Light of the kind of opposition he had where they are trying to protect her from criminal prosecution. Reporter and just last week, the president tweeting that comey was the best thing that ever happened to clinton. The white house says the president acted on the recommendation of newly appointed Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein who made the case for the firing in alert to his boss Jeff Sessions. Asserting that the way the director handled the conclusion ever t of the email investigation was wrong and the fbi is unlikely to regain public and congressional trust. The attorney general pledged just two months ago that he would recuse himself from any russia investigations after it was revealed he did not disclose contacts with a russian ambassador. Despite that, sessions joining his new deputy in recommending that a fresh start is needed at the leadership of the fbi. Despite this praise of comey six months earlier. Director comey did the right thing when he found no evidence, he had no choice but to report to the american congress. Reporter President Trump firing comey in a bizarre letter stating while i greatly appreciate you informing me on three separate occasions that i am not under investigation, i never the less concur with the judgment of the department of justice that you are not able to effectively lead the bureau. The president says in his letter that is between the president of the United States and director comey. Reporter the president s assertion perplexing given comey testified that the bureau is investigating trumps campaign. That includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and the russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and russias efforts. Reporter sources tell cnn comey learned that he was fired through tv reports while he was addressing fbi employees in the Los Angeles Office on. He was not an fbi headquarters to southwest presidereceive the letter. The shocking announcement just hours after reporting that federal prosecutors had issued a number of subpoenas to associates of Michael Flynn, democrats accusing the president of trying to derail the fbi russia investigation. This has nothing do with russia, its everything to do with whether the current fbi director has the president s confidence. Reporter President Trump and his advisers attacking democrats who previously criticized comey for announcing that he was reopening the clinton email investigation 11 days before the election. Trumps seismic firing sparking comparisons to waterwatergate. But the Nixon Library pointing out that nixon did not go as far as trump in firing his fbi director. And today in the midst of all this controversy, a moment of extraordinary some would say certainly unusual timing. The Russian Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov expected here at the white house to visit with President Trump. And it is interesting Historical Perspective not enduring the nixon era did we deal with what were dealing with today. Thank you very much. And this morning you will hear that this decision came about from the brd acceptipresident ae findingses of doj investigation, but multiple officials tell cnn that President Trump was considering firing James Comey Oig for at least a week now and that this investigation was done at his urging. Cnns Jessica Schneider joining us with more. Yeah, tensions have been mounting between the white house and the fbi in recent week. The Trump Administration and attorney general Jeff Sessions pushed the fbi to be aggressively pursue its investigation urging that that be the priority. And while the fbi did tighten its media policy and pursue those leaks, the white house still wasnt satisfied that a large focus of the bureau was still on russia. Amid this backdrop, the timing of the termination is in question. Word of the firing came just minutes after the fbi issued a clarification of comeys remarks at a Senate Hearing last week where he mischaracterized the numbering of emails huma abedine had manually forwarded to her husbands computer. And in fact direct toy compaor overall handling ever the server investigation and including his own on decision to hold a News Conference instead of leaving to Loretta Lynch at the time, that was the focus of Deputy Attorney general rod rosen tinesteinrose recommending his removal, but of course the president himself only referencing the russia investigation in his letter tacoto kcompany comey firing him. So the abrupt firing of James Company any triggering shock be and outrage all around the beltway. Many republicans joining the calls for an independent investigation. Ryan nobles is live with the reaction of lawmakers. What are you learning, ryan . Reporter good morning. Much of capitol hill still reeling from this bombshell news about james comeys firing. Many members finding out through press reports not from the white house or President Trump. And both democrats and republicans are questioning the timing and the motive behind this firing. Some republicans like jeff 234r5 flake of arizona and richard burr are concerned about how this move could impact the investigation into russias attempt to intervene in the american election. Meanwhile democrats who we should point out are not necessarily fans of james comey are also questioning this move. