is a side room which a local tv network had set up, a short of shoot for an interview. when ben went in that room, was in just ben and gianforte in there or were a bunch of other people in that room? i believe the tv crew was in there. they were in there when i saw before. so people saw this? ben sort of it was sort of like a you know, we all do this when tv crews interview a candidate. you sort of like stand there if you c so you can get the audio as well. they tend not to want to give endless interviews on the same thing. the door was wide open. so he doesn t even duck in to like go ask a bunch of questions. he s there to lurking to listen to the interview? i saw him duck in. not that asking questions would mean that he deserved what happened, but just to clarify i can t speak for what happened in the room because i i didn t try and go in. i was sort of just standing there. but i heard the crash, and i saw his feet fly. and he came out and said,
was speaking around 2:30 to a group of employees at the l.a. field office. he s talking to them and in the background, the television screens, as you were saying, start flashing that comey is fired. now, comey tells the group, oh, what a prank. he says, oh, this is a prank, and he laughs. but then his staff starts scurrying off to the side. they come up to him, and they say something to him. he stops speaking. he then shakes the hands of the employees in the room and then goes into a side room. and i m not sure what happens then, but at that point, the letter from the white house had still not arrived at the fbi. robert costa, you were at the white house tonight. inside the west wing. there are reports the communication shop, all the employees there were there late. as you ve heard, as the washington post is reporting as well, this seems to have taken the west wing staff by surprise in that they did not expect this
fired. now comey tells the group, oh, what a prank. he says oh, this is a frank. and he laughs. but then his staff starts scurrying off to the side. they come up to him, and they say something to him. he stops speaking. he then shakes the hands the employees in the room, and then goes into a side room. and i m not sure what happens then. but at that point, the letter from the white house had still not arrived at the fbi. robert costa, you were at the white house tonight. inside the west wing. there are reports the communication shocked all the employees there, the employees were there late. as you have heard, the washington post is reporting this as well, this seems to have take ten west wing staff by surprise in that they did not expect this big of a dust up. it was quite a scene tonight brian outside of the west wing, a cool night. sean spicer the press secretary came out and he gave briefing
reporter ashley parker, washington post national political reporter robert costa. and michael schmidt reporter for the new york times who covered national security. michael i ll going to begin with you. let s go to the scene of where this took place. tell us the circumstances that comey learned he was fired and what they assumed at first when word filtered through the room where he was speaking. so, comey actually started his day in florida, where he addressed some police officers. he then flew to california and was speaking around 2:30 to a group of employees at the l.a. field office. he is talking to them in the background, the television screens as you were saying, start flashing that comey is fired. now comey tells the group, oh, what a prank. he says oh, this is a frank. and he laughs. but then his staff starts scurrying off to the side. they come up to him, and they say something to him. he stops speaking. he then shakes the hands the employees in the room, and then goes in
kind of going down that road. i think there are potential concerns about the approach he s taken there, of you help us on north korea and i ll make a deal on trade. one is the message it potentially sends to other countries in the asian region. the question is, okay, is everything now transactional for the united states? right. if it is, what else might they be willing to trade? the fear here has always been, the u.s. and china go to a side room, cut deals amongst themselves and what s that mean for the rest of snus? domestically, this is a president who campaigned on china, huge economic threat, massive problem. it is a big part of what got him ele elected. for domestic constituencies, how do they read this, what it means for their interests? great conversation. thank you for joining me for it. thank you. still to come, in a few hours, president trump is going to sign a new executive order that makes it harder for companies to hire foreign wo workers. we re live with what