President of the United States addressing his interactions with the fired fbi director james comey and also telling reporters what he thinks about the investigation into russian interference in the last election. I think it divides the country. I think we have a very divided country of so many other things. Reporter President Trump slamming the appointment of a special counsel is bad for the country. I restrict the move, but the entire thing has been a witch hunt, and there is no collusion between certainly myself and my campaign, but i can always speak for myself and the russians, ze zero. Reporter the president clearly distancing himself from his own campaign. Mr. Trump also denying reports that he tried to interfere in the fbis investigation into former National Security adviser Michael Flynn. Did you at any time try to urge fbi director james comey to back down on the investigation of Michael Flynn . Also, as you look back no. No. Next question. Reporter but days after asking why he fired comey i fired comey. No explanation. Director comey was very unpopular with most people. I actually thought when i made that decision, and i also got a very, very strong recommendation, as you know, from the demtty attorney general, Rod Rosenstein. But Rod Rosenstein gave senators a very different story when he briefed them thursday. He did acknowledge that he learned comey would be removed prior to him writing his memo. Reporter this as a friend of comey is breaking the silence in a new interview with pbs news hour about his conversations with the now fired fbi director. Trump fired jim comey because the most dangerous thing in the world if youre donald trump is a person who tells the truth, is dogged, you cant control. Reporter Benjamin Wittes now recalling the day of that infamous hug the day after the inauguration. Comey didnt want to go to that meeting. He doesnt believe the fbi director and the president should have any signs of a relationship or shows of warmth. Wittes describes in detail why comey was reluctant to intend. Even at 68, he tried to blend with the curtains in the hopes he wouldnt be singled out. He says mr. Trump is calculated. What he told me was it was bad enough he was there, it was bad enough there was going to be a sha handshake, but there really wasnt going to be a hug. If you watch the video, he extends his hand kind of preemptively, and trump grabs the hand and kind of pulls him into a hug, but the hug was entirely onesided. Comey was completely disgusted disgusted . Disgusted by the episode. He thought it was an intentional intent to compromise him in public. Reporter wittes says comey tried to establish boundaries with the president. He saw his role as protecting the fbi from the white house. Reporter wittes said he called to comey once as he tried to board a helicopter. To his surprise, there is no urgent matter at all, the president just wants to chitchat. He was bewildered by it and again thought it was quite inappropriate. He doesnt think the president and the fbi director should be chitchatting. He interpreted it as an effort to kind of be chummy and kind of bring comey into the fold. Cnns pam brown has reported that comey was so uncomfortable with these interactions that he rehearsed what he would say with his team before meeting with the president. Sources say the president s allies are now trying to convince him that he should stop complaining about the russia investigation while his advisers are looking for an outside legal team to represent the president through the special counsels investigation. The president is, quote, very close to naming a replacement for fbi director. The frontrunner that has been floated is former United States senator joe lieberman, but theyre already expressing concerns about naming a former top politician to the job. The president leaves this afternoon for his nineday trip overseas. First stop, saudi arabia, far away from the white house but not so far from the controversy. Well said, joe johns. Well check back in with you in a little bit. How about the tgif panel . Is it time . Cnn analyst Jeffrey Toobin and cnn commentator errol lewis. Maggie haberman, you have reported to the New York Times that advancement is withstanding. Whats the latest . Ill try to narrow down that category, but my colleague mike schmidt reported how james comey had kept these memos, these notes about the president , where he basically felt that the president was, if not trying to pressure him, trying to cozy him and curry favor with him, for lack of a better way to put it. As you have this investigation ongoing, there was a phone call where the president just basically wanted to chitchat and just wanted to talk, because this president , as we have heard repeated repeatedly, is fairly isolated. The president has been speaking to prospective lawyers given the latest in these probes. Its not a huge surprise. Given what he is facing, you would suspect he might go to somebody who has some washington experience. Thats what his current lawyers possess, but this is lawyer i expect hes not going to want to spend, and hes learning what special counsel means for everyone. Theyre all going to have to hire lawyers, they have to be careful about their phone use. Its going to be a long slug. Lets back up two steps, jeff toobin. On fbi directors in general, you want to have like an arms