Catherine herridge tells us what all this means on the investigation going forward. We start off again tonight though with chief White House Correspondent john roberts on the north lawn. The social media beat a bit this morning. John. Just a little bit, good evening, bret, how are you . I cant remember a time when the president of the United States said what President Trump said to james comey today. In the middle of a ferocious tweet storm from the president this morning, a remarkable shot across the bough to his fired fbi director. The president warning, quote james comey better hope that there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. The president was referring to three occasions on which he claims comey told him he was not being investigated in connection with russia. He said it once at dinner and then he said it twice during phone calls recall. The tweet raised questions as to whether President Trump was recording his conversations. At the Daily Briefing today, press Secretary Sean Spicer refused to elaborate. I have talked to the president. The president has nothing further to add on that. And then when asked if the tweet was implied threat against comey. Thats not a threat, he simply stated a fact that the tweet speaks for itself. Im moving on. The tapes tweet was in reaction to a story in the New York Times that the president asked comey to make a pledge to him. He may have thought he was leaking the contents of their conversations. Though today he denied he asked comey to pledge loyalty to him. No, i didnt. I dont think it would be a bad question to ask. I think loyalty to the country, loyalty to the United States is important. You know, i mean, it depends on how you define loyalty. Number one. Number two, i dont know how that got there because i didnt ask that question. As the back story to comeys firing continues to evolve, it is becoming clear that the russia investigation was very much on the president s mind. And it continues to be. Last night unprompted President Trump sent a letter from his tax attorney to senator Lindsey Graham who had said he wanted to look into the president s business dealings with russia. The letter, dated march 8th stated that with a few exceptions a review of the last 10 years of the president s tax returns showed no income of any type from russian sources. No debt owed to russian lenders. No Equity Investment by russian persons in trump. The president did make money from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant held in moscow and the 96milliondollar sale of a florida property to a russian billionaire. While the letter referenced the president s tax returns, the returns themselves were not released. President trump also lashed out today at the medias coverage of the shifting explanations for comeys firing, tweeting, quote as a very active president , with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy. Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future press briefings and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy. While the initial tweet appeared merely sarcastic later today the president seemed to be serious about san selling the Daily Briefing media unfair to him. We shouldnt have them. These press conferences are like the biggest thing on daytime television. They are. You see the ratings. They are blowing away everything on just about everything on daytime television. What i would love to do is stop them. The Ranking Member of the Senate Intelligence Committee Mark warner today said of the tape threat if there are tapes those should be turned over to the appropriate committee as soon as possible. And whether it was the president s tweet or he just didnt want to do it, the former fbi director james comey today announced that he was not going to take off the Senate Intelligence committees invitation to appear at closed session on capitol hill on tuesday. Bret . Bret john roberts live on the north lawn. John, thank you. Lets get analysis from catherine herridge. Good evening, catherine. What do we know . Whats new . Well, lets take a look at comeys decision not to testify in that nonpublic session next week. I went back to the summer of last year when he made a very public announcement about the clinton emails, the 15minute Public Statement at fbi headquarters. Less than two days later he testified publicly before the House Government Oversight Committee for four hours and 38 minutes. And then in september, for a second time, before the house judiciary committee. And that was 7 56 minutes. So in that particular case, he showed no shyness in terms of going to congress. Bret yeah, so we dont know yet if he is going to go eventually but not next week, definitely. Correct. Bret james comey, former National Intelligence director, he is often cited by im sorry not james comey, James Clapper. James clapper, i knew how meant. Bret often saying no collusion in that testimony. He was asked again about that in that investigation, take a listen. There was no evidence that came that rose to that level at that time that found its way in to the Intelligence Community assessment which we had pretty high confidence in. Thats not to say there wasnt evidence but not that met that threshold. Its not surprising or out of or abnormal that i would not have known about the investigation. Even more importantly, the content of that investigation. Bret just so everybody understands, there is this report that says there is no evidence of collusion. At the same time, the fbi has a Counter Intelligence counter terrorism, whatever you want to call