Transcripts For CSPAN James Comey Hearing Reactions And Highlights 20170608

Story and that is james comeys testimony today at the Senate Intelligence committee. This evening, we want to hear your reactions to todays hearing and get your views on the russian involvement in 2016. Theres how you can participate. At thisans dialin number, democrats here, independence and third parties called the number ending in 8922. Our fourth line is the international viewers. That number is on your screen as well. Your views asr well. If you havent seen todays hearing, it is repairing starting right now on cspan2. You can watch it there or watch it online at cspan. Org in its entirety. It is two hours 40 minutes. As were from you this morning, we will also be playing key portions of the hearing and some of the related press conferences that occurred. Lets begin by looking at some of the headlines that have, for hearingthe aspects today. Lawyer calls for an investigation of comite for leaking privileged to mitigations. The wall street journals takes, comey, i felt directed to drop rope. The New York Times as saying comey says trump tried to derail inquiry and accuses the white house of lies. Heres the washington times. Trumps lawyer slams the memo leak and thinks authority should investigate. The washington post, comey hopes he shared notes. Two more will want to more we want to show you very he is a full, that is what they say. The last report has several and they have top stories such as the testimony giving red meat to both sides. The New York Times story is debunked. That is some of how it has been playing out a little bit. Before we get to your calls. We want to show you former director comeys Opening Statement at the hearing today. Mr. Comey thank you mr. Chairman. Bestrs of the community committee, thank you for bringing me here to testify today. Ive submitted my statement for the record and i want repeating offerng to i would brief introductory remarks and welcome your questions. Director inppointed 2013, i understood that i served at the pleasure of the president. Even though i was appointed to a 10 year term, which congress created in order to underscore the importance of the fbi being outside of politics in independent, i understood that i could be fired by a president for any reason or no reason at all. On may 9, when i learned that i had been fired, for that reason i immediately came home as a private citizen. Then, the explanations, the shifting explanations. They confuse me an increase on concernedreasingly me. They confuse me because the president that i have had multiple conversations about my job before and after he took office, and he had repeatedly told me i was doing a great job and hoping i would stay to i repeatedly assured him that i and serve theay remaining six years of my term. Its only repeatedly that he talked to lots of people about me including the attorney general. A learned that i was doing great job and that i was extremely wellliked by the ei force. Workforce. It confused me that when i saw on television, the president saying that he fired me because of the Russian Investigation. I learned again from the media that he was telling private my firing had relieved a great pressure on the Russian Investigation. I was also confused by the initial explanation that was offered publicly. By some theas fired decisions i had made during the election year. That didnt make sense to me for a whole bunch of reasons all theg the time, and water that had gone under the bridge since those are decisions have had to be made. That didnt make any sense to me. Although the law required no reason at all to fire in a guy director, the administration and, more to deep amy importantly, the fbi by saying the organization was in disarray. And thewas poorly led workforce had lost confidence in its leader. Those were lies. Lain and simple im so sorry that the fbi workforce at the near them, and im so sorry that the American People were told them. I work every day to help make that organization better. And i say help because i did nothing alone at the fbi. There are no indispensable people at the fbi. The organizations great strength is that its values and abilities run deep and wide. Fbi will be fine without me. Mission will be relentlessly pursued by its people, and that mission is to protect the American People and uphold the constitution of the United States. I will deeply miss being part of that, but this mission will go on long beyond me and any particular administration. Sage before i close. I want the American People to know this truth. Strong, andonest, the fbi is and always will be independent. Now, to my former colleagues if i may. Im so sorry that i didnt get the chance to say goodbye to you properly. It was the honor of my life to service ideal, to be part of the fbi family, and i will miss it for the rest of my life. Thank you for standing watch, thank you for doing so much good for this country. Do that good as long as ever you can. That was about 10 a. M. This morning. Your phone calls. I want to show you this from the hill. They had a closed session after they had this open session. Hills, and wehe told senators about possible third sessions russia meeting that had not been reported before. Interestingly, attorney general Jeff Sessions had this tweet from may 9 and to his twitter feed. It says that interesting that senator schumer thought that obamas department can investigate themselves on hillary, irs, and fast and furious. Republican line, did you hear the testimony today and what do you think . This is faith from phoenix organ, yes i did. I wanted to say three things. Im 77 years old, i have never seen a more honest man in politics, man or woman. Three, comey for president in 2020. That stay on the republican line. Daniela is on independent one. She is from mechanicsville, new york. I daniela. Libertarian and was for the nomination before President Trump had the nomination. I voted straight republican after that. I have three things to say. I watched the hearing twice. Number one, comey not only purged himself more than once during his testimony, but she outed himself as the leaker. He made that speech about the fbi being honest, this this and that. He was trying to wrap himself in the honesty of the agency as if, because of the agency being honest, that he is. That is incredibly offensive. The man is awful. Was actually unfit to be the fbi director just for being a leaker, and then he proved himself as a perjurer. I hope they prosecute. I hope they investigate comey. Really, it is shameful. It is absolutely shameful. He sits up there, and the latest , a foreign power tried infiltrate a whatever, our democracy. Trying to keep thats russia lie alive. It is awful. Patricia in hollywood, florida. Good evening, i did watch the hearing today. Honestly i feel like the termination of james comey was an atrocity. I think it was an atrocity against our government. It is a shame that the president would approach someone involved in the investigation and as for him to be loyal and to pay say and to say to him that i hope youll be loyal threatening him for his job. Inevitably he did get fired. I hope this thing is handled properly and fairly and i think there is wrongdoing i want to thank james comey for his dedication to our country. That is patricia on our democrats line. On our is a republican line. Heres what he has to say. Director, to the special counsel review and or added your written testimony . No. Do you have any doubt thats russia attempted to interfere in the 2016 elections . Mr. Comey none. Do you have any doubt that the russian government was behind the intrusions and dnc and the triple c systems and the subsequent weeks of that information . Mr. Comey no doubt. Give any doubts about them being behind the intrusion and the state voter files . Mr. Comey no. Theo have any doubts that official the russia government are you confident that no votes cast in the 2016 president ial election were altered . Mr. Comey im confident. When i let this director, i saw no indication of that whatsoever. Director coming, did the president at any time ask you to stop the fbi investigation into russian involvement in the 2016 u. S. Elections . Mr. Comey not to my understanding, no. Individual working for this administration including the Justice Department as you to stop the Russian Investigation . Mr. Comey no. When the president requested that you and i quote lets go, flynn hadnn with russiand talk officials. In your estimation, was general flynn, at that time, in legal jeopardy and, in addition to that, did you sense the president was trying to obstruct justice or trying to seek for a way for Michael Flynn to save face given yet already been fired . Mr. Comey general flynn at that point in time was in legal jeopardy. There was an open investigation on his statements and russian contacts and the contacts themselves. That was my assessment at the time. I dont think it is for me to say whether the conversation i had with the president was an effort to obstruct. I took it as a disturbing, concerning thing. That is a conclusion that the special counsel will work toward to understand the attention intention and whether that was a offense. Is it possible that as a part , the fbinvestigation could find evidence of criminality that is not tied to elections6 11 2016 with coordination for russians . Mr. Comey sure. There could be something that just fit the criminal aspect that doesnt have anything to do with the election cycle . Mr. Comey correct. And any, likes investigation, and you turn over rocks, you turn things unrelated to the primary investigation that are criminal in nature. Comey yourummey have been criticized on providing the findings directly to the American People. Have you learned anything since that time that would have changed what you said or how you chose to inform the American People . Mr. Comey honestly, no. It caused a lot of personal pain for me, but as i look back, given what i knew at the time. Was the best way to protect the justice institution, including the fbi. In the public domain, is this question of the steel dossier. Its a document that has been around for over a year. Firstt sure when the fbi took position of it, but the media had it before you had it. And before we had it. At the time of your departure from the fbi, was the fbi able to confirm any criminal allegations contained in the steel document . I donty mr. Chairman, think that is a question i can answer in the open setting. It goes into the details of the investigation. Director, the term we hear most often is collusion. When people are describing possible links between americans and russian Government Entities related to the interference in our elections. Would you say that it is normal for foreign governments to reach out to members of an Incoming Administration . Mr. Comey yes. At what point does the normal contact crossed the line into an attempt to recruit agents or influence for spies. Mr. Comey difficult to say an abstract. It depends on the context whether it is to give it go part covert, orit is otherwise. At what point with that recruitment be a counterintelligence threat to our country . Mr. Comey again, difficult to it answer in the abstract, but when the foreign power is using a special coercion or some sort of pressure