I did. But mike excuse me. I fired him because of what he said to mike pence. Very simple. Mike was doing his job. Calling countries and his counter parts. So it certainly would have been okay with me if he did it. I would have directed him to do it if i thought he wasnt. I didnt direct him, but i would have because thats his job. Okay. So whats critical here is the time line. If the president now says he knew Michael Flynn lied to the fbi when he fired flynn on february 13, then why did the president ask then fbi director james comey to let the investigation go the very next day . In his Opening Statement to the Senate Intelligence committee, comey wrote that on february 14, President Trump asked him to drop the fbi investigation into flynn, saying, quote, i hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting flynn go. The he is a good guy. I hope you can let this go. Of course the big question now, did the president of the United States just admit to obstructing justice. For more on these developments now, lets bring back cnns kara skin nel and boris sanchez. Lets begin with you, boris in new york where the president is. What more are you learning . Reporter hey, there. Yeah, that tweet was sent out shortly after a fundraising lunch. The only public event the president is holding today in his stop in new york. He didnt really mention Michael Flynn during his speech, so it was a bit surprising to see that tweet come out shortly after he left this restaurant. He did mention Michael Flynn as you showed in that clip earlier when he was departing washington to new york, saying there was no collusion between the Trump Campaign and russia. Weve heard from white house sources saying the president is not worried about the fact that the former National Security adviser is now cooperating with the special counsel in h its investigation. However, the president s tweet and the fact that flynn has now admitted to lying to the fbi does raise a series of questions. As the white house is trying to distance itself from Michael Flynn, describing him as an obama era official making at claim that president gave approval for Michael Flynn to have those conversations with Sergey Kislyak and other russians, theres the other side where its been widely reported that president obama specifically warned donald trump, then press president lect against hiring Michael Flynn and the fact that shortly after inauguration, you had the acting attorney general sally yates who was ultimately dismissed by President Trump warning the white house that Michael Flynn could potentially be blackmailed by russian officials. Beyond all of that is the fact that this politically is a cloud that hangs over the white house. Notice right now were not discussing the major legislative achievement this administration put on the board yesterday in passing tax reform. This is something that the white house is not happy to address. But it is something that the president will continue having to answer as he goes through the next several weeks with more and more information coming from that special counsel probe. All right. Lets bring in contradicting earlier explanations for the firing . Reporter its today the president said he fired flynn because he had lied to Vice President pence and had lied to the fbi. What trump had said previously was that he fired him because he had lied to pence. Lets take a listen to what he said in february. When i looked at the information i said i dont think he did anything wrong. If anything he did something right. He was coming into office, looked at the information. He said huh, thats fine. Thats what theyre supposed to do. Supposed to be he didnt just call russia. He spoke to both ways, i think there were 30some odd countries. Hes doing the job. He was just doing his job. The thing is he didnt tell our Vice President properly and then he said he didnt remember. So either way it wasnt very sat famili satisfactory to me. One thing he is distancing himself from Michael Flynn and the conduct involved. Saying the only thing flynn did wrong which is lie to the fbi which hes now pleaded guilty to. But not saying anythinglying co. He said he that had spoken with russians and other officials in consultation with transition officials and specifically at the direction of one senior official which cnn has learned is jared kushner, the president s soninlaw. Very complicated and continues to be so. Perhaps getting even more complicated. The thank you so much for breaking it down. For now. So just moments after the president offered in new explanation of why he fired Michael Flynn, via twitter today, walter the former director of the u. S. Office of government ethics tweeted this. Just couldnt resist commenting on flynn. Are you admitting you knew flynn had lied to the fbi when you asked comey back to to back off flynn . I spoke with him last hour and asked why he believed this could have legal implications potentially. Walter we can feel your surprise about why the president would tweet like this. Its just unbelievably mind blowing. Somewhere in washington his attorneys are banging hair heads against the table because their client lacks the discipline to follow instructions to stay off twitter and stop admitting things publicly like this. So now, how might this assist the Mueller Investigation . Because now the president is contradicting earlier tweets. Earlier sentiments about the purpose of the firing, about the honesty or lack thereof of flynn. This potentially changes some dynamics, doesnt it. I think it may. The president has just damaged his credibility significantly, because we have to remember there are two possibilities. One, is that hes just lying now. And that him firing flynn had nothing to do with the criminal offense of lying to the fbi. But the other possibility is that he was lying back when he announced that flynn was leaving because he had lied to mike pence. And if that is the case, if he knew back then that flynn had lied to the fbi, and had committed a crime, then he is had that in his mind when he talked to comey on that time line of yours, shortly after all of this, and asked him to back off of mike flynn, saying mike flynns a good guy, and of course comey testified in congress that he was very uncomfortable about this conversation and thought the president was suggests an order as to what he should do. That really starts to make you wonder if there might actually have been some obstruction of justice here. All right. So weighing in on trumps