it, investigation going on. And he doesnt know about it. Okay. So ci case within the fbi is one of the most compartmented or closely held investigations and typically they dont result in criminal charges. I spoke with a former c. I. Agent this afternoon who said it would reach James Clapper if charges were eminent or there was widespread evidence that americans were being recruited as spies. But i think in this particular case, the normal rules dont apply. Because they were talking about the same issue, which was russian intervention in the election. And whether they had targeted americans to work with them in cooperation. Bret doesnt seem like its usual. Very quickly, the fbi choice going forward. Correct. Bret about 12 names. Thats the short list, apparently. So there are three that seem to stand out at least for today. One is ray kelly the former new York City Police commissioner, longest serving. He has had two terms of federal service in washington. Atticus toms and treasury. The former republican chairman of the house Intelligence Committee mike rogers. Mike rogers is someone who has good Foreign Policy credentials and a former fbi agent. But as we saw when he was up for cia director, he took a lot of criticism for giving a pass in the benghazi investigation that was run by his committee. And then john cornyn, the Senate Majority whip who was well placed for that job and as you were mentioning today has been radio silent which is often a sign that they may be a serious contender. Bret we will see. Catherine, thank you. Youre welcome. Bret the president s attorney general is telling his prosecutors to go for it against the worse criminals. Jeff sessions instructions to seek the most severe charges and toughest penalties are drawing praise from law and order advocates and criticism from civil rights groups. Correspondent peter doocy has the story. You drug dealers are going to prison. And with that a Trump Campaign promise of law and order became an instruction for americas Law Enforcement. A twopage memo from the attorney general to u. S. Attorneys warns criminals. Prosecutors will now almost always pursue charges with the longest possible sentences. And mandatory minimum sentence also even apply to drug offenses with which the last administration tried to be lenient and considered nonviolent. We are returning to the enforcement of the laws as passed by congress. Plain and simple. If you are a drug trafficker, we will not look the other way. Thats a major change from an Obama Administration approach designed to reduce prison population. A primary driver of this mass incarceration phenomenon is our drug laws, our mandatory minimum sentencing around drug laws. One of obamas attorney generals eric holder now says quote the policy announced today is not tough on crime. It is dumb on crime. But, the Trump White House says the change was carefully crafted. This policy was form lathed after extensive consultation with the prosecutors that handled these cases, each and every day around the country. Prison reform advocates are alarmed by the prospect of a return to the war on drugs. The problem with the war on drugs was that it swept up not just people engaged in high level drug offending but lots of people in the lower levels of the drug trade. That had very little impact on drug use and abuse. On capitol hill, democrats and at least one republican are scoffing at this new policy, too. Senator rand paul says, quote mandatory minimum sentences have unfairly and disproportionately incarcerated too many minorities for too long. Attorney general sessions new policy will accentuate that injustice. But, a former federal drug czar sees things differently. When they say, when holder crowd and president obama say go easy on this stuff, they want you to think what they are talking about is some guy sitting in his room toking up on a joint. Thats not the kind of cases were talking about. They didnt prosecute major drug dealing cases and this has created more of a problem. I was with the attorney general in West Virginia yesterday when he announced a more aggressive approach to rounding up drug dealers. Now he is saying what he want to do once they are in custody. But the attorney general is not proposing any new laws. Is he just saying that this department will no longer pick and choose which ones to enforce. Bret . Bret peter doocy, thank you. The head of new york citys jail system resigned today after a scathing report found that he and 20 other senior level employees regularly abused take home vehicle privileges. Joseph ponte was hired to reform the citys Rikers Island jail for decades and inspectors report found month used his city issued suv for 90 days outofstate trips last year mostly to his home in maine. Stocks were mixed today. The dow lost 23. The s p 4. The dow 5. For the week the dow lost half. The s p 500 was down a third. The nasdaq was up a third. The u. S. And china have reached a trade deal that is being billed as a first step toward bigger agreements towards the worlds top two economies. It lifts the chinese ban on imported american beef. China will be able to send cooked paltry to the u. S. Poe u. S. Have greatest access to bank card market. American delegates will attend a conference in beijing starting sunday showcasing chinas infrastructure and trade plans with arab, africa and europe. Lets get reaction from trish reagain who joins us tonight from new york. Good evening, trish. Good evening, bret. Bret what do you think . Its interesting in that so many people were fearful of donald trump being so