Heard from james comey happened when President Trump was still his boss. I have been authorized by the department of justice to confirm that the fbi as part of our Counter Intelligence mission is investigating the russian governments interference in the 2016 election and that includes links of any individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and the russian government, and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and russias efforts. With respect to the president s tweets about alleged wiretapping directed at him by the prior administration, i have no information that supports those tweets. Comeys Upcoming Senate intel testimony will be his first time speaking in public since he was fired by President Trump and its the First Time Since he has reported the President Trump called him a nut job. Today the white house was asked about reports that comey will testify that the president asked him to back off the Flynn Investigation. Did the president engage in obstruction of justice in mr. James comey . Our job, we are focused on the president s agenda and Going Forward all questions of these matters will be referred to outside counsel. We have a full panel on the story. First which go to ken delaney and Nbc National Security reporter. Ken, what is the late est on james comey . Reporter he is going to testify in what is going to be one of the more dramatic hearings in recent washington history. As youve said, a source close to comey today said that he did speak to Robert Mueller, the special counsel, and did get clearance to talk about some of the things surrounding his firing. We dont know specifically whether there are any guide post, whether mueller asked him not to discuss certain matters. Whats been interesting is it wasnt clear comey was going to testify at all. We knew for a while he was interested in telling his story publicly, but once Robert Mueller became the special counsel there was a lot of speculation that mueller may ask him not to testify for fear that it could somehow impede his investigation. Particularly if mueller is looking at the obstruction question around comeys conversations with donald trump. But now it appears mueller has green lighted at least some public testimony and it could happen as early as next week. We understand the schedule is not firmed up yet. Well have to see what comey says, greta. Ken, is there any information tonight about the notes . And whatre these notes . Are we likely to see the notes at the hearing . Are they contemporaneous, were they written sometime ter he met with the president , anything at all . I dont believe were likely to see them only because what we know so far is that the House Oversight committee has asked the fbi for copies and the fbi has so far declined to provide them. And experts say the Justice Department has a history of resisting these kinds of requests. A, because this material could be relevant to a pending criminal investigation. B, because there could be executive privilege issues, or other kinds of privilege issues. My understanding about these is that comey memorialized nearly every interaction he had with the president , whether it was a phone call or a meeting. And he did it shortly afterwards. And it was sort of a note to file, a reflection of the conversation for just this eventuality. And comey was trying to manage the situation where he thought the president was majoring improper requests and was sort of behaving in a way that made him uncomfortable but he wanted to remain in his job but he thought he could manage it and remain the independent if in if director and it turned out that didnt happen. Did he tell any of his colleagues about any of these conversations, if you know . Yes, my understanding is he did share with a small circle of colleagues these conversations and they talked about it. What he tried to do was shield this from the actual fbi agents who were working on russia investigation because he didnt want them to feel chilled. He kept any information about the fact that the president had been asking about it from them, but he did share it with a small circle of colleagues. Thank you, ken. Thank you, greta. Bill crystal, matt miller, michael issa cough from yahoo news. Can you shed any light on the testimony with comey . First the most interesting part to me is the community does not now have the memos that comey wrote about these meetings. That would clearly be key evidence. Now, and normally you would want to have that those memos when you question comey. It is either going to corroborate what he said because he wrote them contemporaneously, or it may have aspects that hes not testifying to. So, one has to think about why they havent been turned over and, you know, we can come up with various scenarios, but one is it may be that mueller wants them held back because he might still want to pursue matters relating to obstruction. Let comey give his testimony under oath, but the powerful corroborating evidence in the memos, hes going to wait and keep as in his armor. The very word that you use, and ill go to you, matt, the fact the notes could possibly corroborate what hes going to testify. I mean, well have to take sort of on faith what he testifies if we dont have these notes. We know that there is something out there that might corroborate, or there is something called impeachment by omission. Maybe hes going to testify about something before the committee thats not in the notes that you would expect to. Those notes are actually are very powerful and potent to the credibility of this hearing. They are important to the hearing. Again, hell be under oath so it will be a big problem for him a lot of people say things under oath. Their memories are faulty. If he goes in i would guess that jim comey has some