by accepting the recommendation of the deputy attorney general to remove director comey because of the actions that the deputy attorney general outlined to the president to act on the recommendation of the deputy attorney general. reporter: now trump is coming clean about his ill will towards comey. look, he s a showboat. he s a grandstander. the fbi has been in turmoil. reporter: sources tell cnn comey s testimony last week enraged president trump. look, this is terrible. it makes me mildly nauseous to think we had some impact on the election. reporter: comey unwittingly targeted one of the president s insecurities, the legitimacy of his election. sources familiar with the president said he was white hot and couldn t let it go stewing all weekend while at his property in bed minster, new jersey. one trump source tells cnn he was already holding a deep grudge against comey since march for publicly contradicting president trump s apparently false claim via tweet that preside
allege. medaling. now when the president is asked if comey should have been dismissed like others from the obama years, his support is suddenly tepid. no, it s not too late but i have confidence in him. we ll see what happens. what has happened is the russia probe has expands, intensified. a week ago sources tell cnn comey asked for more resources to pursue it. the justice department denies that and the white house has now put out several different versions of what led to comey s firing. one, the president took action after the deputy attorney general told him the bureau had lost faith in comey, starting with the clinton e-mail probe. he made the right decision at the right time, and to accept the recommendation of the deputy attorney general. two, comey committed atrocities by going around the chain of command while serving
first comey never gave the president assurance of personal loyalty. second, investigation into possible conclusion by team trump into russia was accelerating. that may explain the timing. sources tell cnn comey was fired a week after asking for more resources to investigate the russia connection. the white house for its part denies comey made that request. regardless, there s progress reported in that probe. a senate committee issuing a subpoena. first the white house doggedly defending its rationale for comey s firing. deputy press secretary huckabee sanders using blunt language to describe the investigation into the handling of hillary clinton s e-mail. i think one of the big catalysts that we saw was last week on wednesday. director comey made a pretty startling revelation that he had essentially taken a stick of dynamite and thrown it into the department of justice by going
than just this president. it s about the rule of law. the house of representatives isn t even in session. some lawmakers back home on recess about to walk into town halls. others out of the country, staffers trying to scrambled to brief their bosses let alone get a entertainment if them. what this under scores this happened quickly and quietly. capitol hill was certainly for the most part not in the loop on this dramatic night, dramatic happening, dramatic occurrence. you can bet senators that are in town and house members when they come back next week will have floent say about this development. certainly everyone will be pressed to have an opinion on in. senior justice department and fbi officials telling cnn comey s firing came as a complete shock to them. they tell us tensions have been escalating in recent months between the two agencies with justice officials questioning comey s handling of the clinton investigation and his overall management of the bureau.
months earlier. director comey did the right thing when he found no evidence, he had no choice but to report to the american congress. reporter: president trump firing comey in a bizarre letter stating while i greatly appreciate you informing me on three separate occasions that i am not under investigation, i never the less concur with the judgment of the department of justice that you are not able to effectively lead the bureau. the president says in his letter that is between the president of the united states and director comey. reporter: the president s assertion perplexing given comey testified that the bureau is investigating trump s campaign. that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the trump campaign and the russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and russia s efforts. reporter: sources tell cnn comey learned that he was fired through tv reports while he was addressing fbi employee