protectionist, especially when it came to china. Lets not forget he campaigned on this idea of free trade. So instead of putting a ton of tariffs on problems tariff pn from china maybe there is room to work things out. Maybe what it is that we need actual fair trade and so part of that means, okay, you want to be banking in the u. S. , china, you are want access to all our consumers here . Guess what . We need access to your consumers as well. So, its good for the banking industry, theoretically, if they can get access to those chinese customers. Its good for the livestock industry and good for the u. S. Energy industry and it will now be able to export liquid natural gas to china, something we had not been able to do before, bret. Bret so, does this deal have teeth . What happens if the chinese dont honor their side of things . Its a very good question. I think everybody is asking that right now. Because lets just point out we havent had necessarily the best luck with the chinese honoring their side of the deal. Wilbur roth the customers secretary was pretty explicit though today. Whats unique here is we have dates set out. The first date coming up is july 16th. And if china doesnt abide by these dates and these new restrictions set forth, then well have to deal with that then. But he did point out that this is important for our relationship with china. And they should want to start things off on the right foot. Bret part of that relationship, obviously is about north korea. Do you think this deal deals with china and getting help on Nuclear Ambition . You are spot on. Lets not forget when you are friends economically with someone or some country, then you are more in things together in that we need chinas help right now to deal with the crazy men in north korea. And if we are aligned with them economically, they are more incentivized to help us. And so i do think that thats part of it. I think thats why have you seen him back off talk on the campaign trail. Thats why he is not looking at tariffs. How can we Work Together so that we, the United States, get something out of this. And how is it that we can hopefully grow all these industries while simultaneously becoming friendlier enough with them that they can be instrumental in dealing with north korea. Bret trish, as always, thank you. Have a great weekend. You too. Bret the police chief of an ohio village is dead tonight after a shooting incident at nursing home. It happened in kirkersville about 25 miles east of columbus. Chief Steven Eric Disario was responding to a report of a man with a gun. Officers found him dead on the street. Once they went inside they found two employees inside that nursing home dead along with the suspected gunman identified as thomas heartless. Police say the incident began when heartless took two hostages into a wooded area behind that facility. The Faith Community is trying to be a bridge between citizens and Law Enforcement in some of the nations toughest cities. Tonight, correspondent Jonathan Serrie shows us how ministers in georgia are getting a firsthand look at what Police Officers face on the streets. [scream] [gunshot] these are not police cadets. Calm down. They are ministers. Going through Police Training to bring their congregation a better understanding of life behind the badge. I do want to help them to see the pressure that Law Enforcement are under when it comes to making split second decisions. Stay there. Put your gun down, buddy. You dont want to do. This reverend marquel hutchins says going through a similar exercise made him realize protests in Police Involved shootings was not reducing tension between cops and communities. No one benefits from screaming at each other. We only benefit when we have the courage to talk to each other and a lot of the protests and the demonstrations, while passionate and understandable have fallen short of actually being curative. He launched one congregation, one precinct to encourage houses of worship to serve as liaisons between police and the neighborhoods they serve. A lot of times people dont think the policeman respects them because of what they see on tv. Thats actually not the truth. Organizers announced they are taking the program national. The idea is to get cops and communities to understand each other on a human level so they can resolve conflicts before they turn violent. Bret . Bret jonathan, thank you. Up next are u. S. Relations with russia Getting Better or worse . Where do they stand now . Some of our fox affiliates are covering tonight. Fox 32 in chicago with another night of carnage in that city. Two people killed. At least 14 others wounded in shootings thursday. More than 1100 people have been shot in chicago this year. The city recorded its 200th homicide of the year earlier this week. Fox 26 in houston has about 100 homes are evacuated in a community east of the city after a fire at a crude oil facility. Happened around 3 00 a. M. In beach city. Fire official says the blaze may have been ignited by a lightning strike. And this is a live look at detroit from our affiliate fox 2. One of the big stories there tonight. Fiat chrysler is recalling about a million dodge ram trucks in north america. A Software Glitch can prevent side airbags and seat belts from deploying during a rollover. The company says its aware of one death and two injuries from this issue. The recall begins next month. Thats tonights live look outside the beltway from special report. Well be right back. I need the phone thats where i happen to be. To be the one that rings. I need not to be missed phone