Philbor on the ramification of this latest bombshell leak. But we start with catherine herridge. Reporter a short time ago the Senate Intelligence committee sent a new request on a bipartisan basis to the former and acting fbi directors. The first letter was sent to james comey asking him to testify twice in open or Public Session as well as a classified setting. The second letter was sent to the acting fbi director andrew mccabe, seeking any notes or memos prepared by the former director regarding communications he may have had with senior white house and department of justice officials. What stands out at this hour is the request from the republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, chuck grassley. Hes asking for additional memos the former fbi director may have crafted during the Obama Administration as well as any audio recordings that may exist. Melissa what are your colleagues saying . Reporter we have confirmation that the meeting was documented as first reported by the New York Times where the president reportedly asked comey to let go of the investigation into former National Security adviser mike flynn who had just resigned. The white house has disputed this account. Because of his background as a lawyer and career prosecutor and bureaucrat in the government, comey is described as someone who was a copious note taker and its Standard Practice to take notes to memorialize the conversation. In early march, just two weeks after that white house meeting, comey publicly stated his intent to serve out his ten year term as director during a speech at boston college. The comment strikes current and former agents weve talked to as note worthy, possibly reflecting comeys unease about that flynn meeting. Boston college is a leader in thinking and educating on these incredibly important issues. So this is a great place to have it. Hope youll do it many more times. Youre stuck with me for about hat 6. 5 years. Reporter there is a press den for using fbi notes after a dispute with the white house over surveillance then fbi director Robert Mueller provided his notes to validate comeys version of events, melissa. Melissa interesting. Thank you. How is the white house responding to all of this . Lets go to chief White House Correspondent john roberts for more on that. John . Reporter melissa, good afternoon. All of the white house response so far coming from the president himself today, not advancing our knowledge of events any further than we knew yesterday, but certainly standing defiant in the face of these latest challenges for his white house and presidency. Given the commencement address to the coast guard academy, within the last couple hours the president lashing out at media reports about the comey memo and the russia meeting telling cadets never stop fighting. Never, ever, ever give up. Things will work out just fine. Look at the way i have been treated lately. Especially by the media. No politician in history, and i say this with great purity, has been treated worse or more unfairly. You cant let them get you down. You cant let the critics and the naysayers get in the way of your dreams. Reporter the president is pushing back against talk of comey and the russia scandals are threatening to derail his agenda telling the cadets he is continuing with all of his campaign promises. Markets taking a big hit on fears that tax reform is not going to get done. The president insists though that despite the challenges, he is going to get tax reform done. Listen here. I didnt get elected to serve the washington media or special interests. I got elected to serve the forgotten men and women of our country and thats what im i will never stop fighting for you. And i will never stop fighting for the American People. Reporter from russia today, some perhaps unwanted assistance. The russian president vladamir putin releasing a transcript of the conversation that lavrov had with the president if the president were to ask him to do it. So far no indication that the white house is inclined to take the russian president up on his offer, but, melissa, im sure they have a transcript of their own that they could release if they so wanted. Melissa yeah. Russia being helpful as always. Thank you very much. Appreciate that. Obstruction of justice is a crime. There are missing elements here. Doesnt mean this couldnt be evidence of obstruction, but its nowhere near where we have to be to establish a crime. Now, impeachment doesnt necessarily need a prosecutable crime, but it falls well short of the article ii standard. Melissa that is law professor Jonathan Turley who testified during the clinton impeachment, saying evidence the president obstructed justice just isnt there yet. Lets bring in michael zeldon, a federal prosecutor and independent counsel. We all have jonathan philbor. Michael, what does the memo have to say in order for it to be obstruction . Its not so much what does the memo have to say in black and white. What it says in black and white is i hope you can let this go, hes a good guy, he did nothing wrong. But its that language in the context of the events in which it is said. Obstruction of justice is a specific intent crime, meaning it has depended on the state of mind of the individual who says those words at the time he says those words. Was he intending to obstruct an investigation that he knew was on going . So the language is not itself determinative. It is the language in context. Those who say this is obstruction of justice put that language in the context of comey being fired for russia, the meeting with comey taking place after a loyalty