of those memos with him. If any that were classified he wouldnt be able to take out of the government. Ones that were classified, i bet he has them or refreshes his memory before he goes and testifies. Youre right, the committee should get those memos at some point, but as mike pointed out, director mueller may decide those are an important part of the case he eventually i dont get it, though, bill. If mueller is going to give him the green light to testify, why do this halfway . If youre going to let him testify, show us the notes that youre going to back up director comey or not. Maybe he will. Mueller permitting comey to testify is the bigger story right now since we dont really know what comey is going to say. Its unusual. Im not a lawyer. My sense is prosecutors normally like to hear these hear their key witnesses testify in private so they can go ask other witnesses things to corroborate, to set perjury traps for others and so forth. Either mueller is very confident that comey is going to well, its very interesting. One thing it tells me ill put it this way. This may be moving faster than we think. If youre in a normal, 6, 9, 12no investigation, early stages, the last thing you want is one of your absolute key witnesses talking about something publicly. Maybe mueller knows what he needs to know. Hes not too worried about what he thinks comey will be truthful before this committee and he figures the public has a right to know. Suppose he said no. Suppose mueller had said no. It would like the fix is in he wouldnt let him testify. What is everybody hiding . It would look like mueller was looking seriously at an obstruction case. There is only one target of an obstruction case in this instance, and thats the president himself. Now, how that is handled, you know, well have to see. But in terms of historical analogies here, i was trying to think when is the last time we had a former very senior u. S. Government official about to testify before congress basically saying the president of the United States is a liar. I think the only analogy i can think of is john dean and watergate. Remember, when john dean testified about his conversations with the president , he didnt have the advantage of having the tapes, which might be the analogy to those memos. They came out later and they fully corroborated john deans testimony. Matt, what do you think the white house is thinking tonight with the news that hes going to testify . I think they are obviously getting ready for a very bad day. Theyre both going to have a bad day from what jim comey does. They could also have a bad day by how the president reacts. One of problems here is not the underlying investigation, but the president s response to it. Every time there is a big dramatic public event the president does something either behind closed doors, by calling jim comey and asking him to quash the Flynn Investigation, or in public by tweeting this absurd claim maybe not so absurd there were tapes to back up his conversation with jim comey. They have this problem where not only the hearing causes problems, they cant control the president. Thats the p. R. Side. It is a political investigation. We dont know why the memo is so important. Look, hes a former fbi director. Hes going to testify under oath. Lets see what he says. If there are things that contradict what he says, other people can testify to that, too. Im sure mr. Mummer will ask reince priebus, what did you president tell you after this meeting, is it different from what comey says. Its not just comey. The president made phone calls to the director of the National Security agency and to the head of the dnr, director of National Intelligence dan coats, saying, hey, can you give me a clean bill of health on the investigation . Theyre going to be talking privately at least to mueller maybe publicly. We will know a lot pretty quickly it seems to me not just gee its a bad p. R. Day or week. What actually the president of the United States the first three months of his administration was trying to do or not trying to do or legitimately trying to do or illegitimately trying to do to shut down or curb this probe into the russias influence on the election. But the notes are the most potent edence if they were made contremporaneous or a shor time. Bob mueller will have them. There is a new development they issued 7 subpoenas, four relating to the russia probe and three related to unmasking of Trump Associates in intelligence reports. The story was first broken by the wall street journal and they are reporting that the subpoenas are looking for information on unmasking requests made by three obama officials. Former National Security advisor susan rice, former cia director john brennan and former u. N. Ambassador Samantha Power. Michael. Samantha power on the list is a new one. We have to wonder what that is about. Unmasking in and of itself is not illegal. It isnt clear it is unusual. Intelligence reports get circulated. Theyre minimized. U. S. Person number one, u. S. Person number two, you want to understand the nature of the conversation for intelligence purposes. Its perfectly legitimate for somebody to ask for that it could be unmasked. The question is what happens after that and does somebody take steps to disclose the identity of that information. And right now, you know, we dont know that any of these officials who have been named had anything to do with that. Im trying to figure out what Samantha Power as the former u. N. Ambassador, why she would be named, she would be part of this. There is another thing we know about. The unusual thing about this, everyone who has looked at these unmasking claims so far, including republicans who have talked to numerous outlets on background, there is no credible evidence by