to try to coopt an american, especially a government official, to act on its official, that is a serious concern to the fbi and at the heart of the mission. If you have a 36 page document of specific claims that are out there, the fbi would have to, for counterintelligence reasons, try to verify anything that might be claimed in their, one, and first and foremost, the counterintelligence concerns that we have about blackmail. With that be inaccurate statement . Mr. Comey yes. When they receive a credible allegation that there is some to course in american, that is a basis on which an investigation is open. When you read the dossier, what was your reaction given that it was 100 erected at the president elect . Mr. Comey not a question i can answer in an open setting mr. Chairman. When did you become aware of the cyber intrusion . First russiae connected cyber intrusion i became aware of was in the late summer of 2015. In that timeframe, there were dcccthan the dnc and the that were targeted . Mr. Comey correct. It was to target Near Government agencies like nonprofits. Khamenei entities you think the russians targeted in that timeframe . Mr. Comey i was a in the hundreds. It could be thousands, but at least hundreds. When did you become aware that data had been textile traded xpo did you, the director of the fbi, have conversations with the last administration about the risk that this post . Mr. Comey yes. Share with us the actions that they took. The fbi had already undertaken an effort to notify all the victims. Consider thewe entities that were attacked as part of the spear phishing campaign. So, we notified them in an effort to disrupt what might be ongoing. Then, there was a series of ongoing interactions with through the rest of 15 into 16. Throughout 2016, the administration was trying to decide how to respond to what they saw. Sen. Burr the fbi in this case, unlike other cases you investigate, did you have access to the actual hardware that was hacked . Or did you have to rely on a third party to provide you the data that they had collected . Mr. Comey in the case of the , we didnte dccc have access to the devices themselves. We got relative forensic information from a private party. A high class entity that had done the work. We did not get direct taxes. But no content . Mr. Comey correct. Sen. Burr isnt content and important part of the forensics from a counterintelligence standpoint . Mr. Comey it is, although what was briefed to me by my folks at the time was that they had gotten the information from the private party, that they needed to understand the intrusion by the spring of 2016. Sen. Burr let me go back, if i lete up briefly, to me go back, if i can briefly, to the results of the email. Was your decision influenced by the attorney generals termini meeting with the former president bill clinton . Mr. Comey yes. In an ultimately conclusive way, that was the thing that cap it for me to protect the credibility of the investigation. Sen. Burr where there other things contributing to that that you can describe in an open session . Mr. Comey there were other things that contributed to it, one significant item i cant, i know the committee has been briefed on, the public accounts of it that are nonsense but i understand they have been briefed on the classified fax. Ie only other consideration can talk about it open setting is, at one point, the attorney general had directed me to not call it an investigation but a matter which confused and concerned me. That was one of the bricks in the load that let me to conclude that i have to step away from the department if we are to close this case credibly. Sen. Burr director, my last question. Youre not only a seasoned prosecutor, you have let the fbi for years. You understand the investigative process. You have worked with this committee closely, and we are grateful to you, because i think we have mutually built trust. Trust in what your organization does and what we do. Is there any doubt in your mind that this committee can carry out its oversight role in the 2016 russian involvement in the elections in parallel with the now special counsel that has been set up . Mr. Comey no doubt. It can be done, requires lots of conversations, but mueller is one of the great pross. We are back live. We want to get your reaction to the comey testimony today. Michelle and nashville tennessee, republican, good evening. Good evening. I did not feel comey is credible i feel he is like a spoiled child. I didnt get what i wanted. Trying to make excuses for his actions. I think he, Loretta Lynch, and clinton should all be under investigation for collusion. I cannot believe how the media is running this russia thing. If we are so weak, russia has so much control, we should all be very scared. [laughter] and that is what i have to say. Michelle you thinke, what did of the testimony about the president keeping him in the oval office alone to talk to him . I understand that there are issues of security thats none of us that are beyond will know. It doesnt look good, but we do not know what was said. I do not feel that he was coerced in anyway, and he even said so. Like i said, that is part of his trying to make excuses for his actions. Thank you, maam. An is it just wasnt bill brian is in jeffersonville, indiana. Thanks so much. I found it odd that there was an and information that the russian hacking was 2015. That was a year before the election to shore this up. Where was comey then to tell us about all this . Organizations had been hacked, i think we should have done a little bit more before the suppose it russian involvement in our election. Ive yet to see any factual information that there was any involvement in the election process. Brian, are you a supporter of trump . I am. Ihave become more so because eontinue to see th orchestrations and witchhunt. I feel sorry for him. I dont think he is a seasoned washington pro. I think he has the best interest of the people and country in mind. I hope we give him a chance to prove it. Tirades by the media and fbi continue to hurt us. Wrinkly, i did with two russian families at a bedandbreakfast and i found them delightful. I hope we continue to have conversations with the russians, north koreans, and any other adversaries. I dont know that the russians have been anything adversarial to us. We act like were scared of them, why. That is bright in southern indiana. We have someone on the rug republican line. Good evening, jim. Good evening. From what im seeing on tv and cspan, there is no obstruction of justice. Basically, what it boils down to, it is comeys word against trumps word. There is nothing there. I would like to say that Congress Needs to stop wasting our money with these hearings and spend it straightening out the country. We probably wouldnt have a deficit right now. What did you think of your senators questioning today . Did you see the hearing . I heard something on the radio about it. I didnt see the hearing. Thats because i was at work. I saw some of the things on it tonight. Marco brought up some good points. I dontut the really know what he said but i know when he said with a point it was a good point to bring up. To be honest with you, these hearings are a waste of time. Everyone is always trying to interfere with everyone elses elections all the time. I wouldnt be surprised if we did it to other countries. You know, we can classify information and that is where we give Foreign Countries the mo to harm our country. The ammo to harm our country. All right, jim, lets leave it there. Jim brought up the issue of obstruction of justice. The New York Times already has an editorial written by norman ison and noah buchbinder. Served for president noah is part of a group in washington. They write that jim comey made a case for obstruction of justice. Perhaps the most important questions concern the president s motives. Why did he want the case dropped . Was it because the friend had information that was damaging to just to help or them save face . What evidence is there to save fromincluding statements his sons . Next call is john in maryland. High john, democrat. Good morning. You have just really good case here. Of obstruction of justice. The things that you have just said, is whats going on. Rything that is happening what am i trying to say here . The president going up to jim comey and telling him to drop the case, if your boss came up to you and said, ice are you do something wrong, i hope you can just let it go. Sakes, i could do something really bad to you. That right there is a threat to jim comey and it has no place in politics. The other obstruction of justice that could possibly be an overlying thing in this whole theade going on is that president has no credibility while jim comey has all the credibility in the world. Jim comey, a decorated federal prosecutor, and fbi director, has the most credibility of any Law Enforcement official in the United States. Donald trump has basically none. He lied to the American People over, and over, and over again. Promises after promises that have been broken. In this whole credibility battle, i think we have to give it to jim comey. The president has no say in this. We will take a couple more calls and show you more of the hearing. This is dan in lincoln illinois. Independent line. Hi, dan. After all the hoopla and build up over the last couple of weeks, our last week or so, why did we really flag today to rehash everything thats the news media has been feeding us since back in may . I dont think anything new has been brought forward. I have to ask the question, does a man thatlly think was a rollout gtb show for the better part was a reality tv star, for the better part of 10 years, did anybody think thats man would be a true president of the United States . Today we have congress, or the frank after out. The disaster of 2007. 