Pat buchanan what he thinking. Meanwhile, the democrats are rallies the drumbeat to it is a special prosecutor on russian ties to the trump campaign. Several senators are on board. I will talk to one of them, gary peters. And i have been summoned for jury duty. How would you answer this question . Would you be more likely to believe the testimony of a Police Officer because of his or her job . Tell me right now on facebook and via twitter. First, this was a terrible week for President Trump, right . After all, his stated reason for firing fbi director james comey was contradicted by his staff. And ultimately abandoned by the president himself. You would think a political disaster. Well, not so fast. Lets review. The president told comey in a letter he was terminating him after accepting the recommendation of the attorney general who in turn was relying on a memo from the Deputy Attorney general. There was just one problem and that was the timing. The president s letter, the correspondence from the attorney general and each is dated may the memo from a the Deputy Attorney general have something in common. Each ways dated may 9, 2017. The president asking us to believe on may 9, rod rosenstein, Deputy Attorney general, provided attorney general Jeff Sessions with a threepage memo, which included, quote, having refused to admit his errors. The director cannot be expected to implement the necessary conservative actions. And on the same day, this memo was delivered to sessions, sessions immediately accepted the outcome, turned around and sent his own letter to the president saying, quote, for the reasons expressed by the Deputy Attorney general in the attached memorandum, i have concluded a fresh start is needed at the leadership of the fbi. And then still on that day, may 9, the president gets sessions letter, turns around and writes to the director telling him, quote, you are hereby terminated. It never made sense that such a momentous decision, such as firing the head of the fbi would be made by each of these three parties on a single day, particularly where there was no new information contained in the deputy ags memo. It was premised on facts known since last july. That this was really about the russian probe was made clear by the president s letter to comey, specifically where he wrote these words. Quote, while i greatly appreciate you informing me on three separate occasions that i am not under investigation, i nevertheless concur with the judgment of the department of justice that you are not able to effectively lead the bureau. That was a non sequitur. The deputy ag memo said nothing about the russian probe. Creating a paper trail, thats not the issue. What was problematic is that it was a fake excuse, something made clear when the president was interviewed by lester holt. I was going to fire comey. Theres no good time to do it, by the way. In the letter you say i accepted their recommendation, so you already accepted the recommendation. I was already going to fire regardless of recommendation. My hunch is the firing will have unintended consequence, redoubling of efforts by the fbi to piece together the Russian Investigation, plus the scrutiny of whoever is nominated to be comeys successor should ensure he or she will not be a patsy for the president. But will it harm the president with those who put him in office . I have doubts. Most of the callers to my sirius xm program this week overwhelmingly disapproving of the firing, but not all. Listen to these three from yesterday. The credibility of the newS Organizations is just mind boggling. I mean, the eye rolls, the ice cream banner on the bottom. It is really getting out of hand. And i cant see how everybody doesnt see that. Theres a huge disconnect between the d. C. Bubble and main street. I live in main street, america. Ill tell you what were saying. Tell me. This is a snow job about russia, all fake news. Being told trust us, trust us. Theres something here. Theres no trust between us and d. C. No trust between us and the media. I am a trump voter. My husband is military. I think our mindset is he supported the military, voted for that, voted for him getting things done. He is not able to get things done because theres so much smoke and mirrors through the media and it makes it difficult for the regular people in the working world just to get one foot in front of the other. Polling suggests mark, john, beth my callers are not alone. The president might be incapable of destroying himself where his supporters are unwilling to change their mind about him, even as he embarrasses, contradicts, undermines himself and his administration and the nation. You remember that abc news the Washington Post policy last month that showed 96 of voters would vote for him again . Now a brand new Gallup Survey shows 78 of democrats disapprove of trumps removal of comey. That made sense. Firing somebody investigating you seems indicative of guilt. But 79 of republicans approve. When the president said he could shoot somebody on fifth avenue and get away with it, we could never have foreseen that the victim figuratively would be jim comey. To discuss this and more, joining me, reporters from the wall street journal, the Washington Post, and new york all of who have broke stories during the tumultuous week. Del quinton, and also with us kara demeritsian, and also joining us is math though rosenberg, covers intelligence and National Security for new york times. Truly an a list. Dell, let me begin with you. You reported rosenstein pushed white House Counsel don mcgrahn to correct the perception comey was fired because of his memo. How hot, how angry was rosenstein, and is resignation a possibility . You know, our reporting showed that rod rosenstein, Deputy Attorney general, was upset when they rolled this out, the white house made it sound like this was all on the Deputy Attorney generals recommendation. He recommended we get rid of comey so we did it. Remember, that was the narrative on tuesday and wednesday. Rosenstein did not appreciate this, thats not the truth. He was in a meeting with the president on monday. On monday the president said give me a memo justifying why i should get rid of comey, what is wrong with comey is more likely what the president ask him and Ros Rosenstein did that. When he saw the narrative, it was all sparked by his words, he was upset. Call don mcgahn, said you have to correct the record. I cant work in an environment where were not being within the lines of what the truth is and what really happened. Is there a possibility that rosenstein is so hot about this he might resign his position . I dont think so. From the people ive talked to, he really likes this job as Deputy Attorney general, believes that hes the right guy to lead the department, daytoday operations and overseeing the probe of russia and russias meddling in the u. S. Election, and this was just his way to push back at the white house. Others have reported he threatened to resign. We didnt get that far in our reporting. We found he basically said lets set the record straight. You know what happened, the white house did, right after that started talking about how this was at the president s instigation, he long wanted to fire comey and as you played earlier in his interview, didnt care what the recommendation was going to be, he was going to fire him anyway. Right. I think the date as i suggested in my commentary belies the assertion. The senate intel subpoenaed documents from flynn. Today you are