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer speaking to reporters yesterday and is wondering not just about james comeys firing but several ever the fiof the f have come from the white house. This is part of a deeply troubling pattern from the Trump Administration. They fired sally yates. They fired preek bharara. And now director comey, the very man leading the investigation. This does not seem to be a coincidence. Reporter and there are some republicans that are defending the president s move, among them Susan Collins of maine. This is what she had to say yesterday. Quote, any suggestion that todays announcement is somehow you an effort to stop the fbis investigation of russias attempt to influence the election last fall is misplaced. Collins went on to say the president did not fire the entire fbi. He fired the director. I have every confidence that the fbi will continue to purpose sue its investigation. But obviously we have a long wa its investigation. But obviously we have a long way to go. All right, ryan, appreciate it. Analysis has to start at the beginning. Can the president do what hes done . Should the president have done this . Cnns senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin is here and also maggie has goner mger man and d agreei david gregory. Take it away. Fbi directors are appointed for ten year terms. Just so they are insulated from day to day political controversy. However, there is a provision in that law that allows the president at his or her discretion to fire the fbi director. It had been done once before. Bill clinton fired judge sessions who had ethical controversies. It was not a particularly controversial act by bill clinton. But whether this should have been done is of course a very different question. And youve known me a long time. Im not a cable news shouter. This was an outrage. This was a complete departure can from the american plirl and legal traditions. And the only comparable act october 20th, 1973, the saturday night massacre when Richard Nixon didnt fire the fbi director, he fired Archibald Cox who was the Watergate Special prosecutor. Other than just are historical precedent of timing, that its only happened once before in any way similar to this, why is it such a gross departure . Because james comey was investigating Donald Trumps campaign and certainly donald trump himself. I dont think there is any doubt that he is a subject comey told him three times, i said i greatly appreciate you informing me that im not under investigation. I never the less concur with the judgment of the department of justice that you are not able to effectively lead the bureau. Maybe the most troubling thing ive heard from the president in this more than dismissing the director is that part of his basis. That he has had independent conversations with the director of the fbi which seemed to be targeting towards finding whether or not he was in troubling seems to be a broach of protocol if not something really unethical. And that i would certainly want to hear comeys side of those conversations because i dont believer comey would ever say anything like that to the president. For just the reason you said. Be say anything like that to the president. For just the reason you said. There are rules in place about how much contact a sitting president can have with the fbi about pending investigations. That would be a complete departure if that conversation took place like that. Let alone three times. In the same letter the president says i was told this, this completely unorthodox thing, and then he says its time to restore public trust in this office. That makes absolutely no sense. The president is absolutely within his authority to do this. But it is as jefd jeffrey said,s very rare and the timing looks strange. If you were going to do this, do it at the beginning of taking office. You dont do it during this last week of confusion over the hearing and what was said about Hillary Clintons emails. You dont do it as the president has made clear to aides repeatedly that he is frustrated with the Russian Investigation. So why now . For all of the reasons that you guys have reported, that everybody has reported, that the president has grown very frustrated with what is happening with the russia probe and he watched over the last week and over at least a week there was a discussion about how to do this. The fact that Jeff Sessions gave this recommendation or was one of the two people who did is problematic when its Jeff Sessions who recused himself from the russia probe. So he decided that eches goihe to push this through. All of this will continue to hover over the president again because it is not credible for the president to say hes troubled by how the Hillary Clinton email investigation was handled in terms of her. He praised comey for how he handled it and the president to be clear has had issues with comey going back to last july when comey did that extraordinary Public Statement where he was not charging Hillary Clinton. But he tried to kiss him since then. So obviously there have been a swing shift in his reckoning. Or a swing and then a swing and then a swing. Anyway you look at it, david gregory, what is confounding is this presented indication ity i the act of what was done with Hillary Clinton. I cant tell you how many close Trump Associates were spinning me last night that what happened with huma abedine and the overreachcomey, that was too much. It is so hard to believe that the fbi director had to go because it was just unfair what he did to Hillary Clinton and huma abedine. Right. That is just not credible. There are several things. The what of the firing. He fired the fbi director who is in the middle of a probe of this administration of the president and people close to him about potential collusion between the campaign and a foreign power. That is the what. That cant happen