2008, washington what have they done. Its just washington as usual. Nothing getting done. Partisan back and forth. If we dont take a little bit of time, step back, catch our breath, one of the greatest foundations of democracy this world has ever known, it is slipping away from us right now. ,e are just standing back Washington House party, covfefe party, all the aides are sitting back in bars. Its just fading away as in the waning days of the british empire. We are going to be the same thing here if we dont step back. Host how would you describe your politics . Caller right now, i tell you what. I lean more towards Bernie Sanders than anybody in this country. Call it what you want to, but i have to lean towards bernies politics. He seems to me when he speaks to the American People, hes one of the few honest politicians that there are in washington. Angus king as well. But as far as illinois here, tammy duckworth, shes just beginning. I have contacted her and i have to honestly say she has responded to me. Dick durbin has been around for years and years. Ive never heard a word from him. When i called his aides, they had to and to get me off the phone assessed as they could. Host all right. Dan in illinois, thank you. Tom in huntington beach, california on the republican line. Going . Hows it i watched the hearing today, and frankly, im watching this, and thinking the fbi director is pathetic. I cant believe he was ever in charge of anything. This guy doesnt even know how to respond to anything. My dad is a cop. Theas telling me during hillary inquiry they went over that the fbi, the Law Enforcement position, is not to even make judgment like he was doing. He was making judgment calls. He was supposed to file a case or not file a case. Thats already wrong. Then there is 1000 active terrorist cases in this country. Investigatingy why the fbi hasnt investigated these terrorists who are ready to kill us here in this country . Nobody seems to want to talk about that. Then you want to talk about election manipulations. What about obama when he manipulated the israeli elections for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu . How come no one is investigating that . Senators, one of your dianne feinstein, serves on the intelligence committee. Did you see her questioning today . Made somethought she good points, but i dont support her. Im a conservative. I dont support. All at all. We live in a communist state here in california. From huntington beach, california. Heres a little bit of senator feinstein this morning. Mr. Comey, itein want you to know that i have Great Respect for you. Senator cornyn and i sit on the judiciary committee. We have had you before us. I know youre a man of strength and integrity. I really regret the situation that we all find ourselves in. Just want to say that let me begin with one overarching question. Why do you believe you were fired . Mr. Comey i dont know for sure. , his worde president was that i was fired because of the russia investigation, something about the way i was conducting it. The president felt it created pressure on him. I didnt know that at the time, but i watched his interview. I take him at his word. I could be wrong, maybe he saying something thats not true, but its based on what i know now. Tell me nowin your response and what impact you believe that had. Mr. Comey i dont know for sure. I dont know the president well enough to read him well. Our relationship getting get off to a great start given the conversation i had to have on january 6. This didnt improve the relationship, because it was very awkward. He was asking for something and i was refusing to give it. Again, i dont know how well enough to know how he reacted exactly. Sen. Feinstein do you believe the russia investigation played a role . Mr. Comey why i was fired . Yes, because i have seen the president say so. Sen. Feinstein lets go to the flynn investigation. Outlined, i hope you can see your way to letting this go. You also said in your written remarks, you had understood the president to be requesting that we drop any investigation of flynn in connection with false statements about his conversations with the Russian Ambassador in december. Please go into that with more detail. A context and the president s words are what led me to that conclusion. As i said in my statement, i could be wrong, but flynn had been forced to resign the day before. The controversy around general flynn at that point in time was centered on whether he had lied to the Vice President about the nature of his conversations with the russians, whether hay had been candid with others. The 14th, the president makes specific reference to that. Thats why i understood it to be saying what he wanted me to do is drop any investigation connected to flynns accounts of his conversations with the russians. Sen. Feinstein heres the thing with the russians. Your big, your strong. I know the oval office and i know what happens to people when they walk in. Theres a certain amount of intimidation. Why did he stop and say, mr. President , this is wrong, i cannot discuss this with you . Thats a great question. Maybe if i were stronger, i would have. I was so stunned by the conversation that i just took it in. The only thing i could think to say, because i was playing in my mind to remember every word, playing it in my mind, what should my response be . Thats why i carefully chose my words. Ive seen the tweet about tapes. Y, i hope there are tapes. People would be stronger in that circumstance, but thats how i conducted myself. I hope i never have another opportunity. Maybe if i did it again, i would do it better. Sen. Feinstein you described to phone calls you received, one on march 30th, one on april 11, where he described the Russian Investigation as a cloud that was in hearing his ability as president and ask you to lift the cloud. How did you interpret that, and what did you believe you wanted you to do . Mr. Comey i interpreted that as he was frustrated that the russia investigation was taking up so much time and energy. I think he meant of the executive branch but in the Public Square in general and it was making it difficult for him to focus on other priorities of his. But what he asked me was actually narrower than that. I think what he meant by the cloud and, again, i could be wrong but i think what he meant by the cloud the entire investigation is taking up oxygen and making it hard for me to focus on things i want to focus on. The ask was to get it out that i, the president , am not personally under investigation. Senator feinstein after april 11, did he ask you more ever about the russia investigation . Did he ask you any questions . Director comey we never spoke again after april 11. Senator feinstein you told the president , i would see what we could do. What did you mean . Director comey it was kind of a slightly cowardly way of trying to avoid him, we are not going to do that, to see what we could do, it was kind of getting off the phone, frankly, and then i turned and handed it to the acting Deputy Attorney general. Senator feinstein so i wanted to get into about that. Who did you talk to about that, lifting the cloud, stopping the investigation back at the f. B. I. And what was their response . Mr. Comey well, the f. B. I. , during one of the two conversations not remembering exactly i think my chief of staff was actually sitting in front of me and heard my end of the conversation because the president s call was a surprise. And i discussed the lifting the cloud in the request with the Senior Leadership team who typically, and i think in all these circumstances was the deputy director, my chief of staff, the general counsel, the deputy directors chief counsel , and i think in a number of circumstances the number three , in the f. B. I. And a few of the conversations included the head of the National Security branch. So that group of us that lead the f. B. I. When it comes to National Security. Senator feinstein ok. You have the president of the United States asking you to stop an investigation thats an important investigation, what was the response of your colleagues . Mr. Comey i think they were as shocked and troubled by it as i was. Some said things that led me to believe that. I dont remember exactly. But the reaction was similar to mine. Theyre all experienced people who never experienced such a thing so they were very concerned. Then the conversation turned to, so what should we do with this information . And that was a struggle for us because we are the leaders of the fbi, so its been reported to us, and i heard it, and i shared it with the leaders of the f. B. I. , our conversation was, should we share this with any senior officials at the Justice Department . Our absolute primary concern was we cant infect the investigative team. We dont want the agents and analysts working on this to know the president of the United States has asked and when it comes from the president , i took it as a direction to get rid of this investigation because were not going to follow that request, and so we decided we got to keep it away from our troops, but is there anybody else we ought to tell at the Justice Department . As i lay out in my statement we considered whether to tell the attorney general, decided that didnt make sense because we believed rightly that he was shortly going to recuse. There were no other senateconfirmed leaders in the Justice Department at that point. The Deputy Attorney general was the acting, going to be shortly in that seat and we decided the best move would be to hold it, keep it in a box, document it as wed already done and this investigation was going to do. Bash was going to go on. We would figure out a way to do with it down the road. Look, its your word against the president s, theres no way to laborate collaborate corroborate this. My view of that changed when the prospect of tapes was raised, but thats how we thought about it then. Host we are back live on cspan now. Theres about tomorrow ours of this hearing. If you would like to see the entire thing, it is airing on cspan two. We are showing you keep portions. That was senator feinsteins initial round of questioning. Her fellow californian kamala harris, the newly elected senator from california, has this tweet pinned to the top of her page. Shes also on the intel committee. In my experience as prosecutor, a gun tobber, holds your head and hopes for your well it, hope is not operative ord. Lets go back to your reaction. A democrat. Ann, caller im so upset. I really was a democrat and voted for obama for the first four years. Within that for years, it became very obvious to me where he was trying to take us. What has been going on since this last election has got to be the worst thing i have ever seen in my life. Im 77 years old. All my life i was a democrat. I have never seen this type of behavior from day one after the election of a new president. And thecollege kids violence and the hatred that is going on, i personally think its terrible. Comey, i really feel that hes still extremely the investigation, or the matter that Loretta Lynch said, that he went before the committee and trey gowdy made very clear who and what james comey was doing and what he did. He enumerated every single thing that she did that was illegal, which was part of my changing my party affiliation. Host for whom did you vote in november . Trump. I voted for mr. Hes our president. Thats another thing im quite angry with the democrats about. Being a democrat all my life. Absolutely. This is the person you gave us to vote for with, all of her baggage . This is the person you gave us to vote for. What are you so angry about . What is all this anger . Host what do you think the next step should be in this investigation . Caller i think the next step in this investigation, which doesnt seem even possible anymore, we are in a situation now where there are no manners, theres so much fighting between both sides that it becomes very, y, very obvious to me that they could fight like cats and dogs, but they were all interested in the country. Whats happening now, as taxpayers, not only pay their taxpayers, but are trying to pay off debt, i dont understand cummings,ave men like for instance, who is so angry and so upset, and carrying on about, and god love him, believe me, i marched in anything that had to do was Martin Luther king, and i wish that obama wouldnt even mention his name, in my opinion. He has no right to even join in on that mans name. E got beat up by democrats democrats were in charge at the time when he got beat up on that bridge. Ann, before we get too far off course, im going to have to say goodbye and thank you for calling in this evening and watching. Eddie in west creek, new jersey, independent line. My