calls. To not be missed. I need seamless handoff. Canyon software. From reception, to landline, to mobile. I need one number. Not two. Im always moving forward. Because i cant afford to get stuck in the past. Comcast business. Built for business. Bret just feet away from a midair collision and catastrophe. More Close Encounters between u. S. And south korean aircraft and planes from russia. These incidents come as relations seem to be thawing a bit from what has been described as a post cold war low. Correspondent rich edson has the update tonight from the state department. Reporter this week a russian fighter jet much like this one flew within 20 feet of a u. S. Navy reconnaissance plan operating in International Airspace over the black sea. A u. S. Defense official tells fox news the russian jet was armed and the maneuver was therefore provocative. Another says High Altitude encounters happen almost every day of the week. Communication between the United States and russia on many levels has shifted during the Trump Administration as the two try again to establish a working relationship. There are a lot of very significant security problem sets across the world. All of them would get easier, right, if russia were to come to the conclusion that it could best advance its interest through cooperating with the United States and others to resolve those conflicts rather than perpetuate them. Rhetoric has recently calmed. One month ago Rex Tillerson met with vladimir putin. Recently described state Department Employees his conversation. Characterized to president putin is the lowest it has been since the cold war. He did not disagree. He shrugged his shoulders and notified in agreement. I said its spiraling down, its getting worse. Tillerson then said almost no trust exists between the two countries. Though state Department Officials say tillerson and foreign minister lavrov now speak about every other week. And in Oval Office Discussions this week for lavrov ahead of putin and trumps scheduled meeting this summer at the g20 summit in germany. The u. S. And russia remain sharply divided on major issues. Russia is still backing the assad regime in syria and denying election meddling in the United States and europe. It alsoa and continues its presence in ukraine. State Department Officials tell fox the u. S. Positions on these issues also remain unchanged. They say they have relayed that to the russian government. The u. S. Has also been more assertive in syria. Showing the russians the respect that they really crave while still implementing what is within u. S. National security interests at the end of the day, that might actually lead to a productive outcome. Reporter another area of potential cooperation addressing north korea. A state Department Official tells fox news the United States has asked russia to be part of an International Effort to try to convince north korea to surrender its Nuclear Weapons program. Bret . Bret rich edson live at the state department. Rich, thank you. North korea is protesting directly to american lawmakers over the latest round of sanctions. Correspondent Benjamin Hall has more on a peculiarier move. North korea has taken an unusual step. Sending a rare letter of protest to the u. S. Congress. On may 4th. The house voted in favor of tough new sanctions against the north and the rogue state responded in writing condemning them as heinous acts of humanity. The latest is north korea newly restored Foreign Affairs committee which was revived after 19 years to improve relations with the rest of the world. But the north korean vice foreign minister showed no such signs of outreach. America is not just trying to intensify its attempts at isolations, pressure, and Nuclear Threats against our country. Its also going all out to try and eliminate our supreme leader. This a reference to north koreas claim last week that the cia and south koreas Intelligence Service plotted to assassinate kim jong un with a biochemical weapon. Today they demanded the extradition of north koreas spy chief on the left accusing him of being the mastermind. After the swearing in of new left leaning south korean president. Relations between the neighborhoods could get closer. President moon sis he favors expanded relations with the north and dialogue. If necessary, i will fly straight to washington. I will go to beijing and tokyo. And if the conditions allow to pyongyang as well. And today president putin also reached out telling moan in a phonmoon was ready toa role in the north korean issue and he would be pleased to welcome a special envoy. The election of president moon in south korea could be hugely significant. He is himself the son of north korean refugees. He favors dialogue with the regime. He favors deployment of the antimissile Defense System and now with russia reaching out could be very interesting to see who he works with. Bret . Bret Benjamin Hall in london. Benjamin, thank you. Hospitals across england cancelled appointments after apparent cyber attack. Northwest england and other parts of the country asked patients to stay away except for emergencies. Pictures posted on social media showed screens of hospital computers with images demanding payment in online currency. Prime minister theresa may says the hacking is part of a wider International Cyber attack. Isis is claiming responsibility for the attempted assassination of the deputy leader of pakistans senate. The man was not killed in the suicide bombing but at least 25 other people were. Government Officials Say dozens more were wounded. Earlier this