length, right, between the bureau and any white house. You never want any perception of chummy, hugging in the oval office shots because why . Because there are often occasions when the fbi has to investigate matters relating to the white house. This is precisely the situation we find ourselves in now where the fbi was investigating the trump campaign, many people relating to him, and you dont want to have the perception that the fbi director is friends with, on the team with, allied with the president. The complication there, of course, is that the fbi director and the president have to interact to a certain extent about National Security, about all sorts of Cyber Threats to the country. So how you draw the line between ch chumminess and a professional relationship is something every president is supposed to navigate with the fbi director, and obviously comey felt uncomfortable. Comey has some questions to answer as well. This is going to be a credibility contest, right . So we do have one little test moment. We have this man, Benjamin Wittes, who gave one rendition of what this moment was about which well play for you, and well show you the hug at the same time and see if it reads true. Heres the sound from comeys friend. If you watch the video, he extends his hand, and comeys arms are really long, and he extend his hand kind of preemptively, and trump grabs the hand and kind of pulls him into a hug. But the hug is entirely onesided. So one guy in the hug is shaking hands. Comey was just completely disgusted by disgusted . Disgusted by the episode. He thought it was an intentional attempt to compromise him in public. What did you see in the hug, errol . Is it a onesided hug . Look, its a plausible interpretation of what might have been there. On the other hand, if he felt that strongly, thats something that disgusting that might happen to him, maybe you dont go to the event. Maybe you beg off. Maybe you send a tersely worded message to the white house that you dont want to be a part of this. Maybe you try to rely on the attorney general. At that point i guess the attorney general did he sesigna you need some room, you need some clarity. The questions are all very well taken for all the reasons jeffrey just described. There ought to be some distance between the fbi director and the president. If the president clearly doesnt want that distance to be there, it then falls on the fbi. If comey didnt navigate it to his satisfaction, i dont know if he has anybody else to blame. But the maybes matter that errol is laying out here. This memo got a lot of heat. Boy, he thought to write it down contemporaneously, this must have been a big deal. Not a big enough deal to do anything about it, and if we know something about james comey, its that if he thinks something really matters, hell break protocol. Hell do things that nobody else has done before and have huge political impact, but not about President Trump. Does it mitigate the impression that he was really offended and thought it was really inappropriate . This has become a big republican talking point in response to this whole controversy. If it was so bad, why didnt comey Say Something . Its a legitimate question, there is no doubt. Wittes says he didnt actually maybe think it was so bad, that he thought it was manageable. But if it was manageable, its hard to argue at the same time it was an obstruction of justice as a crime. So that is somewhat in trumps favor. But from comeys perspective, you can think for much of this period there is no attorney general at all, that sessions hasnt even been confirmed. Fair point, so who would he have gone to . Then very soon after sessions is confirmed, he recuses himself from the russia situation. And also, and this is, i think, the main point, comey thinks, look, if i dont pass the message to my subordinates, there cant be any obstruction because they wont even know the president is making this inappropriate contact with me, so i will protect the bureau by dealing with him one on one and then not disclosing it. I think thats the argument. Lets get to more sound from this friend of comeys, because obviously the question why does comey think he was fired. This guy has apparently talked to comey since the firing. Hes not divulging any information from that conversation, but this is his own opinion on why he thinks james comey was fired. Trump fired jim comey because the most dangerous thing in the world, if youre donald trump, is a person who tells the truth, is dogged, you cant control, who is as committed as comey is to the institutional independence of an organization that has the power to investigate you. What do you think of that, maggie . I think there is some truth to that. Its impossible to know what was in the president s mind considering he has now given several explanations for jim comey, yesterday reverting back to the earlier explanation how it was a recommendation from the department of justice. But i think that you have to look at, on a basic level, donald trump takes things very personally. He tends to see any kind of criticism or any kind of anything that he considers uncomfortable as a personal slight, he tends to overreact, he tends to stew on these things. He had been thinking about this, according to all of our reporting, for several days. And i think he had been thinking about it, frankly, going back to the