name is eddie. I was born and raised in new york. I lived in queens for a while. Ive known trump for a long time. I dont know him personally, but i know he did a lot of good things in new york city, so the guy is not a dope, he knows whats going on. So today when i heard paul ryan say hes a novice and he doesnt understand whats going on, hes new at this, i drew exceptions. Talk. He seems to me to be a straight shooter. He aggravated the democrats because of the Hillary Clinton thing in july, he aggravated thereof pelicans at this point in time. The main thing i think about, because of donald trump and new york city, when you tell everyone to get out of the room, everyone gets out of the room. When he sits there and says to you, i hope you can take care of this for me, theres a certain connotation to that, sort of like with what governor christie said the other day. We call in newg, york city, putting the arm on somebody. I believe donald trump did try to impose coming to get rid of the investigation, and he did in a way that i would call plausible deniability. I hope all these senators today oh, he hoped, he hoped, what does hope mean . To me it is possible to deniability. I think the last things we will find out whether in fact donald trump was trying to do something or not is when they get coates and rogers in closed session to asked them mr. Trump to talk to comey. They said they werent pressured, but they didnt say nobody talked to them. Host go ahead and conclude. Basically, i just think that trump is smarter than what they are giving him credit for as far as being in the government. I know the government has their own special protocols, but you dont call everybody in a room ,nd root whisper in your ear and then say, take care of this. It doesnt seem right to me. Host thank you for calling in. Marco rubio is on the committee ended questioning. And did questioning. The miami herald, reports nelson sat inbill the crowd and leaned back in his chair with a smile during rubios question. After the hearing, senator no and rubio both had nelson and rubio both said senator Jeff Sessions should testify. To answerhim questions on a number of topics. Nelson, not a member of the committee, said he was stunned by what he heard on thursday. Let me give you my strongest impression. The testimony was riveting, and i was riveted when comey answered he took copious and detailed notes, because he felt the president would like lie. That is senator bill nelson of florida. Next is k from florida, a republican. Caller i have been listening to all the people talking. I just wanted to say that i know President Trump came in and his to drain the swamp, and i believe that is jim comey had done his job to start with, part of the swamp had already taken care of, because all the clintons should be behind bars and maybe obama. When you have in attorney general, and attorney Loretta Lynch, obama, and Hillary Clinton saying we have to resist, and lynch is saying something will might have to die, what are they calling for . Kill the American People . I dont trust any of them. Its pathetic whats going on. Host did you see your senator marco rubio at the hearing . Caller i sure did. And im proud of senator rubio. Think, with nancy pelosi, all they have done his mant trump and demean the turned theres no support for him. All they do is degrade him and his family. If they would just give him a chance, they might find a greater america. Divisionng as all this and i believe comey has as much of a hand in that as any of the rest of them, why should only some people go to jail and not everybody go to jail for all the laws . Why doesnt the law applied to all the people . Host she is from middleburg, florida on the republican line. Sen. To the miami herald, rubio who dined with the president , pushed comey hard about his conversations with trump and linda president when the president asked about investigations. Thats a little bit from marco rubios testimony, or his questioning. Susan from boise, idaho. A democrat. Caller hello. I am prior military and civil service, and i do believe what mr. Comey said. Thehave to remember president is the boss. When somebody politely says that they would like that to be taken care of, you take it as an order. Icant believe that understand his rapport with what he did, and still being not a but stillrect order, from his point of view and from mine as being in the military and civil service, that was an order. Believe that he did the right thing when he said that there were hacks into all these places. I was a victim of that. The office of Personnel Management was hacked. My personal information was stolen. That if you went back and looked at all the things that were hacked into last year, i bet they said china or whoever, but i wouldnt be surprised if it wasnt the russians who did that also. Host i think former director comey set off the bat, he had no doubt that the russians were involved in the election obstruction. Tony is in bolingbrook, illinois on the independent line. Caller good evening. Thank you for taking my call. I want to say i think that people are speaking about comey up toy he didnt stand the president , but in my personal opinion, i agree with a lot of people, you have to he was with bush and obama. To come in and see what trump was drinking to him in a private aom bringing to him in private room, it was probably shocking because it was so unprofessional. America has certain standards. The whole world looks at us. Im independent, but i was we are lowering our standards, how we are letting our president call crooked hillary, or call Elizabeth Warren pocahontas. Its like hes trying to run a family business. But this is a democracy. What waso understand his connection so big with russia that he would bring them , and notoval office show us his taxes . That is why i should be concerned as an american that we are going down. I really do feel very happy that comey stood up and spoke. I really do think we need to dig further into this and get our country back to the leadership that it was before. Int that is toni bolingbrook, illinois. Heres tomorrows cover of the new york daily news. You can see the president s picture with the word liar printed across his face. Diana from texas, republican line. Whats your reaction . Caller i took notes. Im a republican, i completely support donald trump. If i had to crawl to the voting booth on my hands and knees, i will forever though republican after everything that has been happening and everything taking course. And outraged at the way our president is being treated. Im so glad for the half of the country that voted for him. The whole russia bit, even if the president at first didnt know whether to believe it or not, those things started in july of 2016. They should have already been all over it when obama was still in office, but they let it go, until trump becomes elected. Then, all of a sudden, they want to make a big deal about it. When democrat loved comey the hillary emails came out. He got fired, they are against him. And thatst potus office. I believe the democrats look for anything they can to stall all the things our president is trying to do. They wouldnt even get his staff into the office. Ive never seen anything like this in politics, ever. I knew politics was a dirty business. I was an independent. Im a republican now. Ill be a republican for life after this. This is outrageous. He has such a tough job to do, and to go in every day against all of this with no support from anyone, im outraged. Host that is diana in texas. I will show you a little bit more of the hearing after this call. Artin in york, maine, democrat. Caller im a democrat, im a history professor. I worked in the white house a long time ago. Host four home . For whom . Caller i voted for trump. I like his policies. I do not like the way he executes them. I think he is a a bulle china shop in the china shop. The democrats were very smart. They nomine a man like james comey for president. Obviously, hes honest. I dont think trump committed any impeachable crimes. I sit with allender she on that, who is a good friend of mine Alan Dershowitz on that, who is a good friend of mine. Theres no criminal act. But the democrats have left people like me a long time ago in the lurch. They put people up for president who shouldnt be president. Obama should not have been president. He wasnt qualified. Hillary clinton, what can you say . You go back, there is so much smoke in her life, theres obviously fire somewhere. Not voted for trump, but happily. It has cost me a lot of friendships academically. Im in florida, i have a lot of friends. When im in new england, i lose a lot of friends. If the democrats were smart, james comeyominate for the president of the United States, and he would win. For whom did you work in the white house, and what work did you do . Caller i worked for john warner, secretary of the navy. Host Republican Former senator from virginia. Caller thats right. He was chairman of the bicentennial commission that i was a historian on. Host under president ford . Caller under president nixon and ford. A democrat. They hired democrats in those days, believe it or not. Host what kind of work are you doing today . Caller im semiretired, but i still teach. I teach every other semester in florida. Host ok. Final question, given the fact you are a history professor. There is an oped in the washington post, in tomorrows page, i helped prosecute watergate, commies statement is sufficient evidence for an obstruction of justice case. Is there a comparison to watergate here . Caller no, because obviously if you read the president ial transcripts from watergate, there is obstruction of justice. Trump said things that he shouldnt have said, obviously. But did he try to obstruct the investigation . Thats a stretch. Thats a long stretch. It is not there. As Alan Dershowitz has said, theres no criminal activity in the oval office. There has been none. Do i like the way he conducts the presidency even though i voted for him . No, i despise it. Do i like his policies . Policies, but i do not like the way he acts as president of the United States. I wish i was still there so i could sit down with this guy and say, mr. President , you shouldnt do the things you do. Stop tweeting. Stop saying the stupid things you say. You could be a great president. Just be president ial. Your twoketing, senators were both on the intel committee. What did you think of their questioning . Caller i didnt hear it, so i cant comment. Host that is martin in york, maine. Next, lets hear what senator roy blunt, the republican from missouri, had to ask former director comey. Blunt when you were terminated from the fbi, i feel that you provided years of Great Service to the country. I also set i had significant questions over the last year about some of the decisions you made. The president had in terminated your service, would you still be , and your opinion, the director of the fbi today . Mr. Comey yes, sir. Yourblunt you took in direction from the president something you thought was serious and troublesome, but continued to show up for work the next day. Mr. Comey yes, sir. Sen. Blunt six weeks later, we are telling the president that he was not personally the target of any investigation. Mr. Comey correct. March 30, and