request at a previous dinner. That the attorney general was asked to leave the room so that the president could speak to comey alone in the white house. On the other side of it, of course, we havent seen the memo. The president could well be saying, you know, give the guy a break, hes a good guy. Im not trying to impede your investigation, just give theupl ben at this time of the doubt. We have to see how that works out. Melissa its going to be really hard to know what was in President Trumps mind at the time based on a memo. At the same time, you have to ask yourself if comey felt like there was obstruction or something was happening, why didnt he come forward to an ethics official, to justice . Our own Gregg Jarrett writes on this memo saying, by writing if memo, comey has put himself in a box. If he now accuses the president of obstruction, he places himself in legal jeopardy for failing to promptly and properly report it. If he says it was merely an uncomfortable conversation, then he clears the president of wrongdoing and sullys his own image as a guy who attempted to smear the man who fired him. Whats your take on that . I think Gregg Jarrett is a weizman and i agree with him 100 . This memo is evidence of nothing except for what james comey thought was important at the time he was having a conversation with the president. You know, its no more evidence of corruption than it would be if President Trump said do you know what . Mike flynn is a really great guy. That would no more prove that mike flynn is a great guy. I only proves that that is the president of President Trump as to his character. This memo is gonna go nowhere. Its not evidence. Even if it says what we think it said that, hey, i hope you can let this go, that does not rise tpo the level of obstruction of justice according to the u. S. Code. Melissa did comey have an obligation if he felt like it was an obstruction, to go to an ethics official . To go to justice, to say or do something . A couple of things. First, he said that he went to senior fbi officials. We dont know who those officials are, so we dont know whether he went to an ethics officer or didnt go to an ethics officer. With respect to tkpgoing to the department of justice, youve got a recused attorney general, a Deputy Attorney general who perhaps is a witness in this case because of his prior memo alleging that the firing was based on poor Hillary Clintons situation. So it may be that he says, i have no one to go to in justice. I went to senior people in the fbi named to be disclosed at some point. Melissa okay. And i didnt want to interfere with the on going investigation of the agents of those issues by surfacing this. Which is an important factor when youre in the middle of an important investigation to demoralize your agents in some way by revealing this is a point that has to be taken into account. Melissa we all have mccabe who testified that there was no interference with the investigation. And that was him testifying he might have been the one that you think director comey would have gone to. And thats the other point. Theres been no evidence of any corruption or any crime whatsoever. Weve got three different investigations going on. So far all of them are falling flat, are not having the evidence people want them to have. By people, i mean the democrats. So james comey had no problem going to the New York Times after he was fired with this memo, so i dont think he was at a loss for who to go to to report something in february if he thought there was coercion or corruption involved. Melissa okay. Well, the story goes on. Thank you both for helping us break it down. Thank you. Melissa a scary moment after a school bus filled with students flips. Weve got the details. Plus why vladamir putin laughed when asked about the president s meetings with russias leaders in the Oval Office Last week, as mr. Trump prepares for his first trip abroad. I will strengthen all friendships and will seek new partners. But partners who also help us, not partners who take and take and take. Fun in art class. Come close, come close. I like that. [ music stops suddenly ] ah. When your pain reliever stops working, your whole day stops. Awww. Try this. For minor arthritis pain, only aleve can stop pain for up to 12 straight hours with just one pill. Thank you. Come on everybody. You cant quit, neither should your pain reliever. Stay all day strong with 12 hour aleve. Melissa a terrifying scene in southern pennsylvania after a packed school bus flips on its side. Look at that. The students and the driver at least 14 students and the driver are hospitalized. The impacting ejecting one student who suffered serious injuries. It is not exactly clear what caused this. But Authorities Say they are searching for another driver who may have caused a Chain Reaction crash. President trump heading to saudi arabia later this week to begin his first foreign trip as president. A nineday visit to the middle east and europe. And the steaming caulderon of controversy he is leaving behind could affect his diplomatic impact. Rich edson is live at the state department. Russia is already commenting on this, huh, rich . Reporter thats right. Rush president putin said the United States is developing political schizophrenia because of all of this. He said its stablizing if internal political station under antirussia sentiment. He calls those responsible either stupid or dangerous and corrupt. The president putin then joked about the conversation between his foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and President Trump inside the oval office where the