credibly. The why, that it was because he was concerned about the handling of Hillary Clintons emails. Candidate trump supported comey publicly. The attorney general supported comey publicly. The attorney general knew that it was problematic that he had his own contacts with the russi russians, so on he recused himself and yet here hes saying its okay for the president to fire the fbi director in the middle of this investigation . It doesnt make any sense. And the when. If he wanted to fire comey, he should have done it right after the election. He should have done it in january. It is so suspect to do it now, a day after sally yates makes the administration look horrible in its misjudgment regarding the handling of general flynn, at a time when the former dni makes clear that there has been no evidence of collusion between the campaign and russia, but oh, by the way, its the fbi that is really the tip of the speer doing that investigation. So defenders of this decision say look, you know, democrats said that comey wasnt credible, that he had undermined his authority. That is actually true, there is a basis to fire jim comey. You can believe that while at the same time thinking this is completely inappropriate. And even if trump were with to put in somebody in the fbi now who could keep this investigation going, you cant overlook the original act, firing the fbi director in the middle of a sensitive probe of the president. How is that possibly credible . Lets talk about that, jeffrey. Lets talk about law and order. What happens to the investigation now . What if somebody the person who replaces james comey doesnt think that this is an important investigation into the trump ties to russia. Then the investigation ends. I mean, thats what management of the fbi does. It decides what is going to be investigated. Not the white house spin. The white house spin is even from by the way Susan Collins who had been a very fair broker senator from maine about the Trump Administration, you are just getting rid of the director, youre not getting rid all the hard working men and women in the fbi who are still going to do this investigation. I revere david day fbi agents. I worked with them every day. They dont decide what they investigate. They are told what to investigate. And remember, even if a new director gets confirmed, and donald trump doesnt like him or her, then he or she is out. I mean, what we have established is that donald trump will fire an fbi director who is investigating him. And can i add a specific to that to what jeffrey is saying. That is true in general, right . But jeffrey and i were on last night and a lot of people were making the point that the head of the fbi is not so important, the investigation will continue. How about in the Hillary Clinton case . This is the one that President Trump is so concerned about. In that case, who do you think decided to go public with his rationale for not bringing a case, who decided to personally criticize the judgment of candidate clinton, former secretary of state, who made a decision to reopen the investigation. It all comes from the top. It was the head of the fbi who directs that investigation. That is what bolsters jeffreys point about the person who is installed and again i come back to the president , although we dont see a lot of examples of this, could put somebody in who has great credentials, who is highly credible. You cant overcome the original act which is firing the guy investigating you. That is just not credible. Now, we hear two versions. Good to have you here, maggie, the first is rosenstein straight shooter, everybody respects him, he did this investigation and i had to exceed to his conclusions and go along with this. And then there is the other one, which is trump put sessions and his guys up to this to find a reason to get rid of comey, they wanted do this and you will find rargs na ration flaale if you want to. Is there true . If. Two things can be true. One thing that is important to know, it was a very close hold in the white house in terms of who was actually involved and aware of it. Thes from as i understand it from my reporting knew yesterday morning and possibly the night before that he was going to do this. By the middle of the day, it became clear to a wired sder ci where this was going, no one who voiced an actual objection. A couple people voiced concerns about how it might play out. The white house was adamant. Democrats have criticized James Comey Oi comey, this will be easy because they have be hamstrung from criticizing this because they said it before. Recently Chuck Schumer has been more critical. For instance the president had the headline involving Chuck Schumer criticizing comeys credibility on the desk when he was speaking to schumer and called him to inform him of this decision and schumer told him i think youre made making making and there was a pause and the president said okay, well see. But he clearly believes that this will play out along political lines and by the qua way so far that is true. Very few republicans are saying this is troubling, we need an independent investigator. John mccain and a couple others have said it, but these are mostly people who have been critics of the administration the whole time. Part of the problem with this is a couple of things. The fact that you dont have anybody from doj explaining this decision. This is all being handled politically through the white house on a whim essentially. They were not scheduling all of these rollouts last night of spokespeople. Sean spicer had said there would be no more comments. And