week here in the u. S. , democrats failed once again to pick up a win in typically republican territory. It happened in omaha, nebraska. You may have missed it. It was a Mayoral Campaign that really became a flash point for democrats over abortion. A mayors race that went national. And then exposed a real split among democrats. Chief washington correspondent james rosen has the story. This election is about change. As a 37yearold former state senator, nebraska democrat heath mellow was considered a strong challenger to gene, omahas republican mayor in tuesdays election. When we come together, there is nothing that can stop us from transforming this country. When Bernie Sanders stumped for mellow. A devout catholic. The Abortion Rights Group naral erupted in anger. The reactions today by the dnc to embrace and support a candidate for office who will strip women of our basic rights and freedom is not only disappointing, it is politically stupid. Perez then declared that every democrat should be prochoice adding that is not negotiable city by city or state by state. When mellow lost by seven points points, nebraskas county chair said its astounding that our Party Chairman would say prolife democrats are not welcome. You just had that reality hit you on the abortion question. At Aspen Institute event in washington designed to foster bipartisanship former republican chair Michael Steele cited the nebraska dust up as emblematic of the challenges he faces in trying to unifying the party. Have you got to recognize that your party is bigger than what you think it. Perez admitted candidly that democrats are quote losing elections up and down the ballot. He maintained that the partys official view on abortion is not the reason why. The platform of the Democratic Party is a prochoice platform. The platform does not say that we did not welcome people who are not prochoice. The platform says we welcome people of varying views. Perez moved on before he could be pressed between the apparent contradiction between his statement prochoice statement is nonnegotiable for Party Democrat and his party offers varying views. Bret the u. S. Is expected to broaden ban on inflight laptops and tablets to include planes arriving from europe. They heard objections from the European Union today. Could effect routes that carry as many as 65 Million People a year. The current ban involves only about 50 flights a day from 10 mostly middle eastern cities. Todays historic space walk outside the International Space station went off but not without a hitch. Correspondent phil keating shows us what went wrong and what went right. Wreck on the. There is outstanding view of jack fischer. 250 miles above earth, nsas jack fisher and station commander Peggy Whitson floating in space to the record books, making the 200th space walk in support of the International Space station. Outstanding. Nice work. The historic space walk suffered a mike low gravity curve ball delayed start two hours. And the stations cooling core. Unaffected so a shortened space walk was still able to happen. Big task number one replace ago large avionics block provides electricity. Faster than expected so they then had time to install a data routeing spectrometer. First element of the International Space station. Very first space walk happened 18 and a half years ago, back in the United States flew Space Shuttles and the Space Shuttle was an engine. Jerry ross and newman connected the module with the russian module. The orbiting outpost sure has come a long way since then. Beautiful, beautiful. Hold there. Another record set up today as well. Peggy whitson completing her ninth space walk. The most of any female astronaut. Bret . Bret phil keating in miami. Phil, thanks. We have a special sunday edition of special report this weekend. One of the things we will bring you an interview with transportation secretary elaine chal. Among other issues, well talking about efforts to repair the nations roads and bridges. Talking about infrastructure and having a plan that actually is getting it across the finish line in that building behind me are two different things. Is there a time line for this . We have been hard at work at this. And so we will be releasing principles in about two to three weeks. And then the legislative proposal will probably be tackled by the congress in the third quarter. Bret join us for a special prime time edition of special report sunday 8 00 eastern. President trump warns his fired fbi director and threatens the media. Well get reaction from the panel after a break. Im only in my 60s. Ive got a nice long life ahead. Big plans. So when i found out medicare doesnt pay all my medical expenses, i looked at my options. Then i got a Medicare Supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if youre eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80 of your part b medical expenses. The rest is up to you. Call now and find out about an aarp Medicare Supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. Like all standardized Medicare Supplement insurance plans, it helps pick up some of what medicare doesnt pay. And could save you in outofpocket medical costs. 