president shared classified information with him. Putin said hed be happy to share with congress the transcript of that discussion, then of his foreign minister he said, i will have to reprimand him because he shared these secrets neither with me nor the Russian Secret Services which is very inappropriate on his part. Later this week President Trump will leave for his first foreign trip as president of the United States and will very likely bring this controversy with him, melissa. Melissa on this trip, i understand hes going to have a major address on islam planned . Reporter he will. Thats according to h. R. Mcmaster, who announced it. Its going to take place in saudi arabia. There will be 50 representatives he said from muslim majority counties. Earlier this afternoon, President Trump previewed his message. Ill speak with Muslim Leaders and challenge them to fight hatred and extremism and embrace a peaceful future. Theyre looking very much forward to hearing what we, as your representative, we, have to say. We have to stop radical islamic terrorism. Reporter it is unclear which country these representatives will be from, or whether he representatives from the countries that were included in the travel ban announced by the administration will also be in attendance. Melissa . Melissa rich edson, thank you. Down day on wall street to say the least. Right now the dow down just about 300 points. Why investors are getting mauled by the bears today. Plus, is the one person the president cannot fire the one who can help President Trump get things back on track . The advice our next guest has for the Vice President. The president took strong and decisive leadership here to put the safety and security of the American People first by accepting the recommendation of the Deputy Attorney general to remove director comey as the head of the fbi. Lilly. She pretty much lives in her favorite princess dress. But once a week i let her play sheriff so i can wash it. I use tide to get out those week old stains and downy to get it fresh and soft. You are free to go. Tide and downy together. But weve got the get tdigital tools to help. Now with xfinitys my account, you can figure things out easily, so you wont even have to call us. Change your wifi password to something you can actually remember, instantly. Add that premium channel, and watch the show everyones talking about, tonight. And the bill you need to pay . Do it in seconds. Because we should fit into your life, not the other way around. Go to xfinity. Com myaccount melissa our next guest sending unsolicited advice to Vice President pence, pleading for him to help him get his act together. Jonah goldberg writing, quote, youre the one person the president cant fire. Maybe you were misled. Maybe you were part of the deception. Id like to think thats not the case. Either way, is this really what you had in mind when you took the job . Jonah goldberg is a Senior Editor at the National Review and fox news contributor. Thats a lot. What do you think the Vice President can do right now . Well, look. One of the things we know that donald trump is right about is he threw away the old play book. He broke the mold. Hes not playing by the conventional washington rules. That i think is a big source of a lot of his problems. Some of those rules were there for a good reason. But, mike pence is still playing role of the dutiful surrogate Vice President who just goes around talking about the president s broad shouldered and manful leadership and all of the rest. I dont think hes helping donald trump by playing that role. Donald trump set him up. Mike pence went out and repeatedly said that the fbi director was fired on the recommendation of the Deputy Attorney general and that this was all above board. Within, what, 48 hours donald trump made that a complete falsehood. Confirmed it was a falsehood to lester holt on nbc. If i were mike pence, i would go to the president and say, hey, look, you cant do that to me. If you keep doing this to me, i have tools at my disposal, i can start speaking more forth rightly. I can threaten to resign. There are all sorts of things he can do. What donald trump really needs is somebody tome discipline on his messaging, some discipline on the white house staff and instead, from all the reports that we get, its an environment of chaos that the president thrives on. Mike pence needs to step up and help get things back on track. Melissa okay. I take your point, absolutely. How do we know mike pence isnt doing other things, like advancing legislation or being off working on healthcare or working on tax reform . I mean, maybe hes doing some of the lifting over there. Were kind of assuming that while these other things are going on, nothing el is going on. Theres been some controversy at fox, but were still doing our jobs every single day. Thats fair. Im sure mike pence is doing that. The whole pitch inside the belt way about mike pence is a running mate is that he was going to be this liaison between the hill and that he was going to get legislation through. I know hes trying to do a lot of that stuff. But none of that agenda can happen when you have one scandal, one controversy, one fire storm that a week, a day, most of them created by the president himself because he tweets about being wire tapped, he contradicts his statement about firing the fbi director. He has no idea what to do when the fbi director pushes back. And mike pence is the one guy who doesnt have to fear for his job. Lot of these cabinet secretaries are constantly afraid of being fired, and he doesnt have to be. Melissa point well taken. You