tweet, democratic representative accusing trump of obstruction of justice . A new tweet. He joins me next. Stay with us. Okay folks lets get the lady of the house back on her feet. And help her feel more strength and energy in just two weeks. Yaaay the complete balanced nutrition of ensure with 9 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. Ensure. Always be you. Booking a flight doesnt have to be expensive. Just go to priceline. Its the best place to book a flight a few days before my trip and still save up to 40 . Just tap and go. For the best savings on flights, go to priceline. Tired of wrestling with seemingly impossible cleaning tasks . Using wipes in the kitchen, and sprays in the bathroom can be ineffective. Try mr. Clean magic eraser. Simply add water, and use in your kitchen for burnt on food, in your bathroom to remove soap scum, and on walls to remove scuffs and marks. It erases 4x more permanent marker per swipe. For an effective, multisurface clean, use mr. Clean magic eraser. Brand power. Helping you buy better. The morning walk until. It. Wasnt. Dont let type 2 diabetes get between you and your heart. Even if you reach your a1c goal you are still at risk for heart attack or stroke. Talk to your Health Care Provider today about diabetic heart disease. And find out more at heartoftype2. Com. Your heart and type 2 diabetes. Make the connection. One laugh, and hello so i tried always discreet. I didnt think protection this thin could work. But the super absorbent core turns liquid to gel. Snap so its out of sight. And out of mind. Always discreet. For bladder leaks. At tmobile, when you holiday together, great things come in twos. Like tmobile and netflix. Right now when you get an unlimited family plan, netflix is included. Ho ho ho tmobile covers your netflix subscription. Best Christmas Gift ever . So you can binge watch all year long. Now youre thinking christmas and now when you buy any of this seasons hot new Samsung Galaxy phones, you get a second one free to gift. Thats one samsung for you. And one to give. Tmobile. Holiday twogether. It all starts with a wish. The lincoln wish list event is here. Sign and drive off in a new lincoln with zero down and a complementary first months payment. Welcome back. We continue with our breaking news on President Trumps latest tweet, saying in part, i had to fire general flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the fbi. The tweet is a potentially potential major shifter from the explanation trump gave for flynns dismissal back in february. But mike excuse me. I fired him because of what he said to mike pence. Very simple. Mike was doing his job. He was calling countries, and his counterparts. So it certainly would have been okay with me if he did it. I would have directed him to do it if i thought he wasnt. I didnt direct him but i would have because thats his job. All right. Well then, President Trump tweeted this on march 31st. Mike flynn should ask for immunity in that this is a witch hunt excuse for loss. Joining us now on the phone democratic congressman ted lieu saying this is obstruction of justice. President of the United States now admits he knew Michael Flynn lied to the fbi yet trump tried to influence or stop the fbi investigation on flynn. So you say obstruction of justice. Were talking about there is just a day in between the resignation of flynn and then the next day was february 14, when the president met with comey and said let this go. The so thats what youre calling attention to and you say that underscores potential obstruction of justice. Thank you. It absolutely is obstruction of justice. Im former prosecutor. That statute is very broad. You just have to endeavor to impede an investigation. We know Michael Flynn has pled guilty to lying to the fbi. We now know the president knew. And when the president trying to get comey to drop this investigation, thats classic obstruction of justice and the American People watching it unfold before their very own eyes now. Former fbi director james com comey, he is doing the same today. He responded to this latest development in the special counsel investigation and the trump tweet and comey who was fired of course by President Trump. He posted this on instagram saying beautiful Long Island Sound from west port, connecticut. Three things cannot be long hidden, the sun, the moon and the truth. Is it your feeling there is a chipping away in this investigation . Not just by the Michael Flynn, you know, guilty plea, but even the president through his tweets . Through his history of his comments that it is revealing far more about this overall investigation than perhaps even the mueller teams seems to be intimating . Yes. Were seeing the unraveling of the mountain of lies that donald trump has been telling, not just his own staff, but the American People. He went publicly out to the press and said that everyones treating Michael Flynn infairly. Hes a wonderful man, that this is a witch hunt. Now we know those are all lies, because the president knew Michael Flynn lied to the fbi and why is that so important . Its important because the democra democracy, one the core foundations is respect for the rule of law. Which means we need investigations to occur by Law Enforcement that are not influenced by politicians or anyone else, and thats exactly what donald trump has been trying to do in this case. Even by way of the tweet from the president today, does this redirect or in any way intensify a certain direction with the Mueller Investigation . Did the president just reveal something or a new direction to the mueller investigate in your view . I think he just gave significant additional evidence to special council mueller. We already now mueller is interested in im sorry hes been interviewing people about the firing of james comey. Only reason he would do that is because he thinks that some criminalial conduct occurred there. This tweet is additional evidence that the president engaged and interesting fact is that for watergate, the very first article of impeachment was obstruction of justice and Richard Nixon was brought down not tore the underlying crime but for the coverup. Prior to the tweet today what was your reaction to Michael Flynns guilty plea in clearly his cooperation with the Mueller Investigation, i plead, lied to the fbi in exchange for information that the mueller team already knows they can get out of flynn . How damning potentially might that information be . I thought that was an incredibly significant