next thing we know, they were sort of flooding the zone with three people. They didnt have anything lined up in terms of having people affirm this decision for them, and as always it creates this sense that it was done sort of on a whim and with case as and t chaos and that there is no replacement in mind yet. As and chaos and that there is no replacement in mind yet. And back to the fbi agents, so nobody in charge, today what ham happens . Are things frozen . Day to day i think they continue. As cnn has been reporting, there is a grand jury investigation now out of the Northern District of virginia involving Michael Flynn. Subpoenas have gone out. So presumably the returns on those subpoenas will come in, the assistant u. S. Attorneys running that investigation will continue to investigate. But you can be sure no one will an proof approve an indictment, no one will conclude that investigation until there is actual leadership in place. And who is it going to be . Who will take this job . Well, there are trump loyalists who will. And will they get confirmed . Chris christie is probably interested, Rudy Giuliani im sure is interested. Share are arrive david clark of milwaukee is interested in this job, all of whom campaigned actively for President Trump. The president met with the acting director right now, mccabe. But david, i want you do in here, and let me give you a little context though. You have to look at where the president s head has been and for better or worse, we know because thats what his twitter feed is. It gives you a present sense impression of what matters to him. And obviously last night very late he was bashing schumer saying schumer wants it both ways. But his consistency of thought about this Russian Investigation, he hates it, he thinks its illegitimate, he wants to can kill it, he did everything he could do to prejudice against sally yates before she gave her testimony and he colored it during the testimony and now he gets rid of comey. Is it possible to separate those two moments . No, i dont think it is. How many times have we talked on this program about what i think is the president s overlooking at the very least if not worse of the responsibilities that he has to the presidency, not just to him. And the fact that russia, a foreign power, tried to manipulate our on election, yeah, it probably redound to his benefits those efforts. He has a duty to protect the country, to protect the presidency itself. And for him and for his aides to be so dismissive of the idea of the russia investigation i think is incredibly irresponsible at the very least. And why nothing may come of the russia investigation. Maybe there was nothing untoward that happened. Why is the president acting so on suspiciously . This firing of comey is incredibly suspicious, incredibly suspect. And another point that id be interested in about getting jeffreys take on as well which i dont thinking has been adequately addressed by others, so Rod Rosenstein is Deputy Attorney general. He is tasked with investigating comeys behavior. Why . Well, forget the politicians, we know people who are actual life long prosecutors all condemned comey for his handling of the email investigation. In fact, the department of justices own Inspector General is already investigating those practices, is probably going to issue a blistering report. Why ask rosenstein to investigate it separately . Does rosenstein ask do that . That to me suspicious, as if they were setting him up to come out with a report with that very pretext. Or if rosenstein is investigating this, why not wait until the Inspector General who has been conducting interviews, who is doing a thorough investigation not just one individual, rosenstein who has only been there for a couple weeks, why not wait until the Inspector General because you want an outcome that is person in that i dont think there is anyway to read you have to feel for rosenstein because he came in with a clear reputation. He says things in about this memo which they have pretty generously provided, they want you to know what his findings were and he pins it mainly on a lack of confidence within the agency. That the men and women no longer have faith in comey and that has reverberated into the public. But the only reason to engineer this is to engineer the outcome. They didnt want to wait on an ig report because who knows if it gives him the clearance. This they could control and they did it and now they have their moment. But that is not right. I mean, that is not how the system is supposed to work. We have independence of the fbi. We have ten year terms because we dont want president s firing fbi directors out of political anger, out of fear of their own investigation. So you are making a neutral statement of why and how this happened, but its wrong. Also in terms of rosenstein and feeling bad for somebody, which you hear a lot about people working in this white house, you have to feel for xyz because this is not slave labor. People actually believe in what they are doing. But rosenstein could find the findings that he found. Its not like sean spicer every time he gets to the podium. But to your point about credibility though, this is where the corrosive untruth that we have heard from this president during the trump and search from the white house on a daily basis i would say with sean spicer, this is very problematic. When you do Something Like this, if you were going to take this extraordinary step, you need basically to have the public trust aspect of this job pretty nailed and this undermines it, it is very there are legitimate