say, i dont think you should resign in response to the president hanging you out to dry on the comey affair, but threatening to do so, if he plays you for a patsy again, might, just might help the president get his act together, which would be good for kwrourbg the party and the country. I always say when things are going this wrong at least in the messaging sense, in the very least we can all agree it seems a little out of control. For me you flip the script. You start doing the opposite of what you were doing that wasnt working. What would you want pence to do in terms of getting the white house in order, in terms of the messaging and everything thats getting out. What would you want him to do . Say stop tweeting . Get out and stop with the Daily Briefing . What specifically would you do . Im sure mike pence is listening to you right now. Among some of the easy things would be stop having this moveable feast of an oval Office Setting where people come and go and Wander Around constantly. You have the situation where the chief of staff, the white house senior strategic adviser, steve bannon, all of them are constantly Walking Around with the president of the United States as glorified body men because theyre terrified that someone else is gonna whisper Something Else in his ear. The staff needs to be stream lined. If you want to have Jared Kushner running things, go ahead. Instead, he seems to listen to the last person he talks to, if he listens to anybody at all. Melissa im sure you phones gonna be ringing after this. Thanks. Thank you. Melissa the questions surrounding the white house now having a major impact on wall street. Were gonna look at the latest numbers and what they could mean for your 401k. Plus, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle reacting to the comey memo. Some calling for impeachment, even one Top Republican invoking watergate. Latest fallout next. Melissa james comey testifying calling on the bureau to turn over any other records. Comey may have been tapped concerning communications with the white house. This as top lawmakers on both sides of the aisle caution against jumping to conclusions. Peter ducey is live on capitol hill. Peter, senator mckeen made waves comparing the current climate to watergate. What did he tell you about that today . Reporter senator mccain told me the watergate comparison told me it has nothing to do with a push to remove President Trump from office. Instead, he just thinks weve gone from a 24hour news cycle to a five minute news cycle and with this russia story, things keep coming out the same way they did during watergate. What i am saying is that this is a centipede which i have said for weeks now and every shoe drops every day or two and theres a new aspect of this. We need to get and iran contra is another one of these crises that we faced. The point is, weve got to get all of the information out. Weve got to get this behind us so we can move forward with the nations work. Reporter and you heard senator mccain compare this situation to iran contra as well. He went on to say that he thinks president reagan did very well getting past the iran contra controversy by just getting everything out all at once and allowing everybody to get all their questions answered so they can move forward. That cry that you just heard not a lawmaker. Melissa or a reporter or anyone . Okay. Are democrats uniting around calls for impeachment proceedings, i would imagine . Reporter theyre really not yet, but somebody did go there today on the house floor. It was Democratic Texas congressman al green. I rise today, mr. Speaker, to call for the impeachment of the president of the United States of america for obstruction of justice. Reporter green was quickly rebuked by the republican presiding congressman. Green is having a tough time getting his Party Leaders on push with this impeachment call, including the top democratic on the Intel Committee which is investigating russian activity during the election. No one ought to, in my view, rush to embrace the most extraordinary remedy that involves the removal of the president from office. Reporter democratic leader Nancy Pelosis office also said she is still not going there. They directed us to some comments she made on monday where she said democrats cant really push for impeachment because they dont really have a case for that right now. Melissa . Melissa well, good things politician arent prone to hyperbolie. Were waiting for a press conference from sean spicer. For more on this, lets bring in our political panel. Chris plante at the chris plante show. Leslie marshall syndicated radio host of the Leslie Marshall show. Which is also a radio talk show. Shes a fox news contributor. Thanks to both of you for joining us. Chris, what do you make of this today . Today . A lot like yesterday. Melissa this minute. Thats exactly it. Senator mccain is on to something here. Weve lost the 24hour news cycle. Were on a five minute news cycle. We repeat it again and again. Weve reached a point of madness. Im concerned about the emotional well being of the city of washington and whats in it. Weve lost what was left of our mind. Weve blown everything out of proportion. It is a constant state of hysteria. And the appalling part of it is that this is really what were witnessing is the democrats campaigning for the mid term elections. Thats what this is all about. They know theres nothing impeachable here. Theres no obstruction of justice. They know that. They know all of this is just political stuff. You used the word hyperbolie. Ill use that. But over a dinner table, i might