transition when he saw comey testify before the senate when comey talked about being slightly nauseated at the prospect that he had influenced the election. I think trump took that very personally. So i think you can have what the friend of comeys is saying as being true, but i dont think that was at the top of trumps mind, i think it was more instinctual and basic. Errol, lets not forget who james comey is in our political context. He said he felt nauseated by it. He was also seeing as inducing nausea by democrats for what he did. Good word. I had to look it up. Its one thing we learned in this new thunderdome. The idea that james comey was right for the picking shouldnt be ignored here. The democrats had been calling for his ouster. The timing here, trumps comments about what it was that was bothering him, certainly negate the idea that this was about hillary clinton. But he was a good target and hes shown he could break protocol before. There was plenty of coverage for this move had it been done sooner. We heard repeatedly that the president was surprised at the reaction. He thought democrats would side with him and say, yeah, we were ready to get rid of that guy. He seemed to be surprised in part, i think, because james comey was a controversial figure, a more skilled practitioner, somebody with more political experience than donald trump might have simply said, we want a new approach to this. I dont like what happened during the election. There are questions surrounding him. Im sure hes a good man, but im going to make a change. Thats what another president might have done. That, of course, is not what donald trump has done. There would have been a rationale for getting rid of comey. But when trump came in initially when he was nainaugerated, as t Russian Investigation gains more speed, he opens himself up to it. The president keeps saying there was no collusion. Everybody stick around, because next, President Trump denying any collusion between his campaign and russia, calling this investigation, as we saw on twitter, a witch hunt. Does his defiance, does it change anything . Our panel will discuss that next. 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President trump doubling down, calling the russia investigation a witch hunt and denying any collusion with russia. But listen closely here. I respect the move, but the entire thing has been a witch hunt, and there is no collusion between certainly myself and my campaign, but i can always speak for myself and the russians, zero. We have maggie haber man, errol louis and a. B. I can speak for myself, a. B. , and the russians, zero collusion. What do you think . This is the first time weve heard the president sort of sounding like he might be separating himself from people who worked on his campaign. A number of them are under investigation for connections to russians. Roger stone, carter page, Michael Flynn and paul manafort. Thats not one, two, thats four people. We know his son snuck into not the front entrance of trump tower during the investigation. You heard all along this was a witch hunt, but thats the first time we heard President Trump sort of say i can speak for myself, and i think that was noted by everybody. So that goes a little bit to the substance of this, but how about that line before, maggie, to the politics of the situation . I respect the move. No, he doesnt. And thats the problem, that i get that this could be a little scary, i get that theyre talking to lawyers. But the politics of this were corrosive, largely generated by the president , i think, objectively. But if he didnt break those tweets yesterday, i believe the new cycle would have been unity in washington, d. C. , finally well get to the bottom of this. If theres nothing there with collusion, good, and well find out how to stop the interference going forward, well get better information. But he didnt. And isnt that why were in a new cycle of negative appraisal . We are here because at the end of the day, i mean regardless of the question of collusion, and to be clear, i dont know what they actually think they mean when they keep saying collusion, but regardless of that question, we are here because the president fired james comey, and because he then went to blame a recommendation by the Deputy Attorney general that the Deputy Attorney general told senators yesterday that he knew comey was going to be fired before he wrote that letter. I think if Rod Rosenstein did not feel like he had been compromised in some way, im not sure we would be seeing a special counsel now, and we are, and the president is reacting to it. And the president has this habit and he did it all throughout the campaign of getting trapped in this sort of chainreactive, negative, selfinflicting wound cycle. I think its agreed to the president and congress are getting weary of this. They had this Golden Moment of governing and the control of white house and congress to be able to pass an agenda and every day gets plunge sbd into this and you are correct, the only person plunging the president into this at the moment is the president , but he will never, ever see it that way. He will always see it as people coming at him. What you say about Rod Rosenstein, i think that was significant, errol, you see all these senators coming out of this hearing where he was answering some questions. The original