i think april 11 as well, i told him we are not investigating him personally, that is true. Sen. Blunt a concern to me is ,ll these things are going on you now in retrospect, or to this committee, you had serious concerns about the president directing you to do things, and had taken no action, had an even reported up the chain of command, assuming you believe there is a chain of command, that these things happened. Do you have a sense of that looking back that it was a mistake . Inmey no, and think fact, no action was the best i can do to make sure there is no interference. Sen. Blunt on the flynn issue specifically, i believe you said you believe the president was anyesting you drop investigation of flynns account of his conversation with the Russian Ambassador, which was a essentially misleading the Vice President and others . Mr. Comey correct, and i can get into details, but whether there were false statements to investigators as well. Any suggestion that general flynn had violated the logan act i always find incredible. It has been on the books for over 200 years. Nobody has ever been prosecuted for violating the logan act. Had you previously on february the 14th discussed with the president and a previous meeting anything your investigators had learned, or their impressions from talking to flynn . Mr. Comey no, sir. Senator blunt so he said hes a good guy. You said hes a good guy. And that was no further action taken on that. Mr. Comey he said more than that. There was no the action was, wrote it up, briefed our senior team. Tried to figure out what to do with it and made decision well hold this and see what we make of it down the road. Senator blunt was it your view not briefing meant you had no responsibility to report that to the Justice Department in some way . Mr. Comey i think at some point, i dont know what director mueller is going to do with it, but at some point i was sure we were going to brief it to the team in charge of the case. But our judgment was in the short term doesnt make sense to i reported to the attorney general. Thats why i stressed he shouldnt be kicked out of the room. Didnt make sense to report to him now. Senator blunt you said to the attorney general i dont want to be in the room alone with him but you continued to talk to him on the phone. Whats the difference with being in the room alone and talking to him on the phone . Mr. Comey what i stressed to the attorney general, it is a little broader than just the room. I said you i report to you. Its very important you be between me and the white house. Senator blunt after that discussion with the attorney general, did you take phone calls from the president . Mr. Comey yes, sir. Senator blunt why didnt you say im not taking that call, you need to talk to the attorney general . Mr. Comey i did on the april 11 call. I reported the calls, the march 30 call and april 11 call to my superior, the acting Deputy Attorney general. Sen. Blunt i dont want to run out of time here. Let me make one more point. In reading your testimony january 3, january 27, and march it appears to me on all three of those occasions, you, unsolicited by the president made the point to him that he , was not a target of the investigation. Mr. Comey correct. Yes, sir. Senator blunt the march 30, very interesting, you said even though you dont want you may not want to that was the 27th where he said, why dont you look into that dossier thing more . You said, well, you may not want that because then we couldnt tell you say couldnt answer the question about you being a target of the investigation. You didnt seem to be answering that question any how. Senator rubio pointed out the one unanswered, unleaked question seems to have been that in this whole period of time. You said something earlier i dont want to fail to follow up on. You said after you were dismissed, you gave information to a friend so that friend could get that information into the public media. Mr. Comey correct. Senator blunt what kind of information was that . What kind of information did you give to that friend . Mr. Comey the flynn conversation. That the president asked me to let the flynn forgetting my exact words, but the conversation in the oval office. Senator blunt you didnt consider your memo, your sense of that conversation to be a government document. You considered it to be somehow your own personal document that you could share with the media as you wanted to . Mr. Comey correct. I understood this to be my recollection, recorded of my conversation with the president as a private citizen i felt free , to share that. Thought it very important to get it out. Senator blunt were all of your memos you reported on classified or other documents memos that might be yours as a private citizen . Mr. Comey not following the question. Senator blunts i think you said you used classified classified mr. Comey not the classified documents. Unclassified. I dont have any of them anymore, i gave them to special counsel. My view was the content of those unclassified memorializations of those conversations was my recollection recorded. Senator blunt why didnt you give those to somebody yourself rather than give them through a third party . Mr. Comey i was worried the media was camping at the end of my driveway at that point, and i was going out of my town with my wife to hide and it would be like feeding sea gulls at the beach. If it was i who gave it to the media. I asked my friend make sure this gets out. Senator blunt it does seem to me what you do there is create a source close to the former director of the f. B. I. As opposed to taking responsibility yourself for saying here are these records. Like everybody else i have other , things id like to get into but im out of time. If you want to see the hearing in its entirety, it is. Iring right now on cspan2 theres about an hour and 30 minutes left to go in the entire hearing. You can also go to cspan. Org, watch all two hours and 40 something minutes of it. We are cspan, getting your reaction to todays hearing and the investigation did in the 2016 elections. We will put the phone numbers on the screen. From tennessee, the independent line. Caller thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to speak. I am a middle class 54yearold single mother. I worked all my life. I grew up, i couldnt graduate without taking p. A. D. Problems with democracy. The bottom line here in my view as a middleclass american, i have been a democrat all my life. When obama came in, i went independent. Various ownr personal reasons. Government has always been run, congress, the senate, the capital, everything has always been run with programs to oversee programs. As anyonedid exactly in good conscience would do. Hes isolated off, theres a discussion. Mafiascussion is like the leaning. I dont care who says trump what. The bottom line here is he was taken off and he was told this is what i want. Because he did not get an answer, trump that is, immediately from comey, then comey is fired. While calmly took notes. Is out of the ordinary well, call me took notes. It is out of the ordinary. The whole thing is shady why comey did what he did. I commend him. He has done an impeccable job for 30 years. For anybody to question him or how he conducted this by passing it on is an idiot, period. He is doing everything in his power to expose what is going on in our government. We have a showman for president. Im not saying hillary would have been better. I didnt vote at all. I will soon be 55. Im a middleclass working american. This government has completely come off the chain. Life. Been voting all my i wouldnt have voted for hillary either. But things are off the chain. The whole world is watching our nation fall apart at its feet. As far as im concerned, i feel the crown forobo the president. Hes of noxious. The bully he is obnoxious. Playground ishe exactly what he is. Host ok. One of the more memorable moments from the hearing is when lordy, iomey said hope there will be tapes. He was reacting to a tree the president sent may 12. The president sent may 12. A woman who tweets sent out this tweet. It might just be your lucky day. Given 24 hours and someone would have made one of these. You can see the teacher. Camille you can see the tshirt. Camille, and the republican line. Make your comment. What did you think of the hearing . Think comey should not be director of fbi from the beginning. What kind of a man who cannot sit with the president and talk with the president alone . The president of the United States is elected to do what is right. He can order anybody anything, because he is responsible. When he sees someone doing the wrong thing, the wrong investigation, he should tell just like if you are working and your chairman calls you or your president or editor calls you and tells you, you are going the wrong way, you should drop that. What is wrong with that . If comey was a prisoner of war. Right away, hes going to give all the answers and everything . He gets shaken. What is the problem that the president sits with anyone alone . Sessions he called sessions alone and said he wanted to sit with him alone, whats wrong with that . Host we will leave it there. On the democrats line. Caller thank you for taking my call. I watched the hearing today twice, because i really didnt want to miss anything. I spent an you know, hour or two hours every day since the election, because i was traumatized when trump was elected, and i have not been able to recover from that trauma. Andve been following him, reading, and researching on my own, because i cant even believe it. What i think that everybody is , today they alluded to comey alluded to it, and yesterday the people they had another hearing with, alluded to there is an investigation going on that is russian based. Theres a lot of information they have already gathered that we dont know about, that we are not privy to. That is what i contend. The reason why trump is trying to shut everybody up and fire comey and all of this is because he doesnt want us to know that he has been dealing with the russians for years. For years. Some of the oligarchs over there, he has money tied up with jared he does not kushner, a whole bunch of them in his cabinet are entwined with the russians. Host you mentioned that you spent a couple hours a day since the election researching are going online, are meditating, or something. What have you been doing . What is your stress level like five months later . Well, i feel like, finally today was the beginning of the end. I believe in all earnestness that this man needs to be impeached and he needs to be prosecuted and put in prison. Host do you think thats going to happen . Caller i hope so. Host if it doesnt . Caller i think many of his cabinet members are going to because theyes, can be indicted. I think its going to be way bigger than watergate. I understand watergate, there were 48 indictments. This is much bigger than that. I can see it. I can feel it. Host when you are not researching this, what are you doing . Caller im living my life. Host do you work . Caller no, im retired. I do a lot ofnt, things. I have lots of friends, travel, i enjoy my life. But i do spend an hour or so trying to keep up. Every day there something new. Host do you have any friends that supported donald trump . Aside, everyput