use a different word. Were not getting any better. We show signs of getting worse. Melissa theres a lot of hysteria. There also one very big question raised by peter king earlier today on this network. Lets listen. Im just saying that if this was as serious as its being out to be, why is director comey so silent for the last two months . Melissa good question, leslie. What do you think . Well, i think that when james comey was the director of the fbi there was an on going investigation and just like anybody, remember, the fbi is not going to bring forth charges or indictments. Theyre going to make recommendations to the department of justice, which you cant until you have completed everything. However now, after the termination of mr. Comey in that position, he is a free private citizen, and quite frankly, i dont agree with chris at all on this. Theres not hysteria. The American People, regardless of their ideology, they want the truth. We know theres a memo. We know we will hear from mr. Comey, whether he comes just being invite d, whether hi is subpoenaed, and we know the information is being gathered. So this is not hysteria. This is just wanting the truth. This comes from both sides of the aisle. Melissa it seems like for peter king, whos very straight, very sober. I mean, for him to say this at this point, it seems like, if youre the head of the fbi and youre running an investigation, overseeing an investigation or your tkep is doing a big investigation and you think the president is obstructing justice . Thats something that you bring up sooner rather than later. No . Right. Listen, if director comey wrote up this entry in his diary that the president of the United States attempted to obstruct justice and then sat on it, why was he sitting on it . Why was he holding that memo in reserve . If hes mr. Integrity, hes on again off again, why did the fbi director, who witnessed this effort to obstruct justice, hold it in reserve . Is he j. Edgar hoover . Is he the head of the kgb . Was he holding this for political purposes . And now were told hes going to be doling out memos one at a time for maximum political effect. At what point does he become suspect in all of this . Theres not a legal expert in your right mind that would tell you that constitutes obstruction of justice anyway. Melissa leslie, ill let you respond. Some are saying it feels like its becoming tit for tat with comey and trump. Chris, there are many legal individuals that have said if, in fact, this is true, it is obstruction of justice including those that worked in the Nixon White House and in the Clinton White house or both. In addition to that, we have republicans like from maine, an gus king that said very reluctantly it seems to be going the way toward impeachment. Obviously because were hearing from overwhelming majority of democrats with the exception of one, that its too early to tell. Thats the thing. I think with james comey, it may have been too early to tell. You dont just say, boom, i have one conversation, obstruction of justice. You have to have all of the ts crossed and its dotted. Melissa we gotta go. We got a lot more to argue. We have a lot more time to argue, but not today. Fox news alert from wall street. A steep selloff today. The dow right now is down 317 points. Investors reacting to the latest white house turmoil. And new fears President Trump could be struggling to pass his pro business agenda, because thats what matters to wall street. Lori rothman is live at the New York Stock Exchange on the floor there. What are traders telling you . Theyre really weighing their confidence in President Trumps pro Economic Growth plan tax reform. Will it get pushed aside or delayed . The banks deregulation plan. No surprise were seeing banks and other Financial Companies leading the selloff today. Right now youre looking at the dow, down 322 points off 1. 5 . Goldman sachs led the way up, now leading the way down. Apple one of the leading losers on the dow today. About 3 . American express another financial down 2 . So if investors are worried about President Trump and the pro growth plan here, theyre ditching the so called riskier assets like stocks and heading right into safety plays. Like gold. Gold prices up 23 bucks. Up for a fifth straight session today. You all have Interest Rates coming down as investors snap up government securities. So thats something thats gonna protect investors. Melissa no doubt youre making some of our viewers nervous when you see Something Like apple which a lot of people hold, might have in their 401k. Should folks start looking at that stuff, in your opinion . Heres the deal. The market has come so far so fast. Healthy consolidation. Youve got volume trading right at the one month average. So this is how theyre characterizing an ordinarily selloff. Some stocks that have risen so sharply since the election. Take a look at the performance. Apple up 37 . Still, even with todays selloff. Mcdonalds up 29 . Home depot 26 . These numbers are staggering. So lot of people may look savvy investors could look at the declines and say this might be a way the get in. Melissa maybe apple is on sale today. I love that. Thank you. Thank you. Melissa scary moment in dc as senator Tom Tillerson collapses during a bike race. Plus, some gop lawmakers now calling for a special prosecutor in the investigation into possible collusion. Between the Trump Campaign and russia. announcer vo when you have type 2 diabetes, theres a moment of truth. And now with victoza® a better moment of proof. Victoza® lowers my a1c and blood sugar better than the leading branded pill, which didnt get me to my goal. Lowers my a1c better than the leading branded injectable. The one i used to take. 