obstructing justice? possibly. i mean it s certainly some evidence of obstruction of justice. well, you know that phrase about payback. since saturday, president trump has slammed comey a number of times on twitter, writing in part, quote, slippery james comey will go down as the worst fbi director in history by far. i never asked comey for personal loyalty. i hardly even knew this guy. just another of his many lies. his memos are self-serving and fake. back with us, philip rucker, ashley parker, washington post. chuck rosenberg and jennifer rodgers, of counsel to this conversation. so, ashley, among the people you talked to in the west wing of this white house, what do they fear more? more of the details coming public of this book, which let s remember comes out tomorrow, or the president s reaction to the details in the book? almost certainly the latter. you re right that the book doesn t come out until tomorrow, but sort of all of the best details of the book have been thoro
big and small and insists the american people believe it, that person is not fit to be president of the united states on moral grounds. he s morally unfit to be president. reporter: comey s most startling statement? he tells george he believes the russians may, in fact, have dirt on president trump. do you think the russians have something on donald trump? i think it s possible. i don t know. these are more words i never thought i d utter about a president of the united states, but it s possible. that s stunning. you can t say for certain that the president of the united states is not compromised by the russians. it is stunning and i wish i wasn t saying it, but it s just it s the truth. reporter: and comey suggests the president may have been committing a crime by allegedly asking him to drop the fbi investigation into former national security adviser michael flynn, telling comey, i hope you can let it go. was president trump obstructing justice? possibly. i mean,
someone with three or four limited engagements. to make his relevance a function of how many times he was face-to-face with the president he is talking about impressions in being with the president. that is only in terms of whether his hair is well quaffed. i m talking about his connections to any efforts by russians to infiltrate his campaign and whether or not he felt there was a case that he was trying to be stopped, aka obstructed from pursuing justice. let me ask you a question. this will be for the benefit of those watching. christopher, who do you think had a responsibility on january 6 in trump tower to give further information about any type of alleged russian interference? would it be the president-elect who hasn t been part of that information in a big way, the incoming chief of staff or is it the head of the dni, the head of the cia, head of fbi?
questions about russian influence in the 2016 campaign. there is a lot about the interview that i didn t like. just to focus on one example of it, i have a hard time with jim comey who talks about how surprised he was that the president demanded his loyalty and that he was flummoxed by the fact that he wanted to meet alone with him. it was clearly inappropriate. this is the big, bad fbi director who made a big show of the independence of the justice department during the bush administration over wire taps to protect the attorney general from the encroaching executive. he can t handle this reality star turned president who wants to do something inappropriate and couldn t say that s just not appropriate. that s what sat with me from last night. i have a hard time with that reaction. let s listen to that moment. let s listen to the reaction to the loyalty request. did you cross a line when you
televised interview since the president fired him. do you think the russians have something on donald trump? it strikes me as unlikely. i would have been able to say with high confidence about any other president i dealt with, but i can t. it s possible. comey reflecting on the february meeting when he says president trump asked him to drop the investigation into his former national security adviser michael flynn. should you have said i can t discuss this with you? you are doing something improper? maybe. if he didn t know why did he kick out the attorney general and vice president of the united states and the leaders of the intelligence community? why am i alone if he doesn t know the nature of the request? trump denies he made the request but comey believes it bears weight in special counsel robert mueller s investigation. was president trump obstructing justice? possibly.