it day theres some crisis or drama. Host do you have any friends that supported donald trump . Caller do i have friends that supported donald trump . Not that im aware of. I do know some people who did, but they are not really my friends. Host thank you for sharing your views with us. Cynthia is calling in from davidson, north carolina, independent third party line. You are on cspan. Whats your reaction . My reaction is i guess that what i took away from it is thatcomey testified President Trump was not being investigated. So all these colors that keep coming in and making reference hethe collusion with russia, said today during the investigation, or couple days ago, that he was not under investigation. I dont understand why that is still a topic. I also am glad that president he tweetsts, because out what the media refuses to report. All the work hes done for the veterans, the infrastructure hes doing with the airport, all this stuff, the campaign promises, the media is not picking that up. They keep reporting on the distractions. I dont trust comey. He did not tell the truth with Hillary Clinton and all the email. He let her slide. He did not prosecutor prosecute her. He investigated her again only because of the new York Police Department seizing Anthony Weiners computer laptop due to the child sex investigation. Thats the only reason that got we opened reopened. His hand was forced. President support trump. I dont buy into all the distractions like all these llers do. A lot of the older generation dont understand the social media. It is actually President Trump, his way to circumvent the fake news thats out there. He goes directly to the people. Host were you hoping he would tweet during the testimony . Some tweets. D send host but unrelated. He did not send any out on the testimony. Caller right. I dont recall anything right now. Host but were you hoping he would . Caller i hope he tweets all the time. Thats where i get my news. It leads me to follow up on different topics. I also follow Kellyanne Conway. She tweets a lot of good information that the media does not report. We are taking your reaction tonight and we will be here for another hour and a half or so. On cspan2, we are replaying the hearing in its entirety. Time, we willn replay the hearing tonight on cspan. Tomorrow morning on washington journal, your reaction to former director companies former director comeys testimony. Chair andr is the top democrat on the Senate Intelligence committee. Heres what he had to say. Sen. Warner thank you for your service. Comments to your fbi family i know were heartfelt. Ow that even though there are some who have tried to smear character, we had public testimony yesterday and today, we affirm that there was great trust in your leadership. And obviously, trust in your integrity. I want to go through a number of that meeting you referenced in your testimony. Lets start with january 6 meeting in trump tower. You went up with a series of officials to brief the president elect on the Russian Investigation. As i understand, you remained to brief him on some personally sensitive aspects of the information. You said after that briefing, you felt compelled to document , you actuallyion started as soon as you got into the car. Extensive experience at the department of justice and fbi, you have worked under president s of both parties. What was it about that meeting with that that let you determine you needed to put this on the record . A combination of things. I think the circumstances, the subject matter and the person i was interacting with. Circumstances, i was alone with the president of the United States, or with the president elect. Matters thatatter, touch on the fbis responsibility and it relates to the president elect personally, and the nature of the person. I was honestly concerned he might lie about the nature of our meeting. I thought it was important to document. That combination of things i have never experienced, but it led me to believe i have to write it down. Sen. Warner i think thats a very important statement you just made. Unlikerstanding is that your dealings with president s of either parties in your past experience, in every subsequent meeting our conversation with this president , you created a written record. Did you feel you needed to create this written record of these memos because they might need to be relied on at some future date . Mr. Comey sure. I created records of each, i believe for all of our nine conversations, especially the ones that were substantive. I knew that i would need a record of what would happen, not just to defend myself, but to defend the fbi and our integrity as an institution, and the independence of our function. Ive thats what made this so difficult. It was a combination of circumstances, subject matter, and the person. All yourer and experience, this was the only president you felt like in every meeting you needed to document, because at some point, using your words, he might put out a nontruthful representation of that meeting . Mr. Comey as i said in my written testimony, as fbi director, interacted with president obama. And didnt i spoke only twice in three years and did not document it. I spoke with president bush about a very difficult matter. I did not write a memo about that, either. I sent a quick emailed my staff, but i did not feel the need to document it. Again, a combination of those factors was not present with either president bush or president obama. Sen. Warner i think that is significant and others would probably question that. The chairman and i, it is our hope the fbi would get the Committee Access to those memos so we can read that contemporaneous rendition so we have gotten your side of the story. I know members and the press a great deal has been made whether the president had asked you whether the president was the subject of any investigation. My understanding is prior to your meeting on january 6, you discussed with your Leadership Team whether or not you should be prepared to assure thenpresident electron that the collect trump that the fbi was not investigating him personally. I understand your team agreed, but was that a unanimous decision . One of the members of the leadership had a view that although it was technically true we did not have a counterintelligence file case open on then president elect trump, his concern was because we are looking at the potential, again, thats the subject of the investigation, coordination between the campaign and russia, because it was president elect inevitably hisn, conduct would fall within the scope of that work. He was reluctant to make the statement id i made. I disagree. I thought it was fair to say what was literally true. There was not a counterintelligence investigation at the moment for mr. Trump. Moment inr at that time. Did you ever revisit that in subsequent sections . Mr. Comey with the fbi leadership . Sure. The leader did not change. His view although literally true, his concern with it could be misleading, because the nature of the investigation was such that it might touch it would touch the campaign, and the person at the head of the campaign is the candidate. That was his view. Sen. Warner let me move to the january 27 and are, where you said the president began by asking whether you wanted to stay on as if he i director fbi director. He also indicated that lots of people wanted your job. You wanted to say that the dinner itself was seemingly an effort to have you ask him for your job, and create some sort of patronage relationship. It seems from my reading of your memo, the president seems to be holding your job, or continuing your job, over your head in a fairly direct way. What was your impression, and what did you mean by this notion of a patronage relationship . Again,ey my impression, i could always be wrong, but my common sense told me what is going on is either he had concluded or someone had told him that him that you didnt youve already asked comey to stay and you didnt get anything for it. And that the dinner was an effort to build a relationship in fact he asked specifically of loyalty in the context of asking me to stay. As i said, what was odd about that we had already talked twice about it by that point and hed said i hope youll stay. , in fact, i just remembered sitting here a third one, youve seen the picture of me walking across the blue room. And what the president whispered in my ear was i really look , forward to working with you. Sen. Warner and that was just a few days before you were fired. Director comey that was on the sunday after the inauguration. The next friday i have dinner, and the president begins by wanting to talk about my job. And so im sitting there thinking, wait a minute, three times weve already youve asked me to stay or talked about me staying. I could be wrong, but my commonsense told me whats going on here is, hes looking to get something in exchange for granting my request to stay in the job. Sen. Warner again, we understand. I was a governor, i had people work for me. This constant request, again, quoting you, him saying that he you explained your independence and he came back to i need loyalty, i expect loyalty. Have you ever had any of those kind of requests from anyone else you ever worked for in the government . Director comey no. What made me uneasy. Im at that point the director of the fbi. The reason that congress created a ten year term is so that the director is not feeling as if theyre serving at with political loyalty owed to any particular person. The statute of justice has a blindfold on because youre not supposed to be peeking out to see whether your patron is pleased with what you are doing. It is about the facts and the law. Thats why i became fbi director to be in that kind of position. Thats why i was uneasy. Sen. Warner let me move on. My time is running out. February 14th. It seems a bit strange, you were in a meeting. And your direct superior, the attorney general, was in that meeting as well, yet the president asked everyone to leave, including the attorney general to leave before he brought up the matter of general flynn. What was your impression of that type of action . Have you ever seen anything like that before . Director comey no. My impression was Something Big was about to happen. I need to remember every single word that is spoken. And again i could be wrong. , im 56 years old, ive been i have seen a few things. My sense was the attorney general knew he shouldnt be leaving which is why he was , lingering. I do not know mr. Kushner well but i think he picked up on the , same thing. I knew something was about to happen and i edneeded to pay happen about to happen and i needed to pay close attention to. Sen. Warner i found it very interesting that in the memo that you wrote after this february 14th pull aside, you made clear that you wrote that memo in a way that was unclassified. If you affirmatively made the decision to write a memo that was unclassified, was that because you felt at some point the facts of that meeting would have to come clean and come clear and actually be able to be cleared in a way that could be shared with the American People . Director comey well, i remember thinking this is a very disturbing development. Really important to our work. I need to document it and preserve it in