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Call now to request your free decision guide. And learn more about the kinds of plans that will be here for you now and down the road. I have a lifetime of experience. So i know how important that is. People suggest that the question that apparently the New York Times is selling that you asked comey whether or not you had his loyalty was possibly inappropriate. Could you see how they could think that. I read that allergy. I dont think its inappropriate. Did ask you that question. No, i didnt. I dont think it would be a bad question to ask. I think loyalty to the country. Loyalty to the United States is important. You know, i mean it depends on how you define loyalty. Number one, number two, i dont know how that got there. Because i didnt ask that question. Umhuh. What about the idea that in a tweet you said that there might be tape recordings . That, i cant talk about. I wont talk about that. All i want is for comey to be honest and i hope he will be im sure he will be, i hope. Bret President Trump with judge jeanine and this comes after a New York Times piece today. You can see it big piece. Its a private dinner, trump demanded loyalty, comey demuired as they ate the president made small talk about the election crowd sizes at President Trumps rallies. He turned to comey and asked whether or not he would pledge his loyalty to him. Mr. Comey denied to make that pledge. By mr. Comeys account. His answer apparently not satisfy the president. Later in the dinner mr. Trump again said to mr. Comey that he needed his loyalty. Mr. Comey again replied that he would give him honesty and did not pledge his loyalty according to the account of the conversation. Mr. Trump pressed him on whether it would be honest loyalty, you have that, mr. Comey told his associates. He responded. Well, the president tweeted this morning. James comey better hope that there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. With that, lets bring in our panel. Matt schlapp contributor with the hill. Amy Walter National editor for the cook political reporter and syndicated columnist charles krauthammer. Well, if the media and people who cover washington were not in a flather already and this and this interview, tweets today, it put them over the top. Wow. Its been a heck of a week. Try to even think about what happened this week because so much happened. And all i can think of when it comes to comey is that as strange as the politics are around it, one of the reasons why james comey got himself in trouble where democrats had lost confidence in him, the president had lost confidence, a lot of republicans like me had lost confidence in him is what we were reading about in the New York Times which is that he is going to try to win this news cycle. He is going to push back on the president aggressively. Its a twoperson dinner and jim comey was the only other person in that dinner and is he getting the story out exactly what happened. Thats how he plays the game. Thats why he became a political actor and not so much the reveered prosecutor that you are supposed to be when you run the fbi. Bret i guess it was this exchange, amy, at the White House Briefing that really caught everybodys attention. Did President Trump record conversations with former fbi director comey . I have talked to the president. The president has nothing further to add on that. Why didnt he say that . Why didnt he tweet that . What should we interpret from that. As i said earlier the president has nothing further. Are are their recording devices in the oval office or the residents. As the i said for the third time there is nothing to add on that. Does he think its present to threaten director comey to speak. I think thats not act fall. He stated a fact. The tweet speaks for itself. Im moving on. Bret amy . And the president himself telling in your first clip in that interview saying im not going to get into that either. So, there is that saying about when you are in a hole to stop digging. It just seems to me that every day the story gets bigger or the lather gets deeper based on selfinflicted wounds. And had the story its not that its going to end tomorrow, but why would you want to make it bigger and deeper by bringing up the issue of recordings. For democrats who already want to make the parallels between this and watergate, to bring up the issue of tapes is only going to make that that much more difficult. There were plenty of ways to handle this that i think there would have been some blow back for the president. Democrats would have been upset. But, would not have created the firestorm. And, again, its all coming from within, not from without. Bret they have stopped talking about it, charles, but there are as can you imagine after all there was said and tweeted today calls from capitol hill for those tapes if there are tapes. And there are multiple calls from committees that they would like to see them. Well, now we have a new rabbit to chase down another rabbit hole. This is as amy says, selfinflicted. Who brought up the tapes . When you hear expires saying oh, this isnt a threat, its just i mean, what is it . All of a sudden you are raising something nobody had imagined. And saying you better watch out. Thats, you know, thats unpresident ial. Which is kind of a nice way of saying that that sounds more like a mafia boss than the president of a free republic. People say well what people like about trump is that he is unconventional. What unconventional means stepped outside of the bounds of the behavior that 40 more individuals have tried to stay within, starting with george washington, tried to set an example of a certain protect at this tuesday and dignity and to talk like well, you better watch out or you might get whacked by tapes, this is selfinflicted and unnecessary. I agree. There was total grounds for getting rid of comey. There was sympathy on both sides of the aisle for the mistakes he made and perhaps his unfitness