that was coming out initially after the comey firing. is that accurate? i m not aware of a specific ask for a correction. i do know that we all want to make sure that we get this right and that s been our, you know, plan you know, what we ve attempted to do all along. it s the reason we sent the update last night. i know there were several questions after the briefing yesterday and i addressed that again in the open today. our good deal is to get this as right and as clear as we can. did the president know that comey had sought more resources for his investigation before he made his decision? no. and based on what i ve seen, the department of justice has pushed back and said that s not accurate. but i would refer you to them. sarah? so sarah, was it a mistake for the white house to try to pin the decision to fire comey on rod rosenstein? i don t think there was an
quote every single time? in this process, i gave you the best information i had at the moment. i still don t think that it contradicts the president s decision. you guys want to get lost in the process. i don t believe asking a question and getting an answer is lost in the process, sarah, with all respect. and i m answering those questions. it s very simple. the president decided to fire director comey. nobody else gets to make that decision. and he made it, he stands by it, as do the rest of us. mike? yeah, two questions. following up on this, back in, you think, october of last year, the former president was highly criticized by members of the fbi and other folks outside of the fbi for making some comments on television that were suggestive that he had an opinion about how the hillary clinton e-mail case should go. and the charge was that he was interfering, that he was putting his thumb on the scale of an ongoing active investigation.
on tuesday? he was looking for an assessment. that would come from james comey s direct boss. the attorney general of the united states, deputy. rod rosenstein. interesting. there has obviously been some monday morning quarterbacking here in terms of what is going on with the communications operations. what can you give us? there s a lot of stories out there that the president was probably talking about wanting to fire comey around the white house. anyone he was talking to. clearly this was a very closely held operation. i was talking to some white house officials a few minutes ago, among all of the things that have been swirling around the white house and the things that have leaked, this is the one thing that didn t leak out. a lot of the communications team was not even in their offices at the time the news dropped. there was an ice cream social for a group of veterans.
more resources, also some justice department officials say that, but then you have andrew mccabe, s so often in these stories, you will get different people telling different versions. it certainly raises questions about those headlines at the very least. jon: the president just spoke with nbc s lester holt, and here s part of what he had to say. you met with the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, did you ask for a recommendation? what i did is i was going to fire comey, my decision. you made the decision before they came to you. i was going to fire comey. there is no good time to do it, by the way. they were around you accepted their recommendation but you already made the decision. i was going to fire regardless of recommendation. jon: so it was not deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, it was the president s, the presence decision. and that completely blows out of the water the whole narrative that we were getting
look, he s a showboat, he s a grandstander. the fbi has been in turmoil. you know that, i know that, everybody knows that. you take a look at the fbi a year ago, it was in virtual turmoil. less than a year ago. it hasn t recovered from that. monday, you met with the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein. right. did you ask for a recommendation? what i did is, i was going to fire comey. my decision you had made the decision before they came in. i was going to fire comey. there s no good time to do it, by the way. they because in your letter, you said, i accepted their recommendation. well, they had you already made the decision? i was going to fire regardless of he made a recommendation, he s highly respected, very good guy, very smart guy. the democrats like him, the republicans like him. he made a recommendation, but regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey. let me ask you about your termination letter to mr. comey.