story from the white house was, well, based on recommendation from the new leadership at the top of the fbi, Rod Rosenstein is the one recommending x, y and z, and later we saw the president on with lester holt, and he said, no, its not by my recommendation but myself. Why would rosenstein write the memo if he already knew that trump was going to fire comey . Rosenstein was in a position that many attorneys find themselves in. Your client wants something and you want to deliver that to him. In this case, we have to take him at his word. If the order comes from the president or the attorney general, put together a memo explaining what was wrong about comey. You do it whether you know what theyre going to do with it or not, whether you know hes being fired or not, what influence youre going to have on it. There are some lawyers when put into that position will just do what the client asks. In this case Rod Rosenstein goes out and does that. Now hes disclosed what he may have done. Hes also made clear that he didnt like being put in this position, and then he further goes and makes the decision to bring in muller as the person to kind of clean all this up. I think he stands out as a model of what could be happening that the Trump Administration has to be very concerned about, which is people who are concerned about their own reputation and willing to do something about it. There are members of congress who are concerned about their reputation and what they mayor may not be attached to, but they kind of scamper off. They kind of hide from the press. This is someone making some power moves, who is really stepping up and saying, yes, ill do what you ask me to do, but you try and put me in a trap, youre going to get some pushback from me. Thats what Rod Rosenstein has done. He did expose himself to scrutiny, rosenstein, not just for the memo but the counsel move after it. It could be interpreted as a revenge move. Clair mccatskill is out there saying rosenstein knew comey would be fired. So you have this special counsel. The senators go up there and what they want to know mostly is, what about us . What about our ability to ask questions and have our committee and be out there in front of this . The special counsel compromised that. What are you hearing, because the reporting seems very mixed. Muller may tell you guys to step down, no, rosenstein says it can go this way. They might be confused. What do you hear . Obviously they want to hold their own investigation unencumbered by the new probe run by muller, this special counsel, and they had plans to call james comey up for a blockbuster public hearing about what happened in this conversation in the oval office about President Trump, and whether or not President Trump asked him to shut down the investigation to Michael Flynn. So there is some talk right here that theyll prevail, the congressional committees and the House Committee might be able to get comey up next week, but there is more talk that Robert Muller is more interested in having those committees do their work quietly and not bring those people forward for testimony that are also witnesses in his investigation. Obviously comey is in his probe, so if comey actually doesnt come up and talk, this whole thing is going to go quiet for a while. And that actually provides republicans and the president an opportunity to talk about policy again. I think Congressional Republicans will follow through on that. I dont think trump will. I think hell continue to tweet about his grievances and draw attention to this. But thats a big difference if we have a lot of highprofile testimony coming from congressional probes, this sk z consumes the news. Without it, it goes into a quiet period. Which, you know, maybe the American Public would like to see everything play out in front of all of our eyes, but that may not be a it would be nice to know with first person accounts what had happened. But, you know, you have to do what isnt considered in the interest of justice, thats in the hands of bob muller, so well see. Panelists, thank you very much. Value added as always. Coming up on new day, a lot to digest. Elijah cummings, senator angus king, richard blumenthal, and former attorney general gonzalez. Also at the crossroads of the world, a car plows into people in the middle of new yoor new y crowded times square. Details next. I joined the army in july of 98. Our 18 year old was in an accident. When i call usaa it was that voice asking me, is your daughter ok . Thats where i felt relief. Were the rivera family, and we will be with usaa for life. Were following breaking news. Swedish prosecutors say theyre going to close their sevenyear rape investigation into julia julian assange. They didnt specify why. Does that mean assange can just walk out . Police warned assange if he leaves the embassy, he still will be arrested on an outstanding bail charge. Assange has also expressed concern he could be extradited to the u. S. For leaking certain documents, and indeed, the u. S. And u. K. Do have an extradition agreement, so u. K. Police could grab him and send him to the u. S. Iranians, theyre voting for the president today. The vote is widely viewed as a referendum on the landmark nuclear deal with the u. S. And the west. The key architect of that deal is seeking a second term in office. His main challenger in what could be a tight