reasons to find problems with comey to your point, legitimate reasons to have issues with how comey has conducted himself. But it is the timing of this and how it was done that is going to undermine what was done. Were just talking a lot about Rod Rosenstein who i dont know personally. Perhaps jeff crey does. He hass an excellent reputation. But there are real questions about why he would allow his name to be attached to this. Maybe he didnt care how it looks, this is the right thing to do. That is what the wall street journal is editorializing this morning. That is a point of view. Or maybe he was suspicious about why he was being tasked so early on with doing this investigation and did he fear that he was going to be used to create a pretext to fire comey that is simply not credible. The president doesnt care how Hillary Clinton was treated. He threatened to jail her, okay, as a candidate. So we know that that cant be right. The question i have, you know, there was a certain somebody in the Justice Department who got a lot of credit for standing up to what he thought was overreach by the executive blancranch with rd to wireless surveillance back in 2004. That was jim comey at the just are you tis departmen Justice Department. So the onus is on reporting an independent prosecutor. Well see if there is enough pressure namely from republicans to nuf in thmove in that direct. And i dont know if there is enough momentum. The idea that the white house didnt know that this would cause a cataclysm across the beltway and beyond, how do we explain that lack of foresight . The same way how we explain how they have handled almost all of these situations like the executive order on the travel ban, like putting steve bannon on the National Security council and being surprised when you downgraded two permanent seats that it was going to be a problem. This president came in as a knee o neophyte to government and political office. And so he wins the presidency and all of this seems like this is specific to him and he has surrounded himself primarily with people who have never been in government or people who are afraid to tell him when he is doing something that could cause him a problem. Or its just another bs angle coming out of there that they way to play i dont think so in about this case. In this case i think that they legitimately had convinced themselves, look, this is a little like saying that everything is fake news. If everything is fake new, then all news is fake including ours. If this investigation is tainted, then everything is interest taked including what is going on with President Trump. And they have seen everything as basically an ability to level of playing field, there is no middle ground, there is no objective fax. They had convinced themselves that there were so many statements on the record from democrats this is a live shot of Jeff Sessions leaving his home this morning. He is getting into his vehicle there and heading to the Justice Department. Not taking any questions which is no surprise because i dont know how he answers legitimately about his involvement in this. That is one of the reasons they are making it about Hillary Clinton is because it cant be about the Russian Investigation because the attorney general is not even allowed to touch it. David gregory made a point that we need to discuss. If Rod Rosenstein decides to appoint a special prosecutor, this is once again an opportunity of where words matter, that is a statutory thing. He can appoint a special coun l counsel, but they dont have the same kinds of powers that we had during that legislation. And one of the questions from all our leaders who are being quiet right now especially on the republican are side is whether or not there will be a congressional motivation to have legislation to make something truly independent in its review of the executive. Do you think there is a chance that we get a special prosecutor . Not a chance in the world. The republicans who run the house and senate dont want to see donald trump investigated. You saw a very brief statement from Mitch Mcconnell saying well have hearings on the new fbi director. No criticism at all. Chuck grassley very strongly supportive of this firing. I mean, the people who are in charge of the senate, paul ryan as far as im aware is in the Witness Protection Program at the moment. So there is no i mean, they wont pass a law about this, they wont even hold hearings about that. Well ask them about that because we have obviously a very big program today. Coming up on new day, we will speak to senators angus king, Richard Blumenthal and lindsey graham. We will ask them all these questions. And Kellyanne Conway will be here. And well also have former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and former u. S. Attorney general alberto gonzalez. What do they think about what has happened this morning. All right. So the firing of james comey. Is this just clear proof of dirty politics or a move to clean it up . Why some Trump Supporters say getting rid of comey was the right move. Well debate. Im claudine and i quit smoking with chantix. Smokings a monkey on my back. It was, it was always controlling your time, your actions, your money. 