anyone in the unmasking. The subpoenas show they are continuing to try to create a diversion from the real underlying investigation into what happened to russia. You can say this about sending subpoenas to the nsa and other agencies. These are agencies that are under the jurisdiction of these committees. They could have gotten the information just by asking. The fact that they are sending subpoenas looks like a political exercise. Even from an antitrump point of view this is good. This is the main talking point of the trump defenders. There was a horrible effort to discredit trump. Maybe people were unmasked, didnt need to be. Maybe it led to leaks, maybe it didnt. We need to take a look at all that. For me it comes back to the underlying facts which are was it reasonable for people, susan rices position to worry about actual collusion, cooperation, or something between the Trump Campaign or Trump Associates and the russian government. I mean, if they saw something that alarmed them, that is more important frankly than whether the tactical question of this person should have been unmasked or that person should have been unmasked comes out. Were going to learn the facts. I think im struck by the pace of things here. I dont know what you guys think about this. Theyre going to learn them faster than what i thought. What do you think . This is like some of the facts, some of the facts. There is still so much of this is classified. The evidence that spurred the investigation, the communications that were intercepted. Im not so sure were going to get to see those quickly, if at all. And, you know, thats whats at the core of this. What was the evidence that spurred the obama people to be concerned that and the fbi to launch an investigation. And donald trump to be so alarmed. I keep coming back to psychologically. One can be aggrieved if one is unjustly accused. One can dwell on it, you can call up people and say, guys, this isnt fair, this isnt right. Theyre messing up my Administration Obama held over. Cant we get this out . I can understand that. Th degree to whiche went to try to stophis and degree to which it doesnt exactly feel like innocence to me. Thats why the Flynn Investigation is so important because what was the president trying to stop comey from doing investigating mike flynn. Was it because the president just felt this loyalty to his former top aide . Or is it because he knows of actions that flynn took that he doesnt want uncovered by the fbi . Thats the biggest question of all here. Gentlemen, thank you. Still ahead, what will james comey say and what is he allowed to say in his next public testimony . Were going to talk to Alan Dershowitz and Hillary Clinton pointing fingers from her election loss pinning a lost of the blame on fired director jim comey. Comey was more than happy to talk about my emails but he wouldnt talk about the investigation of the russians. Also the white house gives a bizarre explanation for that comfy, whatever it is tweet. You have to hear this one. And cnn parts ways with Kathy Griffin after that offensive photo. And First Lady Melania Trump has a message for griffin. Not the. Excuse me, doctor. The genomic data came in. Thank you. You can do that kind of analysis . Yeah, watson. I can quickly analyze millions of clinical and scientific reports to help you tailor Treatment Options for the patients genomic profile. You can do that . Even way out here . Yes. Even way out here. Working on my feet all day gave me pain here. In my knees. Even way out here . 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And on may 10, the New York Times reporting President Trump told russian officials he fired nut job comey, which eased pressure on the russia investigation. Alan dershowitz is a constitutional law scholar and Professor Emeritus at harvard law school. I know youve been listening and following this all day. Your thoughts . Well, total misconception when you say that mueller somehow gave him clearance, or gave him permission to testify. Lets be clear. As a matter of constitutional law, congress has more authority than mueller does to call comey. Congress is a coequal branch of government. It certainly had the power to impeach the president , therefore it can have hearings. There is great doubt whether mueller has the power to indict the president. So, congress does not have to defer to mueller. They can make comey testify on any subject. Comey has only two options. He can plead the fifth amendment, hes not going to do that, or he can plead executive privilege. Hes unlikely to do that. So, this nonsense constitutionally, at least, that mueller has to somehow give permission or clearance to testify should be absolutely forgotten about. Thats just not the way the constitution operates today. All right. The one thing that im eager to see are the notes, those supposedly contemporaneous memo or notes. And can Congress Demand those notes . Because that will either corroborate or say that comey is likely telling the truth or not likely telling the truth. What about those notes . Absolutely. In fact, his testimony is going to be relatively just a show. Everything turns on the notes. Hes not going to testify to anything thats not in the notes. Hes certainly not going to testify to anything thats contradicted by the notes. Of course this not being a criminal trial, he can be asked what his feelings were. In a criminal trial that would be objected to. But in a congressional hearing, he can be asked that. If im the republicans, the first thing i ask him is tell us about every conversation you had with mueller. What did he tell you you could say, what did he tell you you couldnt say. Second, recite the exact words, precise words the president told you, according to his memo the words were, i hope