race is hardlined cleric. Results are not expected until the weekend. Heres video that tells the story of this terrible event in sometimes square in new york yesterday. A driver plowed into the crowd. This is supposed to be a very secure place. The video is not easy to watch but its important. Heres a piece. See it . Right through the middle of times square. Real security questions raised for new york authorities. Why werent there more truck barriers . How did this car get so many blocks . It was a truck barrier. You see it right there. Thats what stopped that car. Why werent there more . Thats something the authorities have to deal with right now. This was some italian film crew that captured this. An 18yearold tourist Alyssa Elsman died because of that at the hands of this man. Almost two dozen others injured, four of them critically. So were going to have to follow their conditions. The drivers name is richard rojas. He now faces murder and attempted murder charges. According to police, rojas tested positive for pcp, a very heavy duty chemical, and told them god made him do this. Investigators say this is not an isolated this is an isolated incident. It is not a terror investigation. Awful. 18yearold just walking through times square. Hopefully i think we were talking about adding more truck barriers so that never happens ever again. President trump hoping to turn the page on what has been a blistering week. Expectations are high. What can he accomplish . Well discuss that next. Your Insurance Company wont replace the full value of your totaled new car. The guy says you picked the wrong insurance plan. No, i picked the wrong Insurance Company. With Liberty Mutual new car replacement™, you wont have to worry about replacing your car because youll get the full value back including depreciation. Switch and you could save 509 on auto insurance. Call for a free quote today. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. Beneful grain free is so healthy. Oh farmraised chicken thats good chicken. Hm . Here come the accents. Blueberries and pumpkin. Wow. And spinach that was my favorite bite so far. avo new beneful grain free. Out with the grain, in with the farmraised chicken. Healthful. Flavorful. Beneful. President trump is going to leave today for his first overseas trip. Any way you look at it politically, this is a big deal. Hes going to visit five countries in nine days. Thats an ambitious agenda. Is he ready . Whats at stake . We have a real pro for perspective on this, cnn military and diplomatic analyst and former state department spokesperson, rear admiral john kirby. Dont laugh when im building you up, kirby. It takes away from the whole heft of the moment. Made my day, made my day. Tell us, when you look at this trip, just from the onset, give us a good plusminus here in terms of the potential advantages here and the concerns. Look, i think its very commendable and laudible, in fact, that hes going to rijad for his first part of the trip. It shows where he wants to place his priorities and gives him the opportunity to delve into and develop, at least articulate, a longterm strategy for the mideast and get through the shia shif s shiasunni challenges that are there. I think he has some opportunities. He also has some great strategic opportunities when he goes to europe, because you have now countries that are shaken a little bit with his comments on nato and the development of multilateral institutions, those same institutions that have secured european safety and security for 18 years. He has an opportunity to shore that up. I hope he takes it. I hope hes thinking in larger, strategic terms. This is one trip, particularly when he goes to rijad and israel, hes got to be on script. Words matter. Everything he says is going to be parsed for nuance and context. He has to be really, really careful. Its interesting when you look back on all the trips the president has taken, usually its our neighbors to the north and south, be it canada or mexico, and hes tossing that road map and starting with saudi arabia. Do you think that thats a good thing . I do. Actually, i think going to saudi arabia makes a lot of sense. Look, this is a president who campaigned on being tough on terrorism. Saudi arabia is right in the heart of the fight against terrorism in the region. They are a key ally and partner for the United States and have been for a long, long time. They obviously have other things they want to get out of this. Theyre looking forward to this big defense package hes apparently going to announce. Theyre probably going to want more support from the United States for the fight with the hutis and yemen. He has to be careful there. What madden said was we need a political solution, not more military fighting. But i think there is a logic to this, and i think he should be commended for going to rijad first. I think its a good move, but its really only going to be as good as he makes it and how careful he is when he gets up there and talks. So when thenpresident obama went to cairo, i was one of the huge multitude of media that went to cover it, there was an obvious mission there where obama wanted to carry through on his kind of partners of the world being more empathetic about islam, et cetera. What do you think donald trump needs to clean up, reinforce, deliver as message when he gets into that part