development. You dont do a guilty plea and just do one charge if you think youre going to get information thats not that important. The only reason Robert Mueller would do this is because he knows that Michael Flynn has damning information on people above him. And the fact that he only charged with him with one count, same thing with george pop a dop po lus. But if you dont cooperate rate im going to charge you with everything under the sun. I think hes sending strong signals to the rest of the people who may be kaupgcaught u this peb of criminal don duct that they may need to start working with them. Thank you so much. Thank you. Well have much more right after this. With the candy canes. The wrapping paper the holidays. That counts. Its a phone for mom. Okay, well, its also that counts, too. No, the network. Is inside the phone . Around the phone. Awarded network ever. Count on it. Here you go. As the network its on. So give the best unlimited for four lines. Thanks for the ridealong, captain ive never been in one of these before, even though geico has been ohhh. Ooh ohh here we go, here we go. You got cut off there, what were you saying . Oooo. Oh no no. Maybe that geico has been proudly serving the military for over 75 years . Is that what you wanted to say . Mhmmm. I have to say, you seemed a lot chattier on tv. Geico. Proudly serving the military for over 75 years. You ok back there, buddy . Wifiso if you cant live without it. T it. Why arent you using this guy . It makes your wifi awesomely fast. No. Still nope. Now were talking it gets you wifi here, here, and here. It even lets you take a time out. No no yes yes, indeed. Amazing speed, coverage and control. All with an xfi gateway. Find your awesome, and change the way you wifi. All right welcome back to. Be sure to catch an all new episode of the axe files. Because the president has targeted news organizations that have printed things that he finds i believe. I believe he called cnn fake news. He did indeed ant the washington post. And the washington post. And other news organizations as well. How much does that concern you . Well, as an american, it concerns me because its mon keying around with our constitution. Its relatively obvious with whats trying to go for it. When you tear down these institutions to a level saying you cant believe anything that is in any of them, that raises the stock of those agendafilled other institutions and what not so that if you cant believe them, well that means you get to believe some of the other stuff that is in these. And so what is happening is a dilution of the great throwing dirt and oil into a bucket of water. So it all becomes undrinkable after a while. I think what the Current Administration is doing i dont know that theyre saying we have to shut them down so they dont publish anymore. What is happening is something more subtle and mo insidious and i think has more finger prints from other totality other governments in the past who have said look, we cant shut them down because that will cause outrage but we can den any great it, call them names. Tell people that those are not the facts. Thats what he is saying. All right. Hanks with axelrod. Be sure to catch it tonight at 7 00 p. M. Eastern on cnn. Thanks so much for being with us today on extremely busy saturday. Im fed rick ca whitfield. Heres this week es turning points with dr. Sanjay gupta. Push up. There you go in shes em poured by her work outs. As a child Health Problems caused her to go from overweight to obese. When i was 12 years old i had an avarian torsion. My doctor decided to remove it entirely. At 14, bartly had an operation to untwist her remaining ovary. I was binge eating multiple times a day. I was 300 pounds at my high and realized that now or never. Time to take my body back. Take my life back. Bartly started working out. She had surgery to reduce the size of her stomach and documented it all on mead she had ya. Probably the number one thing that has kept me accountability is sharing my weight loss journey on instagram. I lost 115 pounds. Bartly is inspiring others. Once people started following me i wanted to be that example for your health, not because you hate yourself. I feel confident that my body is not going to be the thing that stands in the way of me and what i want in life. Announcer turning point. Brought to you by Cancer Treatment centers of america. Care that never quits. I had been diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer. Metastatic and it spread to my bones. Time is very important when time is running out. I was looking for answers. A friend of mine suggested Cancer Treatment centers of america. I serve in the General Assembly for the state of arkansas. We Work Together across the aisle to get things done. And thats the way it is at ctca. What fred needed was a management team. Not just to have a longterm strategy for quantity of life, but also an active strategy for quality of life. The plan was to put together an aggressive regimen. The goal there is to slow the growth of the tumor, take away tumor related symptoms and prolong life. And lower the psa. My psa is under control. Ctca gave me an opportunity to accomplish my goals and my dreams. Learn more at cancercenter. Com Cancer Treatment centers of america. Appointments available now. I know when i hand them the its gonna be scary. Car but i also know that were gonna have usaa insurance for both my boys. Its something that theyre not even gonna have to think of. Its just gonna be in the family. Were the tenneys and were usaa members for life. [alarm beeps] let our your inner child at the lexus december to remember sales event. Lease the 2018 nx 300 for 319 month for 36 months. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. Firstthen you put yourselfareer. Through school. Got the degree. Youve given it your all, to reach the goals youve set. Dont let student debt hold you back. Refinancing Student Loans with sofi can save thousands. So you can get where youve always been headed. Sooner. See how much you can save with sofi. The leader in student loan refinancing. Imagine a world where you can sail right up to the north pole. Where the largest ice sheet in the Northern Hemisphere is simply melting away. The melt is winning this game. Weve now broken all time records for three consecative years. As oceans continue to rise flooding the streets of American Cities half a world away. What happens in the arctic doesnt stay in the arctic. Imagine a world where hurricanes and heat