points we haven t necessarily mentioned. one i think he is going to dispute that he asked comey for a loyalty pledge. i think also going to dispute the part of comey s account in which he says he hoped that he would essentially the drop the probe into michael flynn. so i think those are two points that the president is going to be particularly aggressive on. i ll be looking to see if he shows message discipline, how robustly he backs attorney general jeff sessions. remember there were questions whether or not there was a rift there. he is still frustrated with his attorney general for recusing him. the president thinks that s why this probe has really got tony the point where it has, why it went to a special counsel. i ll be looking for those various points, brian. in terms of next week as we turn the page, as the white house tries to turn the page look i think they are going to try to get back on track on some of the agenda items that you heard peter talking about, particularly health
ethics lawyer for the bush 43 white house. steve, do you share that lawyerly instinct that we heard director comey talking about, about how important it was that everyone else was ushered out? yeah, brian, not only do i share that instinct, but it sounds from director comey s testimony like the attorney general jeff sessions and jared kushner also had that instinct. he made a point that they both tried to linger and stuck around and were ushered out at the president s insistence. i think that s a telling moment. i think we should be careful not to focus too much on the individual pieces as opposed to the broader point that comey was fired because of the russia investigation. i think these are all parts of the larger story about obstruction. carey, the democrats nonetheless are after that. that s what they want to be the lead story. they want to make that obstruction case. in your view, how far away are they from that?
i think also going to dispute the part of comey s account in which he says he hoped that he would essentially the drop the probe into michael flynn. so i think those are two points that the president is going to be particularly aggressive on. i ll be looking to see if he shows message discipline, how robustly he backs attorney general jeff sessions. remember there were questions whether or not there was a rift there. he is still frustrated with his attorney general for recusing him. the president thinks that s why this probe has really got tony the point where it has, why it went to a special counsel. i ll be looking for those various points, brian. in terms of next week as we turn the page, as the white house tries to turn the page look i think they are going to try to get back on track on some of the agenda items that you heard peter talking about, particularly health care. senate republicans right now are huddling every day to try to get things done on health care reform. they say t
will be takingest is questions since this hearing. a chance to redeem himself, a chance to put the best light on what jim comey did, dispute what he said as his lawyer did today. it should be ierested to see what he picks out of the testimony to emphasize and do we learn more about his account of these meetings. these were one on one meeting. his lawyer wasn t in there. we have yet to hear from president trump deckly his version of what happened. i believe tomorrow is 111 days since the last formal solo news conference. to peter s point there have been these kinds of bilaterals with visiting or overseas leaders. two for the home team press corps, two for the visitors, and the event is over. this will be interesting nonetheless tomorrow. we ll fit in break here. the panel members are sticking with us. coming up, what members of the president s own party have to say about all of this
situation where bob mueller could be investigated president trump for obstruction of justice. we don t know whether that s true or not. that was one thin that we learned today from jim comey when he said he had given over his memos of the conversations he had with the president to bob mueller. that suggests an interest on the part of investigators. in any case he sort of raised this question about obstruction of justice or impeding an investigation to a point where it s going to be didn ted and hang out there now for quite a long time. rather than making the problem go away, rather than lifting the cloud which is the phrase that jim comey said he used the cloud at this point is here for quite a while. jeremy bash, where was the damage the greatest, the potential obstruction case that comey contributed today, or again as some of the coverage would have it tonight, comey s admission that he leaked those contemporaneous notes to try to bring about a special counsel. two pas. james com