you can let this thing go. Did he say anything beyond that . Why didnt you put it in the memo if he said anything beyond that . What were your exact words . Did you say yes, did you say no . Was this an order, or was it a request . Your word suggests it was a request. I hope you can. Now, comey may try to say, look, a request from the president is like a kiss from the godfather. Its an offer you cant refuse. But apparently comey refused it. So, i think in the end this could hurt trump politically, but it will help him legally. Why would it help him legally . Every defense lawyer wants to see a preview of the testimony against them. Thats why we hate grand jury hearings and we love inquiries, preliminary hearings where we can hear in open what they have against our client. So, i think this is much ado about nothing. Everything will turn on the notes. Greta, youre a great lawyer. You put your finger on that right away. Everything will turn on the notes. And he has to testify consistent with the notes. He also doesnt know whether there was a taping in the oval office or where the dinner was conducted. So, hes going to be very cautious and careful. But the one thing he cant get away with, he cant get away with saying, im sorry, mr. Mueller told me to testify that way. Congress would be abdicating its responsibility if it did not say, sorry, mr. Comey, were not going to accept what mueller told you to do. You are here as a witness and as a witness you must testify unless you invoke a specific privilege. All right. You hear often in washington obstruction of justice. Everyone talking about that allegations. What is the story on the obstruction of justice . Can the president ever be charged with obstruction of justice . Sure, if he tore up a subpoena, or he erased tapes. But if he exercised his Constitutional Authority to fire the director of the fbi, i dont think that the courts would have the power to inquire into his mind, into his motive as to why he did it. Obviously everybody has mixed motives, but the idea that you can inquire into the motive of a president for why he exercised his Constitutional Authority seems to be like a very, very significant stretch. And as a civil libertarian, i just dont want to see the ready too much elastic obstruction of justice stretched even more to fit a particular target. Again, as i said before, its like telling joseph staal in, show me the man and ill find you the crime. Thats not the way american criminal law should operate and every civil libertarian should be worried about stretching the justice statute, today its trump, tomorrow its you. Alan, thank you. Thank you. And heres an understatement. Secretary Hillary Clinton is not too happy with former fbi director james comey. Thats the understatement. So, wait tillou hear what she said today abouthe former director of the fbi. And what is up with this . Press Secretary Sean Spicer holding an audioonly briefing today. Is he now camera shy . Does seem a little bit odd. Also tonight, the president and the first lady respond to Kathy Griffins gruesome video. What are they saying . Those who suffer from lower back pain go to Great Lengths to find relief. Finally theres drugfree aleve direct therapy®. A tens device with high intensity power that uses technology once only available in doctors offices for deep penetrating relief at the source. Aleve direct therapy. What does life look like during your period . With tampax pearl. You get ultimate protection on your heaviest days and smooth removal for your lightest. Tampax pearl and pocket pearl for on the go. I decided to see if there was a way for design to play a. Positive role in what was going on in the world. Theres a jacket thats reflective for visibility. A sleeping bag jacket, jackets that turn into tents. I usually do my fashion sketches on the computer. I love drawing on the screen. Theres no lag time at all. It feels just like my markers. With fashion, you can dress people and help people. Its really cool to see your work come to life. The white house just got camera shy. Press Secretary Sean Spicer briefing reporters offcamera today. It was audio only. Yesterday, though, there was an oncamera briefing, but that was after spicer went two weeks without an oncamera briefing. The only audio briefing were still carried by all three Cable Networks wide. This after he was unhappy with the Communication Team but replacing a Communication Team might be easier said than done. They are having trouble finding a replacement for Outgoing Communications director. Four potential successors are said to have declined to be considered. Also today nbc news reporting that President Trump is actively seeking advice about whether to remove chief of staff reince priebus. With me former vermont governor former chair of the National Democratic committee howard dean and chair of the conservative movement matt. Can we make anything of the fact the briefing was audio and were getting fewer oncamera . I just think they feel probably like theyre being pump he will pummeled by the press. They havent had much luck being straightforward with the press, this is the next step. Matt . I think they should mix it up. President s have done them in different ways. And i think its a mistake for sean spicer to do this himself every day. I said they should have a bull pen. They should have several spokespeople. President s have gone to the sticks in that room and briefed the press. Youve had cabinet secretaries do it. I think depending what message they want to drive is who should determine who briefs the pres you dont have to do it every day. I think the president should travel a lot more. Travel than dictate what the press covers. They should mix it up. The president has an unusual way of communicating. This is a new