to that issue? [ speaking foreign language ] all right. we were listen thing to senator warner. democrat tammy baldwin from wisconsin, fellow senator, has been listening to this and waiting to be part of our coverage. senator, i want to ask you about republicans and urge you to name names. on the other side of the aisle, you guys are in the minority. so on the other side of the aisle, who are you looking to among your colleagues to step up and be ait of a profile and encourage here? because you have been handed an extraordinary circumstance. there s no question. and we can never lose sight of the underlying issue here, which is russia, a hostile power, has influenced and interfered with our democracy. it continues to do so. and so i actually would call on
authority knows what a big deal that is, particularly in the department of justice, particularly for somebody like the deputy attorney general who has been part of the justice department for 30 years and is such a respected person. when he saw that, he had to speak up on that action, and i think that was the final catalyst. just a real quick question on the meetings of this morning. the president is accused by democrats who try to circumvent the russia investigation by firing james comey. he meets with the russian f ambassador of the united states. the timing of all of this, is it just ironic or is the president poking favor in the critic s eye? this didn t just happen this morning. there is not a strategy to go after the democrats on this. i think frankly the saddest thing is that the democrats are trying to politicize and take away from something the
terrifies you. why is that? well, first of all it s terrifying that the president this is now the third person in the law enforcement community who has been fired who was undertaking investigations into mr. trump s campaign or his associates. but secondly, the idea that he would think that the american people are gullible enough to think that the reason he fired the director yesterday was that he was trying to help hillary clinton is so patently absurd, it s scare yes that the president thinks he can get away with that. i think focus at this point has to be all on the congress. this investigation has can no longer be trusted within this administration. the congress itself has been unable to conduct a meaningful investigation itself. this has to go to an independent prosecutor. but i think there s a bigger question about the constitution. and you have a president who is trying to hold himself above and beyond the law. he fires anybody who he thinks is looking too closely at what
investigation into russia. i put that question to the vice president. take a look at that exchange. and i believe that was the wrong video. i did ask vice president mike pence if the president took this action to tamp down the russian investigation and now we do have that sound. let s take a look. did the president fire director comey to impede the russian investigation? well, as you know very clearly, as has been stated repeatedly and the president has been told, he s not under investigation. reporter: so a swift pushback there. we put a number of other questions to the vice president, including if president trump directed the acting ane general toook into the fbi, into director comey, and he st of punted on that question. so i think that s a point that you re going to see a lot of
the director himself was asked a question, and would not respond to whether or not the president was a subject of the investigation, but regardless of what the president is, his associates, you know are clearly the subject of the investigation and the administration itself i think has a profound conflict of interest in the firing of the director. so it is hard to package a worse scenario. they feel like it was time to devote more time and attention. we confirmed at nbc news there was that request. there was a briefing to some people on the hill. that, andrea, is a far more credible explanation for the