for the job. But that would have made it relatively easy to get rid of them in a way to not stir this up firestorm. Then when it looks like its starting to damp down, start up with you better watch out or something might happen to you, i think is simply extending a story that is not going to help the president. More than the process story, matt, and looking at what was said on all of these fronts and the russia investigation and the ty in the nbc to about his decision to fire comey is the sense that its a cycle. If this explodes and continues to explode he cant get lawmakers together to pass things on capitol hill. If he cant get lawmakers to pass things on capitol hill, theyre going to go home emptyhanded and get beaten in 2018. And if they get beaten in 2018, the house and the senate will be run by democrats who will step up the investigations into donald trump. I mean, this is like a giant circle. Its amazing. The thing is that i think that the earliest point in a presidency that we can remember. The other side of the aisle is at war. They dont want to pretend that they can work with each other. Thats to the president s detriment. Not everything he can pass is going to be on a reconciliation vehicle where you only need republican votes. Is he going to need democratic votes on other things he cares about. Including longterm fixes to healthcare. Youre right, its not just a problem with democrats being at war and acting like the election every day of the calendar year, the secondary piece is when president ial Approval Ratings stay as low as they are, it makes your own team start to get bothered. There is two things he has got to do. Make sure he has got to get through this investigation. Which there is really no credible evidence of any wrongdoing. Thats the crazy part of this. We should be able to move beyond it, because nobody can find a scintilla of evidence that the president did anything inappropriate with russia in the campaign. Have you got to get beyond this controversy and start focusing on the trump agenda which by and large on the big very popular. Bret for all the leaks we have not had a leak about credible evidence of collusion. There have been a lot of leaks. But there hasnt been that. At the end of the lester holt interview, the president says you know what . I want to Start Talking about jobs and the economy and isis and building the wall. Which is great. I think everybody would like him to do that. And then less than 24 hours later he tweets out the tapes and so this makes this t. That much harder. The other piece, of course, a lot of the agenda though, matt, isnt particularly popular. The healthcare piece is going to be a big, big hurdle for republicans, not just getting it passed but making sure that voters dont see it as toxic. And right now its not particularly popular. So getting members, youre right. Not just to stick with you when you are unpopular but to stick with legislation that right now isnt that popular. Those are two tough things to ask your own team to do. Bret i want to play one more sound bite from this interview with judge jeanine that actually airs this weekend. This is about press briefings. When we have those press conferences, i actually say we shouldnt have them. Would you seriously consider stopping these press no. We do it in a different way. How . We do it through a piece of paper with a perfectly accurate, beautiful answer. What i would love to do is stop them. You dont mean that. Well, you just dont have them. Unless i have one every two weeks and i do it myself. We dont have them. Do you have a level ofs who tilts thats incredible. And its very unfair. Sarah huckabee is a lovely young woman. You know sean spicer. He is a wonderful human being. He is a nice man. Is he your press secretary today and tomorrow. Yes, he is. He is doing a good job but he gets beat up. Will he be there tomorrow . Well, he has been there from the beginning. It was not a ringing endorsement, i guess, of sean spicer. And im not that outraged by his idea. The republic went along for a couple hundred years before television and before it monopolized daytime television and another interview perhaps it was in this one, trump said that the ratings for those briefings are through the roof. I thought he would ask for the network to actually contribute something to charity as a way to pay back what he is doing for them. But, you know, if you want if people want to do it by writing or without cameras, thats fine. Thats not the end of the republic. I think his real problem for huckabee and expires is not that they are falling on the job. Its that their job is impossible. Theyre sent out on the day ever the firing to give one story. And it doesnt last 48 hours before the boss gives it to contradiction. What can they do . What can they say . Its not the fault of expires and huckabee. Thats for sure. Bret if he had a press briefing every two weeks, i dont know. That would be fine. I think that was the thing he said there that rings the most true which is that he wants to be the one doing it. Messaging. He thinks he is the best and in some ways he is. Thats what he has been doing. Bret we have some breaking news coming in. Were going to get to it its about the fbi director. Coming up. Bret this is a fox news alert. We are just getting word that the department of justice will start interviews tomorrow, tomorrow morning, 7 45 in the morning for a permanent replacement for james comey at the fbi. And these are the names that we have been given who will be interviewed. Alice fisher. She is a lawyer here in