of the world . I think what theyre going to want to hear, and i hope we hear, is that he makes it clear were not at war with the muslim faith, that this fight against terrorism is not about islam, its about terrorism. Terrorism as a strategy, terrorism as a tactic. Thats what i think they want to hear, thats what we all want to hear. Its going to be interesting to see how he manages that because hes got two camps inside his own white house. Hes got the mcmaster camp who doesnt want to use the phrase radical islamic terrorism and the others who do. As i understand it, steven miller, who has been a very tough critic on the islamic faith in general is going to be a big drafter of his speech there. It will be interesting to see how that plays out. If mr. Miller is drafting it, i hope other people have a more worldly view and the muslim faith will be editing that draft and moving along. Quickly, nine days, seven cities. Were talking long flights, jet lag. If you have contingents with your staff, it is only more further exacerbated with a trip like this. And dont forget the problems hes facing here at home with comey and russia and the special counsel, they are going to be on air force i with him. Hes going to be asked about it every day, there is no escaping it. So in addition to a long, lengthy trip with lots of stops and lots of public activities, hell still have to deal with the tensions at home. These trips can be very exhausti exhausting. Ive seen them at the stapt departme state department, the defense department. Hell have to really focus every single day to get the right message across. It would be important for him to have a strategic message every single day, something he can help maybe drive a better narrative than what hes facing right now. Good test for the media also. The media often gets caught up in the latest shiney object. How do they cover this trip . Well see. Admiral kirby, thank you very much as always. Have a good weekend, sir. Thanks, you guys. I know youre a big gambler. Is already dreaming, already thinking about another jewel in his crown. We have a preview of the preakness in the bleacher report. I heard you talk to your bookie. What action do you have . All finished. Umm. You wouldnt want your painter to quit part way, i think you missed a spot. So when it comes to pain relievers, why put up with just part of a day . Aleve, live whole not part. You want this color over the whole house . Listen up, heart disease. you too, unnecessary er visits. And hey, unmanaged depression, dont get too comfortable. Were talking to you, cost inefficiencies and data without insights. And fragmented care stop getting in the way of patient recovery and pay attention. Every single one of you is on our list. For those who wont rest until the world is healthier, neither will we. Optum. How well gets done. Oh, its actually. Sfx short balloon squeal its ver. Sfx balloon squeals ok can we. Sfx balloon squeals goodbye oof, that milk in your coffee was messing with you, wasnt it . Try lactaid, its real milk, without that annoying lactose. Good right . Yeah. Lactaid. The milk that doesnt mess with you. The toronto bluejays suspending Center Fielder kevin pillar for two games for yelling antigay slurs to the pitcher. How does this happen in this day and age . I dont know, chris. This happened during the bluejays game. The pitcher not happy with jason mott because he quickpitched him. That is when pillar used the antigay slur. You can see the braves immediately were not happy with what was said. After conferring with major league baseball, the bluejays suspending pillar for two games. Last night before the series, pillar apologized for his act. There is no place for this type of language on a baseball field, at home, in the clubhouse. I regret saying it who wholeheartedly and i look forward to making it right. Horses are set to run in tomorrows preakness race. Always dreaming tries to lead the race for the crown. He has run on just two weeks rest but he is the heavy favorite going in. John velasquez, who is the alltime winner of sports money, has never won the preakness set for 6 48 eastern. Of course, fingers crossed for all of his fans out here watching because then the belmont in three weeks, brook, that much more exciting because then the triple crown will be on the line. Apparently im a big gambler, so im paying close, close attention. Trifecta is best, what does that mean . Those are betting terms, chris. There is five fresh horses in the race, so i actually think one of those guys might win. And good for pillar apologizing right away. Lets see what he does to make good on his own promise. President trump changing gears, preparing for his trip to the middle east and europe. He leaves today but is he thinking of changing his immediate strategy here at home . Secretary sean spicers role might be changing. Well talk about that next. 