era. He likes twitter. Yes, he does, and twitter is a lot of fun. Weve had a lot of fun with his miss tweet or whatever it was. He was a good sport. He had fun back. Yes, it was fun. It wasnt mean. That missed tweet was better than some of the other tweets. That was fine. That was good. It appears as the shake up going on at the white house, thats what appears on the outside, reince priebus, people keep making comments that maybe hes on the way out the doorment i dont know if thats true or not. I dont know if its true either. Theyre not calling you . Theyre not calling me. Thats sort of a classic washington thing is to start the rumor that somebody is out of the way on the way out the door when you want them to be out the door. Im not talking about trump. Im talking about other people who probably have it in for priebus. This is a pretty contense shus white house. They are having trouble getting people to work close with the president. One, hes not an easy guy to work for. Two is they could well end up under oath. What did they know, when did they know it. Even new coming in, this would be a tough move. This might be a career ender for you to go to work for donald trump and end up under oath. Ive worked in an administration in the first term of presidency of george w. Bush. There were lots of investigations going on. We had the leak investigation. It was a stressful place to work when there is an outside counsel. And, look, think thesident is going to shake things up. And actually i think the president is right to want to shake things up. The average tenure of a white house staffer is 8 or 9 months. These are not longterm jobs. Except, matt, to say the problems at the white house, take the communications department, i dont know how they could do a better job. If youve got someone who wants to go out there and talk about the crowd size or if youve got someone who is tweeting in the middle of the night, someone accusing the former president of wiretapping, i dont know how i dont know what Communications Director where are you going to find somebody who can do a better job . I agree. Josh ernst was a good press secretary which i was proud of. He was my deputy when i was running the dnc. But he was working for a guy, he was predictable. He gave the full briefing. He was great at it. Obama helped him be great at it. Trump is not helping sean spicer. I think sean spicers trying to do the best he can. Hes trying to stay loyal to the president , which is what youre supposed to do. It puts him in a really bad position. I think it was a mistake this was mike, the last guy in. He was president 9 reason they were having problems. There has been a lot of staff mistakes at this white house. Like what . Tighten it up like what . I think they could do a little better job in the communications front. I think everybody agrees you dont think the media you dont think the media is gunning for its terrible. Let me tell you, when you work for a republican president every day is war. Do you believe the media is gunning for this president . Theyre beguning for him because hes trump. He puts them down, he puts other people down. Hes not a nice man. George w. Bush took the same heat. I dont think thats true. I remember when i was running and i didnt like the media very much. I still have my concerns about it, but ive never seen anything like what theyre doing to trump. I think its much worse and he deserves it. Dick chaeney was called a wa criminal. It gets blistery. Its not going to be easy for this white house or his team. Why does anybody want this job . Not the president , the air force one is why you want to be president. 17 of our guys signed up for it. [ laughter ] thats suspect to begin with. Anybody who wants the job in my mind you wanted it. Why did you want it . I wanted to change the country. Whoofatever. But anyway, why would somebody want to be in this look, obviously trump is a very different person than weve ever seen before. I think if youre serious and you care about policy, and you care about power, this is a great job. I would love to have this job. You can still run. I could, but im much more anxious to get somebody in this job than i am of my age. Our generation has hung on too long. I really do. Who would that be . Theres a long list. Secretary Hillary Clinton, is she going to run again . No. I think shes going to run again. She said shes not and i believe her. Everyone always he hope she runs again. Id like to see her run. Anyway, gentlemen, thank you both. Thank you. Speaking of Hillary Clinton, coming up, shes taking off the gloves and taking down former fbi director james comey. She is zeroing in on preelection emails and standing mute about the russia investigation. Is comey the reason clinton loss . Thats coming p. Also breaking news about former vicepresident joe biden. One of our clearest signs yet he may be thinking about the white house in 2020. Plus President Trump coins a new phrase, covfefe, is that what it is . Coming up. Are allergies holding you back . Break through your allergies. Try new Flonase Sensimist allergy relief instead of allergy pills. Its more complete allergy relief in a gentle mist experience youll barely feel. Using unique mistpro technology, new Flonase Sensimist delivers a gentle mist to help block six key inflammatory substances that cause your symptoms. Most allergy pills only block one. And six is greater than one. New Flonase Sensimist changes everything. Working on my feet all day gave me pain here. In my knees. So i stepped on this machine and got my number, which matched my dr. Scholls custom fit orthotic inserts. So i get immediate relief from my foot pain. My knee pain. Find a machine at drscholls. Com. Apparently, i kept her up all night. She said the future freaks her out. How