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Why didnt they wait until the Inspector Generals report came out that supposedly will review the same things they had rosenstein review. And why would the president put in a letter to the director of the fbi told him three different times he wasnt under investigation . That is just wrong if it even happened. And we dont know that it did. So real questions that have nothing do with partisan politics. Lets sgu. Brian fallon and jason miller. Brian, was the press secretary for Hillary Clintons campaign and jason former Communications Adviser to Donald Trumps campaign. Gentlemen, good morning. Jason, you are not held responsible for these decisions, you werent there, but obviously this does not look good. How do you justify this move right now . Well, i think one of the things as were watching coverage last night and even morning that i think there is bipartisan agreement that folks did not believe director comey was able to effectively do his job be anymore. What folks . Senator schullhu schumer did confidence. He made it clear on the record last fall that he didnt have confidence if his ability. Nancy pelosi and the president kissed the man on the face, called him a star, said he did the right thing in the clinton administration. And he also criticized him heavily last year, as well. Senator schumer criticized director comey, nancy pelosi, valgry jash receipt said he should be fired, congressman nadler said he should be fired. There was criticism across the board. Harry reid said what director comey did was possibly a violation of the hatch act. Those are pretty darn strong words that they have there. Director of the fbi was not able to effectively do his job and also that were hearing that the rank and file of the fbi were not in support of director comey and didnt have the confidence in the ability to lead them, i think the president made the right move here. Brian, you heard the talking points that are coming out of the white house. Im not saying jason doesnt think those, but that is it, that democrats called for this, were just doing what democrats wanted all along finally. Well, democrats can rightly say that jim comeys actions in the clinton email investigation were inappropriate, but also say that this current president who is currently the subject of an ongoing fbi investigation himself is not empowered to fire the man investigating him. So i dont personally care a wit about james comey personally. Im sure he will land on corporate boards and probably have a lot of speaking engagements for which he will be highly xin compensated. But you cant deny that the Russian Investigation will be less independent without jim comey at the helm by virtue of the fact that it will should not be led by the next fbi director who will be hand pick the by donald trump. And this morning were learning that one of the candidates to replace jim comey is rudy jewel youian an ian njewel january a. And he predicted that there was one more ace in the hole that might tip the election. That has led many to speculate that he might have had inside information from leaking within the fbi. And just last week at the hearing, jim comey was asked whether he was investigating Rudy Giuliani specifically and he said yes. I guarantee you if Rudy Giuliani gets into the fbi, he will shut that down. So lets deal with the hypocrisy on your side of the line that jason pointed out. They felt what he did with Hillary Clinton was wrong and was abuse of hiser and he had to go. Those quotes are accurate. Are they trying to have it both ways now . No, because two things can be true. Democrats can say as many career officials within the Justice Department have said that jim comey overstepped his bounds at how he handling the clinton investigation. So if jinl comey decided he could no longer serve, i doubt many would have shed a tear over that. Or after the ig investigation had come out with some damns findings with respect to jim comey, i think in that instance the Trump Administration would be on much firmer ground. But the timing stinks. And i just want to hear you address what brian just said. How can you assure everyone that this investigation will go on unimpededed if say Rudy Giuliani or Chris Christie or a different trump loyalist is thin at the head of the fbi . The fact of the matter is we dont yet know whoein at the head of the fbi . The fact of the matter is we dont yet know whon at the head of the fbi . The fact of the matter is we dont yet know who abowill repl director comey. But the investigation will continue. Its into the as though director comey was personally leading it on a day to day basis. Thats not true. Director of the fbi does lead the direction of the investigations. I do think by removing director comey that they will take the politics out of the fbi. Law enforcement shouldnt be dictated and driven by politics. The final sjason, hold on. Nobody is saying that director comey was doing an effective job be and he should remain. The president said on numerous occasions in the month. Hes also criticized him. You dont get to have it both ways. Why are you so sure that this investigation is going to proceed regardless of who is the head of the fbi . Weve learned if nothing else that the fbi director can have a big influence on these high profile investigations. Certainly comey had a very big influence on the Hillary Clinton investigation. Why do you think it is somehow irrelevant who is the head of the fbi and the investigation of the russia connections is going to continue no matter what . Jeffrey, how can you turn around and say that it will stop . There has been no indication from the administration that this is some effort to shut down an investigation. That will keep going. That will run its course. But the hold on. The president also said that this is a hoax, this is fake news, there is nothing there there. So we dou know how hes incline to see the investigation. And the fact