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Sleepiq technology tells you how well you slept and what adjustments you can make. She likes the bed soft. Hes more hardcore. So your sleep goes from good to great to wow only at a sleep number store. Oh, and right now its our lowest price ever on our temperature balancing i8 bed. Save 700. Go to sleepnumber. Com for a store near you. As the president tries to move past another week of controversy, there is word about a possible shakeup in his team. Might spicer get dumped . I have author of ask more. Also this morning, Senior Correspondent host of reliable sources, brian stelter. There are a couple reports that he is thinking of working down the briefings. After the trip, sean spicer would no longer hold on camera daily briefings. That raises the possibility of somebody else coming in and doing it or not having daily briefings as a matter of course anymore. This has been a tradition for a long, long time. I think it would hurt the American Public and journalists but also the white house because then its even harder to get information from the white house and harder for the administration to express his point of view. I did email spicer last night, asked him about this political report, and he did not respond. At the nancy pelosi town hall last night, they were talking about this and they were absolutely right in their praise. In dealing with this potential change in the white house, is this dealing with the symptom and not the source . Is this not about the president and his trusting of his own instincts and his desire to follow those to the exclusion of any kind of advice . Absolutely. It is totally i dont know about the students, the jury is out on that, chris. You know, the temptation is to shoot the messenger. The thing you have to look at is, what is the message. It is not credible for sean spic spicer. We had him over at the University Ten days into the and talked for half an hour. The spokesman is all about credibility, and whether it starts with the size of the n g inaugaral crowd and the president respects the process thats going on. How could you say the president respects the process when the president is calling it a witch hunt. They can move spicer aside, they can give him fewer briefings, they can fire him altogether, but if the president himself is still sending conflicting messages and incorrect information, it doesnt matter who is at the podium. Its the president , frank. The president cant help himself, whether its saying something that was directly opposite of whatever the statement might have been released by the white house the night before, or as we saw this time yesterday. Sit down and turn off the television. He takes his cue from what he sees on television often. The most important thing and having covered white house and the network, the most important thing for the white house is discipline and credibility. They dont have either, because the president has shown over and over again that hes not disciplined and his comments are constantly in contradiction with themselves and with what the white house is putting out. So as i say, you can move the furniture around, but if the ship itself is leaking underneath, youre not going to do very well. All right. And then we have the end yet. Brian stelter, end yet. His ability to go after the media and combat rivals or what he calls enemies and make a connection to a base that with most objective criteria he had no business connecting to. So trusting his own gut, reducing the people around him to distract from his own message and let the chaos rein. Its worked for him so far. Chaos is a word i was going to say also. Chaos is something that trump seems to feed on. This was even true on television, on the apprentice. It was true in his business life, maybe its true now. You can make the case that chaos is not working when youre trying to run the free world, but i can understand President Trump sitting in the oval office thinking, this hasnt worked so far, daily briefings, reporters are asking inconvenient, uncomfortable questions, it hasnt worked so far. Lets go a different way, lets try something else. Thats faulty logic, but i can understand the president maybe considering that. Before we let you guys go, i love melissa mccarthy. I am an snl viewer. The finale this weekend, if sean spicer goes away after this trip, might this be the end of her rein as spicey. I doubt it, but i will say this. If sean spicer wants to host saturday night live, im quite sure they would take him. I hadnt thought of that. That would be fascinating tv. Nancy reagan rehabilitated herself with secondhand rose. A little selfde hiselfdepraca in this town goes a long way. I dont know if sean spicer is considering it, but there is always a possibility. And talking about him as a president ial candidate in 2020 . He didnt close it out, by the way. No, he did not. Frank says no. Thank you very much. Thanks to you, our International Viewers for watching us here. For you, cnn talk is next. For our u. S. Viewers, the interview, speaking out about how the former fbi director felt about President Trump and his political direction. There was no collusion, and everybody, even my enemies, said there was no collusion. There needs to be some public telling of the truth here. The whole point is to have an independent investigation and follow the facts wherever they may lead. It divides the country. I think we have a very divided country because of that. He saw his role as protecting the fbi from the white house. Mr. Rosenstein understood the president is going to fire the fbi director before that memo was received. It was a counterintelligence investigation. It seems now to be the kremlin investigation. Announcer this new day with chris cuomo and allison. Brooke baldwin is here instead. Mr. Trump denies that he