a way, this committee gets this, but sometimes when things are classified, it tangles them up. It is hard to share it within an investigative team. You have to be careful how you handle it, for good reason. So my thinking was if i write it , in such a way that i dont include anything that would trigger classification. That would make it easier for us to discuss within the fbi and the government and to hold on to it in a way that makes it accessible to us. Sen. Warner again its our , hope, particularly since you are a pretty knowledgeable guy and you wrote this in a way that was unclassified that this committee will get access to that unclassified document. I think it would be very important to our investigation. Let me just ask this in closing, how many Ongoing Investigations at any time does the fbi have . Director comey tens of thousands. Sen. Warner tens of thousands. Did the president ever ask about any other Ongoing Investigation . Director comey no. Sen. Warner did he ever ask about you trying to interfere on any other investigation . Director comey no. Sen. Warner i think, again, this speaks volumes, this doesnt even get to the questions around the phone calls about lifting the cloud. I know other members will get to that. But i really appreciate your testimony and appreciate your service to our nation. Director comey thank you, senator warner. Im sitting here going through my contacts. I had one conversation with the president that was classified where he asked about our an , ongoing intelligence investigation, it was brief and entirely professional. Sen. Warner he didnt ask you to take any specific action . Director comey no. Sen. Warner unlike what he had done veez a avy admiral flynn . Director comey correct. Host tonight, getting your reaction to the testimony of former fbi director james comey. Here are the numbers. If you are a republican democrats parties, and third a nonaffiliated and, if you happen to be overseas and he saw this, because a lot of this was played overseas as well, we would like to get your view. 7488923. You can always go to our Facebook Page as well. You can post a comment there. And join the vigorous conversation that is going on. We had a color caller from davidson, north carolina. I have forgotten her name, i apologize. She said she loves President Trumps tweets, that is how she gets her news. He has not tweeted since wednesday, june 7, that is when he was getting ready to leave for cincinnati. Right before that he tweeted he is nominated christopher wray, a man of impeccable credentials, to be the new director of the fbi, details to follow. He has not tweeted from the other account, as well. Kelly on Kellyanne Conway sent out a tweet an hour ago, it was business as usual at the white house today. The president posted a meeting. Amazing speech at faith and freedom. That group was meeting in washington. We did carry that speech on cspan. You can watch it on cspan. Com. He did not reference james comey in the speech at all. You can watch it online at cspan. Org. We are going to marry mary, democrat from new york. What is your reaction . Caller my head is spinning. First of all, i think about leadership. Positionso have small of leadership throughout my career and what i know about leadership is you have to lead with a vision, the people that you lead have to trust you. You have to be consistent and honest and unwavering. You have to be able to be any position to make hard decisions and it is really hard because not everybody will like what you say. I have watched parts, not all of it, but parts of the testimony today and i think james comey has done an incredible job. He has been, in my opinion, very candid, very honest. He has reflected on his responses, questions and strengths, talked about being uncomfortable. I cannot even imagine responding and having to respond to the president s of the United States. When your direct boss, the attorney general has left you, clearly knowing you are there in that room i have been impressed with his responses. It makes me afraid for our country, our country continues to be more and more divided. We are not addressing the issues, we are not able to listen to each other. I think your representation of this has been very beneficial, because it is bipartisan. Your ability to have a discussion on air for republicans and democrats, independents, it is beneficial because we have lost the ability to listen to each other and trust each other. Host what did you think when former director comey said he purposefully leaked some information so there would be a special counsel, in the hope is special counsel would be appointed . Caller i think it is another demonstration of how honest he was. He is a man, in my opinion, who really represented the fbi well. He was let go from a career long job without even a phone call. He had to learn about it on tv. It has been very, in my opinion again, very honest and transparent in that he has shared i am sharing this information, if i recall correctly, that he did not leak anything classified. He did not give it to the press, who were at the end of his street. He got the information out because he thought the story was important to hear. It was not classified. He shared everything to the Senate Intelligence committee, and in written memo form afterwards. Im thankful. I think about that when i talk about leadership, taking a stand. I do not think it is what he would have chosen to do. This is a man who answers to both parties, republican and democrat, and he has been really, really trying hard to be an independent of the political system. Um, i think i answered the question. Host very good. Mary from buffalo. Was mustsee, it tv in russia. The russian state tv described the Senate Hearing as the james comey show, the most import political show, and reported that the former fbi director does not know why he was fired, but that senators are dreaming it has something to do with the kremlin. Russia 24 kicked off its 3 00 p. M. Bulletin with a five minute segment on the hearing, including according to each relation the senators are dreaming about the kremlin. They are apparently still worrying about the interference in the u. S. Election campaign. Ae presenter said, per british news outlet. If you want to read the entire article, you can go to the new york post. We have an independent online, good evening kathleen. What is your reaction . Caller i am very grateful for comey being as honest as he is. Originally i was supporting Bernie Sanders. I used to vote all republican, years ago. And i am so disappointed in the political farce, is what i call it. Corrupt is corrupt, i do not care what side you are on. If you are corrupt, you need to go down. I do not care who you are. For once i do say, they are corrupt one side to say they are corrupt. In the other to say, they are corrupt. And to not admit their own people are corrupt, it is frustrating. Thatieve without a doubt there was collusion. The way that james comey said that he was asked to be there, with nobody else there, there is only one reason for that. And only one reason. Uh, i do have a suspicious mind that what is going to go down is not going to be pretty. So, this is what i believe. Kathleen from lexington, kentucky. We have a democrat on the line from florida, mary . You are on the air. Caller ok. I was not much in on the hearing with mr. Comey, but he said President Trump was not going to be investigated. So i thought they should leave it at that. I am more a democrat. But i voted for donald trump. I voted for the man at that would do the best job for the country. One thing i am advocated one thing i am aggravated about, i do not like them throwing roadblocks every time he tries to do something by porters borders, on plane or however they get here. I like his tweets, because that is how he speaks to us americans. We want to know what is going on, so i like him to keep on tweeting. And that is about all i want to say. Than some of the snowflakes they keep talking singersith the and that do not agree with trump. Anyway, you want those people to come over here and get you down the road . Host there is a special counsel appointed for this investigation into russian involvement in the 2016 election. Uh, how is this going to play out . How do you think it will play out . Caller i think it is going to they will out that find out he has not done anything wrong, donald trump. Host ok. Henry in richmond, virginia. You are on cspan. What is your reaction to the hearing . Caller i would like to say that i was a democrat, but now in independent. The Democratic Party left me and loads of other democrats behind with their far left agenda. As far as today, i support the president of the United States, donald trump. I voted for him. Jim comey i felt overstepped his bounds way out of line. He is in charge of the fbi. When he interfered with Hillary Clinton, that really turned me off. His job is to collect and gather evidence, not make a decision whether or not she should or should not be prosecuted. I feel that jim comey is a showboat, and that jim comey is trying to get even. I think you will find, i have full confidence in buhler, when everything is said and done there is no obstruction of justice. There may be, i have an idea that the president probably had it some bad choice of words, but that is not criminal in nature at all. And i felt jim comey went way over the line. You can tell he is a disgruntled employee. He had lots of fbi agents against him in the fbi for how he handled the Hillary Clinton, very unfair to her, very unfair. He should never have interjected anything. Go on with the investigation. Hand in tohad a being the election in tipping the election, but as a democrat i was so turned off of the Democratic Party, i am an independent and a voted for donald trump. And in 2018, my prediction is you are going to see the democrats defeated in the house, and people have had enough lets get democrats and republicans together, get behind the president and move the country forward. We care about economics, we care about jobs, we care about health care. This russia, russia, russia, let promoting it and they will go down in defeat in the polls. If they think donald trump one so big won so big and they cannot understand why, i have listened to the callers, they all seem to be part of the Conspiracy Theory and i think donald trump and letting james comey go, it was way late. If barack obama had had enough guts, he should have fired him for doing what he did to Hillary Clinton. Uncalled for. I feel that he is once again trying to take a swipe at the president and give me a break. He was an assistant u. S. Attorney in richmond, virginia. He is not new to the game. He has been with president bush, president obama i do not believe he has any credibility in saying he made these notes. I believe he was on a mission. Host ok, henry in richmond, virginia. Politico has a story out, trum allies be comey attack dogs. In the picture, the outside attorney for the president for this investigation. After james comeys testimony, he held a short, not really a press conference because he just made a statement and did not take questions, but he made a statement at the National Press club. Ladies and gentlemen, i mark caso its the personal lawyer for President Trump. Contrary to numerous, false