenced the election. But if the president was hoping that firing comey would somehow make everybody forget all about russia, this was not the best idea. Posing for