reporting that theres new pressure not to slow things down. There are a number of investigations taking place, the senate intel, fbi, maybe the house intel committee, perhaps the nsa and cia as well. Which of these investigations might bear the most fruit . Which is to be most aggressive . Well, a week action, or not quite a week ago i would probably say the fbi investigation, that one has been going on the longest. Certainly seems to be the one that all of the congressional investigators are focusing on most acutely as they look for information and pull people back for testimony. As youve seen, the removal of comey has thrown a Little Monkey wrench into that. Certainly it is not a purge of the fbi. As you said, there may be redoubled efforts, because theres a lot of support for comey among employees to push ahead with the investigation, and may not be much disruption. But the Senate IntelligenceCommittee Investigation is the only one at this point that hasnt been plagued or affected by some politically rocked scandal in the last few weeks or months. As you mention, the house Intelligence Committee had that whole episode where devin nunes made allegations of unmasking of names. Theyre regrouping, they had a change of leadership for the russia probe theyre doing. The Senate Intelligence committee is going on even keel. You have cooperation and literally leaders of the committee putting arms around each other to endorse each others dedication to pursuing this. While theyre dependent on the Intelligence Community for a lot of the information they have to pore through, and getting those documents and witnesses to interview, they have this kind of renewed sense of purpose now because they know that their investigation hasnt been marred by these sorts of discussions were having now. What does this mean about comeys firing we had a few weeks ago, what did it mean about nunes leadership because these other things distract from the purpose of that probe. Matthew, in the times you report that days before the firing comey asked for more resources for the russian probe. Do you think the net of all this will be redoubling of efforts by the fbi in pursuit of this investigation . You know, it is hard to say whats going to happen. In the short term, absolutely theyre pressing ahead. Depends what the leadership ends up looking like. Not going to know that for awhile. Theyre interviewing interim candies right now, but the longterm candidates are uncertain. We updated the story, comey had gone and asked for more prosecutors. That speaks to maturity of the investigation. Doesnt mean they were looking to bring charges immediately, when in fact they needed people to vet evidence, go through things, to organize the case. This is all up in the air right now. A lot of the decisions that will be made, and then the white house who will run the S Organization will have an impact. The fbi is filled with Law Enforcement guys. Theyre going to keep going. Its what they do. Anybody thats been subject of an investigation knows they dont really stop. But how resources are directed within the agency, what the message is from the top does have an impact. Dell, the cnn reporting on this issue is that rosenstein doesnt see a need for special prosecutor. How do you see that issue in the future . You know, things can change. More political pressure that gets applied. Jerry side, one of the columnists at the wall street journal wrote that youll notice things will change when more republicans get on the side of asking for a special prosecutor and begin to push for that. We havent quite seen that. Thats on the political realm. In terms of rosenstein, he is not a fan of special prosecutors. They can run amok. He has been a u. S. Attorney a long time, top federal prosecutor in maryland and resisted calls for special prosecutor as recently in an interview with us, before he took office and during his confirmation hearing. I dont see him buckling to that unless more shoes drop. A question for all three of you, but ill start with karin, is there a list of usual suspects circulated as to who might be the comey replacement, i dont mean on an interim basis. I mean who might President Trump put in that position . Weve heard a variety of names of people interviewing for that position now, including potentially the majority whip of the senate, john cornyn. It is not clear who he is going to choose or what criteria he would base that decision on. He could go with somebody s partisan. Dont need more than 50 or the president s tiebreaking vote in the senate to get one of the nominees through, or go with somebody traditional. Mccabe is there, probably wants the job, serving now as acting director of the fbi, that would be sticking with the script of whos around and making it more it will be more of a gesture to say this was just about comey and not about trying to rout out the entire hierarchy dealing with the russia probe or clinton investigation frankly. He has a variety of options which way he could go and who he chooses will show us something potentially about what the reasoning was behind getting rid of comey. Like i said, theres a pretty open road in the senate as long as he can keep the republicans happy, vast bulk of republicans happy. They can afford to lose two and get a nominee through. As dell said, a lot of this depends on what the republicans want. Havent seen republicans coming out like democrats, calling for for a special prosecutor or Independence Commission as democrats have. They criticized the action by trump with comey, but hasnt gotten to the point theyre willing to throw in the towel, and say we need new leadership and take this out of the command of doj. Matthew, limited for time, is there a name on your tongue . There have been wild rumors like trey dowdy, an incredibly partisan congressman. He led the benghazi investigation in the house. You hear all kinds of things. Some of the better angels of the white house are saying go for somebody nonpar san, Law Enforcement background, and some saying go to somebody that protects your interest and will be loyal. Dell. One name. Give it to me. John cornyn. Alice fisher is interviewing today as well as michael garcia, andy mccabe are interviewing at the Justice Department down the street from the studio. Who knows. Thats just the list put out. Never know how this stuff will go. Keep up the great work. Del quirchlten wilbur, karin, and eric, we really appreciate you being here. Thank you. Thank you. What are your thoughts at home. Tweet me at smerconish or go to my facebook page. Ill read some during the course of this program. Hit me, katherine, what have you got . How long will it take until we see actual proof on trump colluding with the russians to affect the election . Nicholas, a long, long time if some get their wishes and shut this whole thing down. Thats my short answer. One more if you can quickly. Smerconish, comey tapes are a ruse to deflect from the real story. Potus does not want to be president and is looking for an out daily. I dont know, nicholas. I have wondered this question aloud. I get the impression all of this tum mutt tumult is something he thrives on. End of the day sees himself as having a productive week. With the fbi director ousted, some are calling for a special prosecutor on the russia question, including michigans gary peters who is here. And matt drudge warned President Trump this week, leaks on hour, every hour, will destroy presidency. 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