The full hour including exclusive reaction from top democrat senator dick durbin when all in starts right now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. Breaking news tonight. A blockbuster report from the New York Times since confirmed by nbc news that the president of the United States asked then fbi director james comey to end the bureaus investigation of Michael Flynn according to a memo written by comey. I hope you can let this go, the president reportedly told comey during a meeting in february. On the day after flynn was forced to resign for lying about his contacts with the Russian Ambassador. Immediately after that meeting, comey wrote a memo recounting his conversation with the president according to associates of his. Part of a paper trail comey created, again quoting the times, documents what he perceived as the president s improper efforts to influence a continuing investigation. A close associate of comeys read parts of the memo to a reporter for the times. I hope you c
House democrats on the Judiciary Committee said two things. They dont believe on the merits should the president try and invoke executive privilege it would work. If he did, they point out the political ramifications. That it would look like he was trying to obstruct the testimony. These are two key consideration the white house will have to Pay Attention to as they look forward. As you noted, we dont have an answer. The day before comey appears, the Deputy Attorney general will also testify. Reporter thats right. Separate hearing, separate focus. The big question is, what can members of get out of both Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein but everybody else on the panel . The acting fbi director, the cia director and the director of the nsa. All of these individuals have played some role one way or another in this russia investigation. The reality is, what we have seen over the last couple weeks is all questions will be deferred to the special counsel, bob mueller. Thats the posture
As well as the firing of james comey. Will sessions invoke kpktive privilege to avoid answering . The attorney general expected to be grilled today on capitol hill by members of the Senate Intelligence committee. Were not sewer yet how forthcoming the attorney general will be. We do know his testimony comes at a time when President Trump and his associates appear to be interfering with the work of the special counsel Robert Mueller. I think hes considering perhaps terminating the special council. Just hours after leaving the white house, President Trumps longtime friend claims the president is considering firing special counsel Robert Mueller, the man in charge of investigating possible collusion between the Trump Campaign and russia. I think hes weighing that option. I think it is pretty clear by what one of his lawyers said on television recently. I personally think it would be a very significant mistake. Sean spicer insisting mr. Rudi never spoke to the president regarding this issu
Russia is fake news. The fbi is investigating whether there was any coordination between the campaign and russias efforts. The answer continues to be. No. He is now accusing president barack obama of wiretapping his phones during the campaign. There was no such wiretap activity. There is no one that he is willing to spare in defaming to distract us from the uncomfortable questions around russia. The whole russian thing, thats a ruse there. Are investigations. These are not hoaxes. The time for trivial fights is behind us. This is the closest we will ever get to repealing and replacing obamacare. Its coming together beautifully. We are united on repeal. But we are divided on replacement. The freedom caucus, they are really trying to get they are not ready. At the end of the day, we cant force somebody to vote. I told them the best thing to do is to pull this bill. I think we have to let obamacare go its way for a little while. Don and eric are going to be running the company. Theyre not
At the university of virginia, waving tiki torches. All of this, an attempt to protest the citys decision to remove a statue of confederate general robert e. Lee from emancipation park. We are going to go now to Kelly Odonnell, who is following the situation with the president of the United States. She is near the president s bedminster golf resort. Kelly, last we heard from you, we did not know whether the president talked to Virginia Governor Terry Mcauliffe as normally happens in a situation like this. We expect to see the president at 3 00 p. M. What do we know right now . Reporter at this point, i can tell you from speaking with white house advisers that the white house has contacted the Virginia Governor and contacted him through his chief of staff. The department of Homeland Security and the president s own Homeland Security adviser have been in touch with the local authorities there. That would be part of their role to try to offer support and to try to coordinate and weve hear