be a former u.s. attorney himself and a current msnbc contributor. dana bash is with us, a former attorney at intel. he also happens to be a security analyst. sessions, comey, these two interviews, why was it such a big story today, why such a big development? there were new things we learned today that shed new light on the investigation. first, the fact that bob mueller investigated comey and sessions, that s not surprising. but i think some of the reporting out tonight, for example, that sessions has been meddling in the fbi investigation about those text messages between russia investigators, that s clearly inappropriate. the fact that the president asked andy mccabe who he voted for, that s clearly inappropriate. and more importantly, the fact that the president has been pressuring wray to have a political purge of the fbi, that s clearly inappropriate.
that the president has been pressuring wray to have a political purge of the fbi, that s clearly inappropriate. there is a lot of activity here that i think should be of concern to investigators and congressional overseers. chuck, i know you ve been thinking back to your former colleagues at the fbi. what do you think it s like to be mr. mccabe in the oval office and be asked who you voted for in 2016? what do you think it s like to be chris wray right now and be under this microscope when all the utter ds arances of his hav keep your head down and keep working? that s the message to the rank and file, keep working. that s what the american people expect of the fbi. andy is a friend, and so i m biased. i imagine that was a strange time for him in the oval office when the president asked about his political preferences.
asked andy mccabe who he voted for, that s clearly inappropriate. and more importantly, the fact that the president has been pressuring wray to have a political purge of the fbi, that s clearly inappropriate. there is a lot of activity here that i think should be of concern to investigators and congressional overseers. chuck, i know you ve been thinking back to your former colleagues at the fbi. what do you think it s like to be mr. mccabe in the oval office and be asked who you voted for in 2016? what do you think it s like to be chris wray right now and be under this microscope when all the utterances of his have been keep your head down and keep working? that s the message to the rank and file, keep working. that s what the american people expect of the fbi. andy is a friend, and so i m biased. i imagine that was a strange time for him in the oval office when the president asked about his political preferences. it s not a proper question, jeremy is absolutely right. andy is a pr
jonathan swann, the reporter, has done a lot of good reporting on this topic of the president s conflict with the people at the justice department. so sure, it does seem like something he s now pressuring jeff sessions to pull off. adam, what s your reaction to this axios reporting tonight? i think it speaks highly of wray s character that he threatened to resign after this. but we ve been talking a lot about the independence of the fbi. but the department of justice is also supposed to be independent. jeff sessions in his confirmation hearing last january said the attorney general is someone who has to be able to tell the president no. i think it says something about jeff sessions and his own stewardship of the justice department that he would pressure the director of the fbi to fire someone simply because the president of the united states has decided that this person is his political enemy. the other big story, of course, the government shutdown, adam. democratic senator diann
director is supposed to be independent from any politics, any political pressure. so certainly this is not the kind of story that the white house would want, given everything especially that happened with the former fbi director, james comey. pamela, thank you for being a trouper, we reesht you running in at the last moment, thank you so much. let s discuss this now. cnn s breaking news, national security analyst steve hollis, cnn legal analyst page pate, let s discuss. interesting reporting here by axios that pamela reported on. former fbi director james comey tweeted about this, he said, good to read reports of people standing up for what they believe in, the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. that s by obviously dr. martin luther king jr., a quote there. what do you think the reaction would have been if wray had resigned over the pressure to fire mccabe?