of the matter is feel do not think director comey was effective at doing his job. That report came from Rod Rosenstein and went up to Jeff Sessions and the president made the final decision. And if you look at the comments from democrats this tags papast they would agree. There have been reports that confirm that this was all about getting ahead of the Russian Investigation. There is a report in politico citing who white house advisors saying in recent days the president has increasingly been asking aides how can we shut down this russia investigation, the times reported that last week Jeff Sessions was given instructions to find a pretext to fire jim comey. So the reporting is seeping out even as jason come on and give the reason line here. There have been plenty of that is a highly questionable article with no sources. We understand that you both come at this from different perspectives. Thank you very much for the debate. So one of the questions that is open now is what does James Comey O comeys firing mean for all of the congressional investigations that are going on with russia and the Trump Campaign . Comey was supposed to testify thursday, tomorrow, in front of the senate intel committee. Is that still going to happen . Unlikely. Well talk with senator angus king about what our leaders are going to do to ensure the administration of justice in this democracy next. Dear predictable, theres no other way to say this. Its over. Ive found a permanent escape from monotony. Together, we are perfectly balanced, our senses awake, our hearts racing as one. I know this is sudden, but they say if you love something. Set it free. See you around, giulia so i use excedrin. Ments from my life. It starts to relieve migraine pain in just 30 minutes. And it works on my symptoms, too. 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And so you can even take the occasional time out. Nooooooo yes yes, indeed. Speed, coverage, control. Introducing xfinity xfi. Find your awesome and change the way you wifi. President trump fired james comey and it has sent shockwaves through congress. Comey has been testifying before various congressional committees investigating whether russia dl. So what will happen with the investigations . We will bring in lawmakers, but i have Jeffrey Toobin here right now and this idea of jim comey being taken out for Hillary Clinton seems to defy logic. Doesnt defy politics. People were upset how comey handled it. Notably President Trump was not upset. He has applauded what jim comey said. He has said other things as well, really very few, but he has said comey did her a big favor. But he has been overall applauding him. And that makes you feel that it cant be about Hillary Clinton. Fair assessment . Absolutely. I mean, it wasnt just once. It was throughout the fall where candidate trump saluted comey about Hillary Clintons behavior. And that was after he became president. That was in the oval office. So the idea and also just i think our viewers, i think people are sophisticated, does anyone really believe that donald trump was upset and angry that jim comey was too mean to Hillary Clinton . And huma abedine. Last night people were spinning and this is not true, but for an deher sake it d be out there. Jim comey grossly overstated how many emails she hads hassed along to her husband. But the idea that the Trump Administration cared about that and that is motivating this now when President Trumps twitter is filled with his desire to oppose the Russian Investigation strains credit youllity. But lets talk with somebody who will be charged with doing something about joining us now, senator angus king. Thank you for being with us. What do you make of this move . Well, there are a whole lot of pieces of it that are very strange. Number one, what is Jeff Sessions doing involved in this. Im sure you have on tape somewhere when he recused himself, he said he will have nothing do with the russia investigation in any way shape or form, directly or indirectly, and yet he is strinvolved in fig the guy who is leegd the investigation for the fooik. Numb fbi. Number two, the timing as you pointed out doesnt make sense. They supposedly fired him for stuff he did last summer or last fall. And suddenly now they say oh, well, hes got to go. They could have fired him onnian 21st if that was something that really bothered them. And there is another little subl thing about t sub thing about the timing. You will t all the memos were dated yesterday. It all came together in a matter of hours, whereas it took 18 days to on fired mike flynn. So that is the timing just doesnt pass the straight face test in terms of what is the real motivation for this. The other piece is the complaints about comey were plig, that he he once testified that he has a political tin ear. Hes not very good at politics. But he is a man of real integrity, an experienced prosecutor. And investigator. And, you know, so that is a problem. The final piece is you asked what do we do, we have to have a special prosecutor. There is no Public Confidence in this process now on the fbi side. Remember, there is a Senate Intelligence committee investigation, that is a separate issue. Well talk about that in a minute. But there has to be a special prosecutor or special counsel in order to restore some confidence in this. I just dont understand this decision. Instead of settling anything, it absolutely raises suspicions in virtually everybodys minds. And if you understand it through that lens, this is something he wanted to do, the timing is obviously just you one indication of how obvious the