in los angeles and i want to go to jeffrey tubeb standing by. what do you say to people who say other people can lead this investigation? it s transparently bogus. to say that the fbi can be the rest of the fbi can continue to function is a debatable possibility. i think it is not at all clear that this investigation will continue. the person who will be supervising the fbi will be a donald trump apoepointee and it may be chris christie.
he win l.a. we re told by people familiar with the situation that james comey didn t find out from the letter. he found out by seeing it on the te te televiz. he was talking to agents about his recent testimony on capitol hill and he saw the news on television okay. i just got to stop it. he was talking to fbi agents in l.a. and there s tv sets and he sees he s fired from television. that s what we re told that he s in the l.a. field office and agents were there and he was talking to them about recent testimony, it was important to have face to face time and he looks up and apparently sees the
news on television and that s from sources we ve been speaking with is the first time he found out he was fired from the fbi by trump and he left because he had an event in l.a. to speak with. and his initial reaction was to make a joke and make light of the situation because everyone in the room was so shocked. there was just silence and when they realized what was going on. then the now fired fbi director tried to lighten the mood because there was such shock in the room. wow. how do you finish that speech? that s incredible. back now with our panel. on capitol hill i understand it
effective immediately, andrew mccabe assumed position as acting director of the fbi. the fbi is an exceptional law enforcement and intelligence agency. it is made so by you, the devoted men and women who work tirelessly to keep our country safe. thank you for your steadfast commitment during this transition. he was there for that event that you just mentioned. and he was actually speaking to some of those agents in the los angeles field office, one of the largest that the fib has, when this news broke on television. that s how he found out at about the same time there was a person who had delivered for umthe white house the letter from the president telling him he was gone. that s how the fbi director he found out by seeing it on television while speaking to fbi agents?
aides and the russians. now house democrats are asking for the preservation of all documents related to that probe and to comey s firing. the fbi director s unceremonious termination cokes of wear gate. president acting on advice from attorney general jeff sessions and deputy attorney general rod rosenstein who cited comey s handling of the hillary clinton earn mail probe. that certainly was not the focus of the letter president trump penned to comey firing him. which was more about trump than it was about comey. that abrupt letter never made to it comey before he learned of his own termination from tv monitors at the fbi office in l.a. that s where he learned about his own firing. our coverage begins this morning with jessica schneider here in new york. let s start with the trump letter on james comey. let s read it. while i greatly appreciate you informing me on three separate occasions that i am not under