this hour s breaking news. president trump declaring he s 100% willing to testify under oath about his conversations with former fbi director james comey, but not answering direct questions about whether tapes of those conversations exist in response to reporters questions. the president repeatedly contradicted and denied the main points of comey s testimony before the senate intelligence committee. ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states. get back to james comey s testimony, you suggested he didn t tell the truth in everything that he said. he did say under oath that you told him to let the flynn you said you hoped the flynn investigation i didn t say that. so he lied about that? well, i didn t say that, i mean, i will tell you i didn t say that. and did he ask you to pledge and there would be nothing wrong if i did say it according to everybody that i ve read today but i did not say that. and did he ask for a pledge of loyalty from you? that s
exchange, even when the president was president-elect may have inadvertently given the president the idea of having these closed door one-on-one meetings when comey suggested that the other aides leave so that he could basketweave the president on that very slarks dossier. he just wanted to do that privately so the president would know. do you think that argument has merit, that it was comey himself who suggested that these two men meet privately? it has to be considered, wolf, in the total pattern and context of their relationship, and and for the president to ask everyone to leave when he was going to raise the possibility of either a pledge of loyalty or asking that comey drop the investigation was improper at the very least, and i think that attorney general
deposition to come before congress and testify under oath? i think that congressional committees should defer or at least cooperate with bob mueller in his very, very important work to determine whether criminal charges are appropriate, and if he wishes us to delay the president coming before a congressional committee we should defer to his judgment on that score. one way or the or the president should be asked to submit to questions under oath. it the ought to be by bob mueller, if not by congressional committees, but he should in effect be compelled to answer just as jim comey has done in public at some point and under oath because he s called jim comb liar, and there are documents to support jim comby. his own written memoranda that he wrote following those meetings, and his testimony yesterday, comey, was under oath, so if he was lying that s perjury. he could wind up in jail if the president prove or the
minister, new jersey. likes to wave as he s walking over to marine one to take a short little helicopter ride. you know, evan, the fbi, the former fbi director comey testified yesterday that he shared that memo of that conversation he had with the president with a friend of his, professor at columbia university law school because he said, quote, i thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel. that friend was told share the information with a journalist which, of course, the friend did. was that appropriate? it s strange. i mean, i think this is the kind of thing that if any other fbi employee did i think it would be probably a fireable offense, but, look, i mean, this is something beyond strange now. the former fbi director was dealing with a president that he believed was acting inappropriately so he but he s a private citizen now. he s a private citizen and he s sharing notes that he took a lot of people are saying, well, these are still
feel that he has to depose the president. reporter: mueller now has comey s detailed memos of his conversations with trump. testifying before congress thursday, comey suggested that the president may now be a target of the investigation. i don t think it s for me to say whether the conversation hi with the president was an effort to obstruct are. i took it as a very disturbing thing, very concerning, but that s a conclusion i m sure the special counsel will work towards to try and understand what the intention was there and whether that s an offense. the snowballing effect that happens here is with every single instance and intention by the president of the united states to try to stop or distract the investigation you find additional shoes dropping, additional doors opening and an expansion of an investigation that likely would have been quite narrowly tailored. reporter: also emerging from comey s closed door meeting with senators, the possibility that attorney general jeff s