and i need help. this is new day weekend with victor blackwell and christy polk. happy new day to you. breaking this morning the president is firing back after his actions were a threat to national security. he responded on twitter a short time ago saying, wow, just learned in a family new york sometimes the corrupt leaders of the fbi almost all fired to leave the agency for very bad reasons opened up an investigation on me for no reason and with no proof after i fired lying james comb my, a total sleaze. the counterintelligence probe was happening simultaneously with the obstruction of justice investigation. the question behind both parts was the president helping
bit. but extrapolate further on exactly what the president is thinking. reporter: fred, president trump and the white house are slamming the fbi in the wake of these reports that counterintelligence agents were looking into whether president trump was working on behalf of russia against u.s. interests in the days after he fired former fbi director james comey. as you mentioned, white house press secretary sarah sanders calls this counterintelligence probe absurd. president trump has been vocal on twitter this morning, going after comey, his former deputy, andrew mccabe, calling them corrupt, and claiming that the counterintelligence probe was opened for no reason and with no proof. new york times cited two instances that trump directly tied his decision to fire comey to the russia investigation. that s what the new york times says, why investigators opened that obstruction of justice inquiry after comey s firing.
we re pushing forward on the breaking news out of washington this morning. we ve learned the fbi opened an inquiry into whether the president of the united states actions were a threat to national security. and that counterintelligence probe was prompted by the firing of former fbi director james comey. the new york times broke this story last night. the fbi tried to figure out, the times says, if the president of the united states was acting on behalf of russia, and if he was putting u.s. interests at risk. the president responded to the reporting with a tweet this morning, claiming the fbi opened up an investigation for, quote, no reason. and then this morning, president trump has reached a bleak milestone. he is presiding now over the longest government shutdown in american history. day 22 now. for more than three weeks,
comey s firing to the russia investigation helped spark this counterintelligence probe. here is one of those moments. regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey, knowing there was no good time to do it. and, in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made-up story, an excuse by democrats for having lost an election that they should have won. the second instance is a draft letter that president intended to send to comey listing the reasons that he was irtooing h in firing him. his lawyer blocked trump from sending it. according to the new york times. the white house is calling this bombshell report, quoting now, absurd, and it sparked an angry tirade from the president via twitter this morning. so let s check in now with cnn s white house correspondent boris sanchez. so what more is being said from the white house, boris? hey there, fred, yes,
don t know where i am, and i need help. announcer: this is new day weekend with victor blackwell and christi paul. so glad to have you here with us. it s official at midnight, you re now waking up to the longest federal government shutdown in u.s. history. yes, but the white house is now fighting another battle as news breaks that the fbi opened an investigation into whether actions by the president of the united states were a threat to national security. first reported by the new york times, this counterintelligence probe was happening at the same time as the obstruction of justice investigation. this all started after the firing of former fbi director james comey. the question behind both parts of the investigation was, was the president helping russia against u.s. interests. so, i want to get an inside look at how this part of the investigation started there.