honest public service in his time there. he wanted to finish his tenure. bret: he didn t answer a lot of questions in his recent testimony about the investigation into russia and the possible connections. in the letter that president trump sent out today informing him that he was firing him, he said, the president, while i greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that i am not under investigation, and he continues on. if that happened on three separate occasions, isn t that the wrong thing for somebody to do to tell somebody they are not under investigation? yes, generally. we are not exposing to anyone who the subject of an investigation is. the facts are the facts, they may change from tomato tomorrow, and so what i may reassure you about today may change entirely tonight. that is a mistaken path,
i have not asked the president. the president showed no reluctance or regret in firing company. in his letter writing while i greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that i am not under investigation, i nevertheless concur with the judgment of the department of justice that you are not able to effectively lead the bureau. some democrats, pennsylvania senator bob casey called the firing nixonian. others claim that president was trying to derail the russia investigation. insisted rosenstein appoint a special prosecutor. the ink was barely dry on the termination letter, and white house officials were saying it s time to get past the notion that the trump campaign colluded with russia. we have heard that time and time again. we heard it in the testimonies earlier this week. we ve heard it for the last 11 months. there is no there there. it s time to move on. white house feels that has plenty of political cover and its firing of james comey,
investigation. i am not totally shocked. i knew there had been voices within the fbi, friends and associates of mine outside the fbi who have been critical of how far the doctor went last year in july. some of his comments. and they agreed with rosenstein s assessment that the director went too far. but i will tell you, having worked with jim comey, he has the heart of a boy scout. he has a moral compass. i think jim comey has slept well with the decisions he s made. i think we heard some of his justification for those decisions in his testimony last week. i don t think the director has missed a lot of sleep because he things he did wrong. my experience with him, i was the director of criminal. i tens of thousands of cases under me, and this director is not one that s ever going to come to you and say here s the
democrats tried to link the action to the investigation of a possible connection between the trump campaign and the russians before the elections. demands for a special prosecutor are louder tonight and democrats are jumping to watergate comparisons. john roberts starts us off from the north lawn. good evening. fbi director was fired for usurping the authority of then attorney general loretta lynch, but he announced the results of the investigation into hillary clinton s emails last july. the president s opponents were quick to make the firing about him and not the fbi director. there were handshakes from his police escort on the tarmac in los angeles as james comey boarded the fbi jet for the final time. while it was the president who fired comey, white house or the state was the newly minted deputy attorney general rod rosenstein who had lost confidence in comey. sources say rosenstein,
july of 2016 and announced they would be no prosecution of hillary clinton, the clinton email server investigation was 14 months old. after the new york times broke it in march of 2015. think how much evidence about hillary clinton s conduct in the server case, including the memo where she ask someone to send her something classified nonsecure was in the public domain by the time mr. comey announced the decision. almost a year into the legend of russian collusion case, how little information there is in the public sphere toward a judgment of yes. are going to have a confirmation hearing on fbi director. can president trump choose anyone who is respected by the other side that can continue this investigation? is going to be a tough sell. there is going to be a war on capitol hill over this. it s going to be the number one issue. the number to reach was going to be when did the president decide? was it his decision or not?