come no one likes me, jim . Intel does just think of everything intels doing right now with artificial intelligence. And pretty soon ai is going to help executives like her see trends to stay ahead of her competition. No more sleepless nights. Were going to be friends im sorry about this. Dont be embarrassed of me, jim. Im getting excited about this we know the future. Were going to be friends because were building it. P3 its meat, cheese and nuts. I keep my protein interesting. Oh yea, me too. I have cheese and uh these herbs. P3 snacks. The more interesting way to get your protein. Present. Youre always itthinking about it. S always what if my cancer comes back . Ive been working on this therapy for 5 years now and were getting ready to go to the clinic. My son definitely keeps me fighting. I want to be there for him when he needs me. Thats what motivates me. I want to see patients have gray hair. I see myself growing old with my pink hair. That to me, is enough to keep going. I know you worry i cant keep up with our weekly tee times. Dear son, but ive been taking osteo biflex ease. Its 80 smaller but just as effective. Which means youre in big trouble, son. Improved joint comfort in seven days. Osteo biflex ease. Made to move. To take advantage of this offer on a volvo s90, visit your local dealer. Today a blunt talking former secretary of state and former candidate for president Hillary Clinton, her comments today perhaps her sharp est criticism yet of former fbi director james comeys actions during the president ial campaign. We went and told everybody we could find in the middle of the summer the russians were messing with the election, and we were basically shooed away. Comey was more happy to talk about my emails but he wouldnt talk about investigation into the russians. So people went to vote on november 8 having no idea there was an active Counter Intelligence investigation going on of the Trump Campaign. Secretary clinton making the comment to the tech conference. Clinton also slamming the Democratic National committee. I get the nomination, so im now the nominee of the Democratic Party. I inherit nothing from the Democratic Party. What do you mean nothing . I mean it was bankrupt, it was on the verge of insolvency. Its data was mediocre to poor, nonexistent, wrong. And moments ago, there is breaking news about another highprofile democrat. The the New York Times reporting former vicepresident joe biden is creating his own Political Action committee. The times calling it a possible signal for 2020. With me yamish with the New York Times. Clarence page, chicago tribune, and John Mccormick for the weekly standard. Yamish, since its your newspaper that has the news about vicepresident biden, do you think he could run . Whether or not he can run at least from what i can tell, i dont think that he he can run obviously. Ere is this ea that people i guess i should say could he get the nomination. Could he get the nomination is kind of a no. I think what the democrats are looking for is someone they dont know at all, someone with fresh blood, fresh ideas. He is someone the democrats can look at and say he has a connection to some people that voted for donald trump. At the end of the day what they really need is a new face. He i think feels is establishment to some people. In a lot of ways vicepresident biden is sort of the adult in the room. I mean, everybody in town likes him. Republicans, democrats, hes got a wealth of experience besides being vicepresident whether you agree with him or not. And former chairman of the Senate Foreign relations committee. Right. And so well liked and even so well liked in pennsylvania, where he grew up. No question about it. Ive seen him ive been in the room with him on half a dozen occasions the last year of the obama presidency. It was amazing. People everywhere, as far as the spirit was concerned, they loved to see joe biden in that job. But im also hearing right and left people saying, we need new faces in the party and thats really very true to many people. Both Hillary Clinton and joe biden are above the age of anyone who won the presidency before. And its at a time when the Democratic Party is looking for fresh faces out there. So they need a bench of democrats out there that are going to be around for a long time that are going to be growing the party, that are going to be giving it a new message. And i think thats why i think joe biden isnt going to be someone that is going to be able to carry the torch and somehow be the next democratic nominee. I wont say mitch landro, but other people making news sta standing up to trump that are going to be part of the slate of 2020. Secretary of state Hillary Clinton very har on the dnc saying no money, she inherited nothing from the Democratic Party, practically bankrupt, insolvent. She said she takes full responsibility for her loss, then she goes out and keeps saying things that blames everybody but her. She hasnt internalized the fact it was a close race because she was a bad candidate. Obviously this race was close in the end. It was decide bid 70,000 votes in three midwestern states. If you changed any number of things, could you have eked out those 70,000 votes, probably. David axelrod said why was it so close in the first place. That was her fault. Clarence, listening to her today, she seemed bitter. Was that there was something a little more to it today. She went after comey saying comey, he was happy to these are my words talk about her emails at the july fifth press conference followed by the october letter to congress. But he didnt want to talk about the russians. Right. This occasion was one where she, to me, did sound bitter. I thought she got a bum rap from people about her earlier speech, the commencement address