investigations into her e-mail. i haven t read that yet, because i m curious about what he says about hi solemn, because he s been criticized extremely. there s a self-serving dimension, we know he recounts obama turning to him, basically saying i know you tried your best. so for sure some of this book will be read as extremely self-regarding, but i think from what we have seen it s existential sigh of concern about what he sees happening in the white house. we have to take a quick break. more on this including director com comey s account of a critical conversation with john kelly, and why comey counseled kellie to stay on the job. later a cnn exclusive, what we re learning about new
cnn has also learned tonight that as the president is debating whether to fire deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, the white house is working on an effort to undermine his credibility. rosenstein interestingly enough met with the president today at the white house. reportedly regarding routine business. a lot to discuss as i said at the top of the show. you have to pay attention or you might get lost. i want to bring in cnn white house correspondent jeff zeleny. cnn political analyst mark preston. cnn legal analyst laura coates and cnn law enforcement analyst josh campbell. good evening to one and all. jeff, let s start with you. you re standing there in front of the white house. president trump s allies were all set to go on the offense against comey. is that blown out of the water now that the bombshell after bombshell after bombshell has been leaked from comey s book? is the white house in panic mode now? reporter: don, good evening, certainly it s complicated by these new det
president he views as attacking the fbi. we ve seen that stuff is sent out. we ve seen journalists tease out the stuff that s the most salacious. that could be a very minor porpgs of the real state of this book. the washington post quotes comey writing they lose the ability to distinguish between what s true and what s not. they surround themselves with other liars. perks and access are given to those tolerating the lies. pretty stunning stuff. i think he thinking it s a toxic administration, and he wants to sort of get that across. what we also know, and we have to read in this book, is comey s defense of himself and what he did during the election to hurt hillary clinton s chances for reelection by releasing also
credibility because the president s also very much on the line and there s utter silence here about that. the former director of the fbi writing a book like this. i can t i mean, who would have thunk? so let s get to the bookmark. this is an excerpt obtained by the associated press. comey writes about his first meeting with trump after the election and was surprised by the president-elect that he didn t ask trump was what he didn t ask. trump was just briefed about the russia interference. here s what he said. they were about to lead a country that had been attacked by a foreign adversary, yet they had no question about what the future russian threat might be. so, mark, comey then says that they they want to figure out a way to spin that, what they just learned. what do you make of the president s early indifference to russia s interference? we re certainly not shocked. i think anybody who was hearing what james comey is saying about president trump tonight shouldn t be s
the boss in complete control. the loyalty oaths. the us versus them worldview. the lying about all things large and small. the result, the post says comey writes is the forest fire that is the trump presidency. anderson? and just getting back to that dossier, what does comey say about how he was chosen to tell the president about it initially? reporter: well, comey and james clapper reportedly briefed president obama about it first. then, according to the book, obama asked, well, who plans to tell donald trump? clapper reportedly said that comey would, according to the paper, comey writes in the book that obama turned his head to his left and looked directly at me, he raised and lowered both of his eyebrows with emphasis and then looked away. comey reportedly wrote that he thought obama s, quote, grow choe marx eyebrow raise was subtle humor and an expression of concern. it was almost as if he was saying, good luck with that. anderson this is a 304-page