White House Press Secretary sean spicer just finished briefing reporters and said the administration continues to support the embattled chairman. He is the chairman. Hes conducting an investigation. Its up to the house of representatives and the speaker and the members of the House Republican conference. But theres nothing i see that theres problematic in him conducting an investigation. Lets get right to our Intrepid Team of correspondents. Kristen welker is at the white hou house. Although sean spicer said they were going to be standing by devin nunes, he did admit there was a perception problem when he was talking to april ryan. Reporter thats right, and theyre acknowledging that, no doubt about at, katie. Bottom line is, there are mounting calls for him to recuse himself from this investigation. The white house not willing to go that far yet. But indicating that, yes, clearly this is creating some difficulty. Particularly as they want to be focused on things like tax reform. What i
Of justice is not only legally defensible, but is informed by our best view of what the law is after consideration of all the facts. That memo tonight led to her dismissal. The white house just put out a statement saying, the acting attorney general sally yates has betrayed the department of justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States. Miss yates is an Obama Administration appointee who is weak on borders and very weak on illegal immigration. The new acting attorney general is dana boente who was serving as u. S. Attorney for the Eastern District of virginia. And just tonight, another development. We know not what to make of it involving the head of immigration and customs enforcement. As you saw briefly our panel is here ready to weigh in on our breaking news. First we start with nbc White House Correspondent Kristen Welker who joins us by telephone. Kristen, what more have you been able to add to the record tonight . Well, brian,
Were they do something get this a lot of people he every saying that maybe health care is off its deathbed people are talking about doing something again, the president made a different conversation last night he is talking about a bipartisan way forward, i am not sure specifically what that is going to do for people like Freedom Caucus others said was not conservative enough everybody greece something has to be done 1986 treechl bipartisan with every you you bipartisan there is a way fared each thought going to move on talking about positivesity of making, a deal, with the democrat making it quickly. Kind of. Here we are, shockingly it is semi bipartisan. A lot of people showed up werent expecting a very good thing this is a very, very good thing. [applause]. And i know that we are going to make a deal on health care that is such an easy one so i have no doubt that is going to happen quickly i think it had will actually i think going to happen. Because we have with all been promising
Sorkts are in the clear. Theres a lot to cover, but one of the oddest aspects of today was how the white house responded to what was a pretty bad day for the president. Even while the hearing was unfolding, the white house was selectively live tweeting the hearings. Describing testimony by the fbi director as flatout false. Heres the tweet. The nsa and fbi Tell Congress that russia did not influence electoral process. This isnt true either. What sean spicer said today about the campaigns former chairman. Theres been discussion of Paul Manafort who played a very limited role for a limited amount of time. Sean spicer trying to minimize Paul Manaforts role. That is not the way he was described by the people close to candidate trump and also mr. Trump himself. Watch. I have fantastic people. I have Paul Manafort. I brought paul in because a very smart friend of mine who knew him very well said he is fantastic. Paul manafort remains as our chairman. Paul manafort. Mr. Manafort. Bringing in
That came after people close to comey pushed back on the president s claim to lester holt that comey told him he wasnt the target of an fbi investigation. He told me that. You told you you werent under investigation with regard to the russia investigation . Ive heard that from others. Was it in a phone call . Did you meet face to face . I had a dinner with him. He wanted to have dinner because he wanted to stay on. We had a very nice dinner at the white house. He asked for the dinner . A dinner was arranged. I think he asked for the dinner. And he wanted to stay on as the fbi head. And i said, ill, you know, consider. Well see what happens. But we had a very nice dinner, and at that time he told me, you are not under investigation. According to nbc and other news outlets, people close to comey say the reality was very different. During the dinner, quote, comey tried to stay away from the russia investigation. He would say, look, sir, i really cant get into it, and you dont want me to.