she gave. I thought she was trying to be funny there and did get some laughs from the crowd. But this time she really sounded considerably more sarcastic. I think its not good news for democrats at this point. People are still talking about Hillary Clintons race. They ought to be talking about whats the future for the party and future possible candidates out there. Which is what yamish said a moment ago. Former speaker of the house boehner doing the walk back. He slammed the president as a complete disaster. Today the former Colorado Springs boehner walking that one back, instead insisting what he meant about his friend donald. I did not say that the president i did not say that the president s agenda was a disaster. What i was referring to is the execution of the president s agenda and the president s policies. And there have been a number of miss steps, unforced errors that the president has made. Yamish, i dont know whats more dangerous in this town, to take to twitter where you have 140 character limitations or to even say anything in washington because it seems like everyone is always walking things back. But even that to me is a reporter who is listening to him and saying, well, what is he walking back . Your policies are a disaster, your agenda is a disaster, if everything youre supposed to do as president is a disaster, how is the presidency not a disaster . At the end of the day he was being honest this was a disaster. Stop any republican in the town right now, they will say there are all these things republicans need to get done including the fact they need to get things done 2018 so when they go to the midterms people will say they were a party of i can get it together. Im listening and saying, youre walking back exactly what . If policies and everything hes doing is a disaster. I thought he was telling the truth the first time as far as what he really felt. You know how it is in this town, the Michael Kinzly rule. That was what he meant. This time he softened it by saying that he meant to say that President Trump is still learning the job. That is not much of a compliment for somebody who has been a president this long. Its the truth. John, Speaker Boehner is glad hes not current speaker . I think hes loving it. Im sure hes enjoying his merlot right now. Interesting times here, especially if youre in the legislative branch as well. Anyway, it was the tweet that launched a thousand theories. Covfefe, covfefe . What does it mean, does it mean anything at all . Im going to tell you what the white house now is saying what that word means and tweet means. Plus a new bash to Kathy Griffins shocking photo showing a bloody image o President Trump. Where is the line . Well, maybe we are final finding out. I count on my dell Small Business advisor for tech advice. With one phone call, i get products that suit my needs and i get back to business. P3 its meat, cheese and nuts. I keep my protein interesting. Oh yea, me too. I have cheese and uh these herbs. P3 snacks. The more interesting way to get your protein. Whats the best way to get v8 or a fancy juice store . S . Ready, go hi, juice universe . One large rutabaga, with eggplant. Done thats not fair. Glad i had a v8. The original way to fuel your day. Yet up 90 fall short in getting key nutrients from food alone. Lets do more. Add one a day 50 a complete multivitamin with 100 daily value of more than 15 key nutrients. One a day 50 . Here is how day 131 for President Trump played out in 60 seconds. It started as it usually does. Twitter. Odd tweets. Apparently it speaks for itself. Covfefe . Were going to let you make the call this morning. Also in the morning a round of questions for trumps son in lay jared kushner. Why was there a back channel with the russians . Can you tell us about the contact with the russian s . Later breaking news about the paris climate agreement. Put it into context in terms of u. S. Leadership. Its disastrous. Meanwhile reports swirl over a possible white house shakeup. The white house braces for the shakeup to come. News breaking in the russia probe. The former fbi director is expected to testify next week. The discussion they would want to have is what happened between james comey and donald trump. Happened between james comey and donald trump. Still ahead, sean spicer and the late night president ial tweet. It might be the oddest response yet. 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Dont start humira if you have an infection. Talk to your doctor and visit humira. Com this is humira at work. Working on my feet all day gave mpain her in my knee so i stepped on this machine and got my number, which matched my dr. Scholls custom f orttic insert so i get immediate relief from my foot pain. My knee pain. Find a machine at drscholls. Com. This is a story about mail and packages. And its also a story about people. People who rely on us every day to deliver their dreams theyre handing us more than mail theyre handing us their business and while we make more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget. That your business is our business the United States postal service. Priority you do you think people should be concerned that the president posted somewhat of an incoherent tweet last night and that it then stayed up for hours . Uh, no. Why did it stay up so long . Is no one watching this . No. I think the the president and a small group of people know exactly what he meant. Blake . Wait a minute. Blake . What does it mean . Press Secretary Sean Spicer saying the president s tweet meant something after all, but heres the catch. Spicer being cagey, not revealing exactly what that tweet meant. President trump tweeting just after midnight, quote, despite the constant negative press covfefe. Okay. And then what happened