washington. She is the former assistant attorney general for the criminal division. We also have the current acting director mccabe. You saw him testify on capitol hill. He is in the position right now. Then john cornyn, senator from texas. He is in the running now. He is the majority whip of the senate, and judge michael garcia. He is the associate judge in the new york court of appeals and the former u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york. Those are the four that we have been told are interviewing for the position. Matt . Thats an impressive list. And i think a lot of this scandal going away where once again no evidence of any real collusion or wrongdoing by the Trump Campaign. They should be able to move beyond. This if he picks somebody to run the fbi who is unimpeachable. The list you went through is going to get rave reviews. John cornyn was on the Supreme Court in texas. I dont think he has an enemy on the globe. A decent, thoughtful person. Mike garcia worked for president bush and headed all of the u. S. Attorneys for a period of time. Its a good list. Bret any problems getting those through . Theres nobody right of that list that would raise, you know, the sirens or the alarm bells. That person is so controversial thats going to be really a tough hall for republicans. You want someone, i think, that is going to be, as matt points out sort of unimpeachable but kind of boring, right . Kind of get in, do the job, stay below the radar, not going to be doing, you know, getting the kind of, as the president called show boating that you saw from the previous fbi director. Bret we should caveat this. This is the list we are given. The interviews we know that are happening tomorrow according to multiple sources inside the administration. Could it go beyond this list . I guess. This is the list we are being given. Its the right kind of list. Its the right spirit. The key here is to find somebody boring, unimpeachable. Look, whats been the refrain of the democrats . They started this within minutes of the firing. We have to have a special prosecutor. Why would you want to have that . Because you are implying that the fbi is not going to conduct an honest investigation. You banish that thought, you refute the call by having somebody who is unimpeachable because all thats left then for the democratic argument is to say that the fbi agents themselves are corrupted, which even democrats wont say. So i think he will appoint somebody of integrity and you are done and the story is behind us for now. Unless the tapes show up. Bret or until tomorrow. Until tomorrow. There will be a tweet tomorrow. We start all over again there are a lot of rabbit holes out there on the plane. Bret we have you covered because we will be here sunday 8 00 p. M. For a special edition of special report. Up next with the panel winners and losers of the week. You wont see these folks at the post office. They have businesses to run. They have passions to pursue. How do they avoid trips to the post office . Stamps. Com mail letters, ship packages, all the services of the post office right on your computer. Get a 4 week trial, plus 100 in extras including postage and a digital scale. Go to stamps. Com tv and never go to the post office again. Time for winners and losers. Winner, the u. S. Flower industry which will sell Something Like 2. 6 billion worth of arrangements this mothers day. I will tell you that my wife is more interested in me propping up the u. S. Jewelry industry. To each their own. Loser, the swamp, again. And the longsuffering hockey fans of the swamp watching their caps go down again, not good. Bret loser, me, wearing that jersey right before the final game. Congratulations to pennsylvania, the penguins, pittsburgh, they had the better team on the ice. Winner and loser. My winner, remember there was an election in france that everyone was talking about, that wasnt that long ago, that was on sunday. A very big success of course weve moved onto other things we can only Pay Attention now in politics for 14 seconds. The loser right now, the Republican Health care bill, members of Congress Going home listening to angry constituents there are a lot of ads up on tv about it. The latest polling, approval rating, only 21 . If there are about two or three other polls, that is the lowestp to 33 . Three to four times say they strongly dislike them strongly like, democrats have been down this path, republicans have to find a way to message this better. Quickly just to followup paul ryan says two to three months he says the senate can move something. You have other republicans say were starting from scratch its going to take forever. We know the process commits takes a long time, i dont we will get something voted on before the fall. Bret winter and loser. Slightly more obscure, nobody has ever heard of him, you will hear it of him. He is an opposition candidate, he is very much more sympathetic to north korea than the Current Administration already he picked a fight with japan within a week of coming into office, he will pick fights with us, hes against the deployment of the missile Defense System which we are installing. Loser i hate to say it again, Sarah Huckabee sanders and mike pence, they were left hanging twisting in the wind by their boss who changed his rationale and had them unprotected. Bret well see what happens next week, thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. Fair balance, and still unafraid. Its a crazy week in washington, so why not . Special
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