there s two stories here. one is to cover up. something went on with the russia relationship that he feels feverously in need to cover up. he doesn t want anyone like sara sa sally yates, who was very effective on the stand the other day. jim comey is his own guy, he really is, and that s what trump doesn t like. he looked like he was vetting comey in that interview the way he describes it. he said, are you investigating me, are you investigating me? you better not say you re investigating me because i m not going to keep you on if you say you re investigating me. what kind of judiciary plan is that? and using lester s platform to say this guy is a grandstander, all this stuff. it s not true, and i think mccabe is making the point from the fbi, one thing we do know about comey besides the fact he s independent. he s loyal to the troops.
said i accepted their recommendation. yeah. you had made the decision. i was going to fire regardless of recommendation. he made a recommendation, he s highly respected. very good guy, very smart very. the democrats like him, the republicans like him. he made a recommendation, but regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey. mike viquera on capitol hill, you asked the senator about that. what did he have to say? reporter: trump impuned the character of james comey. it wasn t just as vice chairman of the senate intelligence committee, but the republican chairman richard burr who had some strong pushback on that. i ll start with burr. he said jim comey is one of the most ethical, straightforward fbi directors he s ever worked with. he s always been receptive to working with the intelligence committee. it was mark werner who said i
moment ago to lester holt where he called jim comey the president trump did a show boat and grand stander, strong pushback here from the republican richard burr, somewhat surprising said jim comey was one of the most ethical straightforward fbi directors he s worked with. he was always receptive to whatever the intelligence committee needed. he has a great deal of respect for the director mark warner as you might expect a democrat even stronger, he said, i m highly offended that the president s comment to lester holt that jim comey was a show boater, and a grand stander. and he trusted jim comey, did mark warner. strong pushback here from both the republican chairman of the senate intelligence committee, again, just on the heals of that hearing and a meeting with rod rosenstein, here today, where incidentally, andrea, they said the subject of jim comey didn t come up, but rosenstein told warner and burr that he would take the idea or the initiative the proposal for a special
got this conversation as he is recounting it, the president is recounting it, john mclaughlin, we don t know yet what jim comey will say, if he does come forth this may, in fact, inspire him to come forth sooner than later to give his side of the story? i think in any conversation, you have to have both sides of it. that s one thing i ve learned in my old business. i guess i ll be a little surprised if it s quite as simple as the president lays it out. now let s allow for the possibility that the president isn t under investigation. number of things have been written by smart people saying, it may be that in the course of the campaign, he didn t foe a lot about what the russians were doing despite some of the foolish things he said, and that other people, if anyone, were in some sort of collusion. that s conceivable. we ll find out eventually. but i would be a little surprised if jim comey was that clear with him on an issue like
that. i ve been some situations where presidents have asked me something and i d have to say to them, i m not going to comment or tell you that because if i tell you and it s subsequently learned i told you, you will seem to have influenced me politically. i think jim comey s instincts are along those lines. so his version of this is important to learn. and kristen and peter alexander, kristen welker, still with us. peter, what the vice president told kristen welker yesterday about how the firing of jim comey evolved, conflicts dramatically with what the president told lester holt, which was that he was going to fire comey anyway no matter what the recommend degrees was. not only did the vice president basically say that we heard from sarah huckabee sanders she is the deputy press secretary who has been holding court in the briefing room in the absence of sean spicer, yesterday morning on morning joe, sarah huckabee sanders