response would be a stunning breach of protocol. deputy white house press secretary said comey s firings might bring the russian investigation to an end sooner. we think that by removing director comey we ve taken steps to make that happen. we re covering all of that. including congressman casttro of the intelligence committee and our correspondence and specialist are also standing by. let s begin with the president offering yet another explanation for the firing of the fbi director james comey. our senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny is joining us. his new account directly contradicts what the white house and the vice president have been saying. reporter: we heard at least three separate stories about this. the president said he was simply following the direction of his attorney general and the deputy attorney general now we re hearing from the president himself he had long wanted to fire his fbi director and
control, pro second amount people come out and they said, whoa and they get upset. it s all false messages on the other side specifically like the gun issue. it s funny. it was a change in the wording going from gun control to gun reform. suddenly millions more americans were in favor of that. 90% wants stronger background checks but they don t want to hear control. they don t want to think it s being taken away. it s a messaging issue. this is the president that wrote the book the art of the deal. but democrats have basically said we re not going to negotiate. or will they? it s interesting to see the president offering. if the freedom caucus won t play with me, i m happy to play with you. he said that in his interview with maria bartiromo, maybe we ll throw infrastructure in the healthcare bill because he knows we re fans of bridges and roads. i don t know if that will work. chuck schumer said he wants a big infrastructure bill, but
statesmanship. i think about mike pence, we want to make sure they have the right tone, protective conservatism, that s been our goal from the beginning. we hope to accomplish that this evening. what kind of threats or persuasion is the president offering, carrots and sticks? i don t know if he is offering any threats. as far as incentives there are have been several meetings. we had meetings at the white house, we worked into the evening last thursday to get the amendments to the american health care act. i believe it comes down to the essential health care benefits whether it s a go or not. one man s benefits is another person s deal killer. that s your challenge. probably expect to see that in some kind of tweet at some point. yes, we have got to make sure we keep focusing on the promise. 77% of republicans made the
facilitated by the state department. that s consistent with past practice. i m confident that happened after president obama s election as well, okay. i m kind of curious about that, the president, does he say you need to get a great chief of staff, does he say there s one job you never ever heard of but it s vital? or is it just, you know, obviously donald trump knows he has to staff the white house. how much precision is the president offering in his readation? well, i ll be honest, i didn t have a detailed conversation with president obama about this. i think he has built an organization at the white house with an eye toward surrounding himself with capable people and putting them in positions where they are given the authority they need to make decisions. also, he s ensured that they are given the authority they need to
some of that some of those conversations are facilitated by the state department. in other cases you get foreign governments going directly to the president-elect s office. that s consistent with past practices. i m can confident that happened in 2008 after president obama s election, as well. reporter: i m curious about the president as hr professional. does he say you need to get a great chief of staff? does he say, there s this one job you never, ever heard of but it s vital? how does that or is it just obviously, donald trump knows he s got to staff the white house. so, how much precision is the president offering in his recommendation? well, i ll be honest, i didn t have a detailed conversation with president obama about this. but knowing how he has approached these issues himself, i think that he has built an organization at the white house with an eye toward surrounding himself with capable people and putting them in positions where they are given the authority they ne