press accounts leading up to todays hearing, mr. Comey has now finally confirmed publicly what he repeated the told President Trump privately. That is, that the president was not under investigation as part of any probe into russian interference. Mr. Comeydent, he also admitted there is no evidence that a single vote changed as a result of any russian interference. Mr. Comeys testimony also makes clear that the president never sought to impede the investigation into attempted russian interference in the 2016 election. And in fact, according to mr. Comey, the president told mr. Comey, it would be good to find out in that investigation if there was some satellite hisciative associates of that did something wrong. And he, President Trump, did not exclude anyone from that statement. Consistent with that statement, the president never informed in form or substance, directed or suggested that mr. Comey stop investigating anyone, including the president never suggested that mr. Comey let flynn go. As for the president , he publicly stated the next day, he did say to mr. Comey general flynn is a good guy. He has been through a lot. How generalsked flynn is doing. Admiral rodgers testified today that the president never d irected him to do anything unethical, oral, inappropriate and never, never pressured him to do so. Director codes said the same thing coates said the same thing. The president never pressured mr. Comey. The president also never told mr. Comey i need a loyalty, i expect loyalty. He never said it in form, he never said it in substance. Of course, the office of the president is entitled to expect loyalty from those that are serving the administration. And from before this president , and from before this president took office to this day, it is overwhelmingly clear that there has been and continue to be those in government that are actively attempting to undermine this administration with selective and illegal leaks of classified information and privileged communications. Mr. Comey has now admitted that he is one of these leakers. Today, mr. Comey admitted that he unilaterally and surreptitiously made on authorized disclosures to the press of privileged can medications with the president. The leaks of this information began no later than march 2017, when friends of mr. Comey have stated that he disclosed to them the conversations that he had with the president during their january 27, 2017 dinner and february 14, 2017 white house meeting. Today, mr. Comey admitted that he leaked to friends of his purported memos of those privileged communications. One of which he testified was classified. Mr. Comey also testified that immediately after he was terminated, he authorized his friends to leak contents of those memos to the press in order to, in mr. Cummings words and mr. Comeys words to prompted the appointment of a special counsel. Although he testified he only leak the memos in response to a tweet. The Public Record reveals the New York Times was quoting from the memos the day before the referenced tweet, which belies the excuse for this unauthorized disclosure of privileged information and appears to be entirely retaliatory. We will leave it to the appropriate authorities to determine whether these leaks should be investigated, along with all the others being investigated. Establisheds now the president was not being investigated for colluding with or attempting to obstruct any investigation. As the committee pointed out today, these important facts for the country to know are virtually the only facts that have not been leaked during the course of events. As he said yesterday, the president feels completely vindicated and is eager to continue moving forward with his agenda, with the business of this country, and with this public cloud removed. Thank you. Why did the president was the outside attorney for President Trump at the press club following james comeys testimony. As you can see, he took no questions. We will continue today called this evening and get your reaction to the hearing today. Up next, rita in illinois. What did you think of the testimony . Caller i listened to all of it and i am a little surprised that at some of the things he was saying. I want to just tell you that i absolutely think mr. Trump is going to be one of our very best president s. He is honest and he shows compassion. He thinks of america. Mr. Comey acted like he was afraid of mr. Trump when he was with him by himself. I think mr. Comey has some sort of weakness, and mr. Trump comes and i justrilliant, think maybe he had a hard time being with that. I think too many people do not show the right respect for mr. Trump. And too many people are causing him to try not to let him do some of the things he wants to do, by constantly complaining about the way that he talks, and the way he acts, and all the things he does. That is his style. I think if we can put up with mr. Obamas style, we should be able to put up with mr. Trumps style. Think like mr. Comey, i he was intimidated by mr. Trump. And i feel like mr. John mccain, when he talked, i think what he said was brilliant because he versusd Hillary Clinton the things they are saying, and he said he did not think it was right that they were talking about russia with donald trump. Which, Everybody Knows that donald trump does not have anything to do with russia. And if russia is a problem, the fbi needs to take care of it and let donald trump do his job. And i think you for having all of us thank you for having all of us speak and say the things we want to say, because i always wanted mr. Trump to know that i think he is doing a great job. Thank you very much. Host ok. Rit in illinois. Susan from akron, ohio. You are on the air. Caller thank you so much for allowing us to speak. I feel the same way about that. Testimony waseys completely honest and accurate and true. I think the fact he documented, and he is the head of the fbi. This man to even get into that position to be the head of the fbi, you have your character, everything about you is scrutinized so harshly that he would have to be, his character would have to be of the highest. Know, you cannot have any perception of impropriety in any way. I believe what he says. Said toe what he everyone else at the time it happened. And i believe the reason why he did not disclose it sooner. I also think mr. Trump did exactly what he said that he did. Donald trump is a billionaire, he is used to doing what he wants to do, saying what he wants to say, getting rid of who he wants to get rid of and he does not understand that there is a protocol, a way to behave, a president ial way of doing things. We are the laughing stock of the other countries in the world. I am very, very disappointed. Yes, i have many friends that voted for donald trump. So i did not i did not want to vote for Hillary Clinton. She was the lesser of the two evils. What everybody keeps forgetting is the investigation is not complete. We do not have all of the information. Today, there is talk of a possibility of and of tapes, and i prayed to god there are. Host did you learn anything new when you watched today . Caller i learned something new, because i had heard reports, you know, after he was fired, i heard reports that the fbi was being sloppily run, and it was doing everything but what it was supposed to be doing. And i was really, that really frightened me because if the fbi, if we cannot count on them what count on them to do it they are supposed to be doing, that is frightening to me. Ive always considered them an agency, that if you are doing wrong they would see to it that it was disclosed and that you would, you know, pay the penalty for it. Now what is going to happen, what i foresee happening, is that the investigation is going to disclose that mr. Trump has done some things he has not he should not have done. So, yes, he has probably done some things. Yes, there probably is collusion. Yes, he documented his conversations because he knew that something was about to go down. He is not the head of the fbi, he was not the head of the fbi for no reason. He is a smart man. Host thank you. Susan, akron, ohio. And we go to stockton, california. Karen, you are on cspan. What is your reaction . Caller i have a unique view from most people because i raised many foster children and i have five years of parenting with these difficult children, so when i viewed the hearing today i was really looking at it from a different stand. I saw a lot of manipulation. I saw a lot of weakness. And i saw that the former fbi knowsor, actually really how to manipulate this whole thing. Those are my views. Do you have any comments to me about that . Host i will let that stand. We appreciate you calling in. Inhave a call from corey west virginia, your reaction . Caller i am calling to let everyone know, you know, i was not sure on who to vote for because one, i thought hillary is obviously a crook. And donald trump would not be where he is today should not be where he is today. However, with the hacking going on, you can easily find out online any information such as who is for the rnc, and the dnc. Org information. And the Republican National convention is filtered by which makes it difficult to hack into. Where the democrats are easily exposed with amazon web services. And you can easily hack into any one of those. So with the hacking, i am sitting here right now and i am the display coming from washington from russia. Any of this could easily be shown from anywhere in the world, no matter where you are at. And you know host do you do this for a living . Caller i am a director of Information Technology. That is correct. I know the Information Technology field. And this is something that could be shown online, you can easily access this information no matter where you are. Connection canpn now i am sitting in russia, no matter where i browse online, however i am currently in west virginia. And if you look up the who is iformation for the dnc. Org, am showing it coming up for a joel smith in florida who owns host you are giving us all this information, can you make a connection to the hearing today . Tie that together for us. Caller you know, i think the fbi director is certainly he thinks it is coming from russia, he sees the data coming from russia, but he does not understand what is behind it, how they got to it. It could be from someone anywhere in the world. Host ok. That was corey in west virginia. We have shelby, on the republican line. What did you think of the hearing . Caller well, i do not want to james comey was one thingny way, but i was concerned with was he had accused donald trump of trying to push him and keep him in a room by himself. 8, and i comey is 6 do not know how much he ways but he is weighs, but he is 1520 years younger than donald trump and he looks fully capable of defending himself. I do not have much to say about james comey today, except host are you a supporter of donald trump . Caller yes. I am a supporter of president donald trump. He is my president. There are a lot of people that go around marching into protesting, not my president. I watch it on tv. It is everywhere. They just trample him under their feet. I voted for donald trump because i felt god was leading me to vote for him. I feel like he was put in office by god. Anyone, not think