next . About six hours later, the president taking to twitter again, this time hitting the delete button, and that tweet with covfefe vanished. And then the president apparently having some fun, tweeting who can figure out the true meeting of covfefe. Enjoy. Now, the first tweet and the time lag before it got deleted raising some questions about whether anyone in the white house is monitoring the presids communications. I think the answero that one is no. The a. P. Reporting President Trump hands out his cell phone number to World Leaders and urges them to call him directly. Back with me, yamiche, clarence, and john. Okay, john. This feels a little bit like well of fortune to me, but covfefe. First of all, how do you pronounce it, and what does it mean . I dont know how to pronounce it, and not to ruin the joke, but he clearly meant to write coverage, negative press coverage. But i think he provided a retrieve from the news avalanche weve had. The president spends a little too much time on twitter. So do political journalists. I think everybody had a lot of fun making up jokes. Ill give you a chance at pronouncing it too, clearance. I got to give the president credit for at least making a little light. It was sort of fun. I think he had fun with it. I want to know what is so wrong with saying the president dozed off because thats obviously what happened here. I mean i make mistakes on twitter all the time. Thats what you think it is . Im going to use that excuse next time i do it. As i gave away earlier, im almost Donald Trumps age. I know how it is when youre 70 years old. Number one, you dont change. Number two, you dont want to admit theres anything that you werent planning to do that you have done, especially donald trump. And so, you know, he doesnt want to remind people that he dozes off like anybody else in the middle of the night. Yamiche, i make so many mistakes on twitter although now im going to say i just dozed off, that i wasnt just a fool next time. But your thoughts on this . I mean twitter etiquette, as far as ive understood it, is to say that when youre wrong, you know what, i meant coverage. But of course President Trump has not really wanted to say that hes been wrong about anything. So you have sean spicer of course doinghat sean sper does, which is kind of being cagey, not really being opaque, not wanting to say what the president meant. When in reality, obviously he meant press coverage. I think the thing thats not funny about this is there is this idea that while the president , its interesting to see him tweeting, theres this idea that hes the president of the United States and that no one is monitoring his communications and that his phone could he could just doze off and his phone could, what, give away other secrets . He could dial the wrong thing. He could butt dial somebody, and it could be not the nuclear codes, but like it could be something. I think its absurd in some ways to think that he could be giving out his number directly and then also having twitter to kind of just talk to anybody. Kathy griffin, they fired her for that video that went viral. The president himself responding this morning, tweeting this. 11yearold son barron is having a hard time with the photo, and First Lady Melania Trump saying, quote, as a mother, a wife, and human being, that photo is very disturbing. It is simply wrong and makes you wonder about the Mental Health of the person who did it. Very late yesterday, after griffins failed attempt to justify the picture, deleting her tweet promoting the photo and apologizing. I sincerely apologize. I went way too far. The image is too disturbing. I understand how it offends people. It wasnt funny. I get it. You get the first stab at this one, john. I mean she did it to get attention. She got attention, i think a little more than she wanted. I think she didnt realize she was going to get attention from the secret service and everyone would find it genuinely disgusting. It reminds me there was a movie made depicting the assassination of george w. Bush. Completely uncalled for. Bill maher, the exper in Political Correctness some years ago, said a joke as to have an element of truth to it. This one, you look at it, and all you feel is that youre grossed out. Theres no humor to it. Theres no particular point to t. I think she obviously did go too far and she acknowledged that. Yamiche . I think also when you see outrage across the political spectrum, you see while we are in this phase where politicians has become nasty and personal, there is this line that you cant cross, and violence is that line. At the end of the day, donald trump is obviously dealing with death threats. Theres a secret service there for a reason, because there are people there that want to hurt him. I think this joke was not funny, and she went too far. Unfortunately, thats why she got fired. Clarence, is she finished as a comedienne for a while or does she recover . Shes always dealt in edgy humor. She went over the edge this time, but shes not going to recover that cnn job at new years, but shell be around. Thank you, panel. Thank you for watching. Ill see you back here tomorrow night 6 00 p. M. Eastern. If you cant watch live, set your dvr. Check out my Facebook Page for behind the scenes videos and much more. Hardball with Chris Matthews starts right now. Covfefe. Lets play hardball. Good evening. Im Chris Matthews in washington, a city only now getting uses to a new road, covfefe. A murky time, but the clouds are about to open. Former fbi director james comey has been cleared to testify before the United States intelligence committee. He could answer three giant questions for the recordor history, and for the future of this presidency. Did trump ask him to drophe federal investigation of trumps