later today. nbc has has nod confirmed that. invoking the fifth is not an admission of guilt. comey has agreed to testify after congress gets back do its memorial recess. lawmakers have questions from reports over the weekend in which president trump boasted to the russian officials about the firing of comey telling them quote, i just fired the head of the fbi, he was crazy, a real nut job. i faced great pressure because of russia. that s taken off. yesterday h.r. mcmaster who was in the room gave his take on what was said. well, i don t remember exactly what the president said. and the notes they are are i do not think a direct transcript. but the gist of the conversation is that the president feels as if he s ham strung in his ability to work with russia to
mccain weighing in. doubling down describing the investigation and russia question as something of a watergate size scandal. the other thing they are reacting to is the bombshell report from the new york times saying the president this month in his meetings with the russian foreign minister and russian ambassador in the oval office said he fired comey and explained the motivation behind it. quote, i just fired the head of the fbi. he was real crazy, a real nut job. i face great pressure because of russia. that is taken off. then questions asked if this is true. they are trying to explain it in a different way. i think what the president is trying to convey to the russians, i m not going to be distracted by these issues here at home. gist of the conversation was
it s something we re talking about, but i think the white house is viewing this as a thread that needed to be answered. it was answered in a rather trumpian way and they re going to move on. all right. kelly o., thank you so much. awesome reporting from the trip so far. thank you so much. michael crowley, you re going to stay with us, but before i bring in our entire panel, i want to show you how national security adviser h.r. mcmaster answered a question yesterday about reports that tie trump s firing of james comey back to mother russia. the new york times is reporting that s here what the president said in the meeting, i just fired the head of the fbi. he was crazy. a real nut job. i faced great pressure because of russia. that s taken off. is that what the president said? well, i don t remember exactly what the president said and the notes that they apparently have i do not think are a direct transcript, but the gist of the conversation was that the president feels as if
director james comey with top russian officials in the oval office. the president reportedly said this. quote, i just fired the head of the fbi. he was crazy, a real nut job. i face great pressure because of russia. that s taken off. meanwhile, a source close to the fired fbi director is speaking out. telling cnn comey believed president trump was trying to influence him in regards to the russia investigation. now we re going to hear from comey himself. comey is expected to testify in the coming weeks before the senate intelligence committee. but until then the investigation goes on. let s talk it over with cnn legal analyst paul kalen and kru hayesings college law professorer reportery little paul start with you wrote interesting op he had on friday potential for obstruction of justice case against president donald trump took a quantum leap how so. i think it took a quantum leap in legal sustain ability
something that is clear and above reproach so that people can move so we need to get over this once and for all and the best way to do it is to have a process in place to arrive at the facts, no matter what they are, and whatever those facts are, that s what we need to make our decisions on. but it seems as though the white house is standing in the way of the process to get the facts, look at the new bombshell from the new york times, when president trump went behind closed doors in the oval office. he told them that firing fbi director james comey had great pressure on him. i just fired the head of the fbi, he was crazy, a real nut job, i faced great pressure because of russia. that s taken off. i haven t seen and neither have you. i m not denying that they are, i m not admitting that they are. that s why i asked the white house to produce those notes to the intelligence committee so we could review it and i thought