move was. But well see what happens next. You just put up an alternative there that requires some discussion. Special prosecutor, special couns counsel. The audience will be getting its feet up on all of this. Those are two very different things. Special counsel would be someone who is appointed by the doj and has some degree of independence. But they aint no special prosecute toward. That was designed by statute, it was born during the watergate era to deal with some of the confusions that we have right noud once again. But that person would be picked by a three judge panel and completely insulated from any kind of political tampering. I know nixon still fired Archibald Cox, but they were forced to replace another special prosecutor. Its not perfect, but a hell of a lot better than a special counsel. Do you think there is any chance you could get legislation from republicans to effectively police the president . Well, i think it will be tough because some people are defending this decision. But i believe its something we got to do. Bottom line here is Public Confidence. And if the administration doesnt have anything to hide, they ought to be helping with this because otherwise this issue will dog them for years and it will just keep being a dark cloud over whatever they do. They should be cooperateding. So im going to urge my republican colleagues to join some kind of effort to create a special prosecutor position because as i say, otherwise it just keeps going on. Now, i had a fun idea in the middle of the night, chris, i think our on committee, the intelligence committee, should hire james comey to direct our investigation. Knows the subject. Man of integrity. Ill float that and see what kind of reaction i get. Would that be allowed . I dont know why not. Hes a free man. He doesnt have a job. And he was supposed to come before the hearing tomorrow. We dont know what will happen withrey toobin, what is your take . Senator, i wanted to explore one thing. You say we smoo have a special counsel. There is no independent down co law at the moment. But do you think within the Justice Department tomorrow rod resend steen cou rosenstein could appoint someone and that person will have ininside . Independent ebs . He could lelgdly, but i dont know if it rises to the level of restoring Public Confidence in about this process particularly since he has his fingerprints on this deal. He wrote the memo that was used by the attorney general and the president to justify the firing. So i would much prefer some kind of special prosecutor. But that requires an act of congress which is pretty difficult thing to do around here. But i think as people absorb this and the implications of it, we may be able to move something, but some limited and then of course that raises the question the president has to signen an act of congress. But this is this is very dangerous stuff. This is the kind of thing that undermines peoples confidence in our rule of law and the democracy of this country. And we have to get to the bottom of it and we have to find some alternative that we can have somebody that has the credibility to pursue the investigation without fear or favor. And senator, appreciate it. And you justdaunting important at the end. Even if the republicans and democrats come together and pass legislation to have a special prosecutor, the president would have the ability to veto and you would have to overcome that. These are hard times. Senator, appreciate you being with us. There are so many questions today facing the white house after the firing of james comey. Why now, what does this mean for the russia investigation . So we have our panel of experts standing by all morning. They will help us break down the huge story. [customer] yeah, hi. I dont have my debit card and these kids are having a bake sale for their soccer team so i need some cash. Can i give you my mothers maiden name or my first concert or [team member] oh, well, now you can just use your phone. [customer] my phone . [team member] yeah, just open the wells fargo mobile app and request a onetime access code. [customer] thats way better. All set. Thanks. They have snickerdoodles [team member whispers] i love snickerdoodles. [customer] thanks Intelligent Technology can help protect it. The allnew audi q5 is here. Welcome to new day. We have breaking news. The president firing jamgs compan james comey. The timing and reason is under sbhens scruti intense scrutiny. The bureau is investigating whether the Trump Campaign colluded with the russians to influence the 2016 election. Even some republicans are joining calls for an independent probe. Now, what would that mean . One of the problems here, we are not sure how to guarantee independence in the administration of justice. What is the answer. Well, for democrats, they are saying that calling on comey to be fired is nixonian. But remember they are propare compromised, too, because nobody was more outspoken against comey than the democrats. Subpoenas have been issued to former associates of Michael Flynn in the investigation to russian meddling in the u. S. Election. Is that a sign that justice will be served . We have it all covered. Lets begin with joe johns live at the white house. Joe, what do we know . Reporter well, this is just unchartered territory not only for the white house, but also in many ways for capitol hill and the Justice Department. The white house today will have to continue to justify, to rationalize, to explain why the president fired the man leading the investigation into his campaign. President trump attributing his bombshell firin