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Tell your doctor your medical history. Taking victoza® with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. The most common side effects are headache, nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting. Side effects can lead to dehydration, which may cause kidney problems. Nows the time for a better moment of proof. Ask your doctor about victoza®. Ykeep you sidelined. Ng thats why you drink ensure. With 9 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. For the strength and energy to get back to doing. What you love. Ensure. Always be you. Its just a burst pipe, i co laugh it. No. With claim rateguard your rates wont go up just because of a claim. I totally couldve no switching to allstate is worth it. Shepard smith at the fox desk. More on the latest bombshell at the white house. Lawmakers at both parties asking james comey to testify in public about his private conversation with President Trump. Ill speak with journalist amy stoddard about the path forward for the president and the republican party, which she said is paralyzed by this controversy. Thats top of the hour on Shepard Smith reporting. Ill see you then. Melissa turmoil in washington deepening over reports that President Trump tried to end the fbis investigation into ties between the former National Security adviser Michael Flynn and russia. Now, a small but growing number of the gop are calling for a special prosecutor over the investigation of any collusion between the Trump Campaign and russia. Others say if these allegations are true it could merit impeachment like michigan congressman justin amosh when asked responded with, quote, yes, but everyone gets a fair trial in this country. Joining us to discuss is representative duncan hunter, member of the House Armed Services committee. Hes a very early backer of President Trump. Sir, thank for joining us. What is your take now . Great to be with you. My take hasnt changed. Just because President Trump told the director of the fbi that he hopes that he can find a way to clear his National Security adviser, that is not impeachable, in my opinion. Its not obstruction of justice. Until more actual facts come out on this, i give trump the benefit of the doubt here. Totally. Melissa okay. This was congressman charlie dent republican from pennsylvania, of course, saying do we have that sound byte . Lets listen. Sorry. Again, if thats true, ill have to talk to some people and get the facts about exactly what happened. If thats the case, very serious matter. Melissa so what would the facts have to be in your mind in order for it to be a very serious matter . Sure. Melissa in other words, what would have to be in that memo to amount to obstruction . President trump would have to say end the investigation or im going to fire you. I want you to end the investigation. I want a pledge that youll end the investigation regardless of what you find. That would be objestruction of justice. He said i hope you can find a way to clear my National Security adviser. Theres nothing wrong with that. Melissa were wondering, is anything else going on while this is going on . Are you working on healthcare . Are you working on tax reform . Because it seems like you dont have to be working on whatever crisis is going on in the white house full time, right . We arent working on that at all. Were doing defense stuff. The National Authorization for defense act is coming out. Were working tax reform. Healthcare. We will be waiting on the senate which could take decades at the pace that they move. So who knows . Were not paying attention to this. This is being media driven by and large in my opinion. We have no play in this either. This is all media driven. You already have four investigations into donald trump. You have two house investigations, two senate investigations. Thats plenty of investigating going around for the rest of us to do the work of the American People. Melissa if its media driven, were here and youre there. I see lots of people moving around behind you. Is everyone talking about this or are they talking about the business of the day . Is it half and half . I mean, give me a real sense of what the truth is. Were talking about trump in terms of i have buddies that say this is horrible, they dont feel like i do on this. Were just talking about that in passing. Theres a lot of stuff going on. Actual work to be done. Tax reform, like you said. And the defense bill, which i think is the most important thing possible that we do for this country as a u. S. Congress. Thats coming up in short order. Lot of tourists here. Its summertime. Kids are out of school. Lot of people here in the capital seeing the sights. Melissa yeah. This is the report that we got from fox businesss adam shapiro saying Steve Mnuchin and gary cohn had a private meeting with members of the Senate Finance committee to talk about tax reform. Both republicans and democrats were present. I mean, i understand that youre in a different group, but is it your sense that this kind of coming together is still happening maybe in corners in spite of this . Are we getting any closer on the tax reform side . This stuff happens regardless of what the news of the day is, right . Truly, this is the work that congress does day in and day out, the house and senate, getting together and talking. Thats great news, by the way, that theyre all getting together. Melissa all right, sir. Thank you very much for joining us and telling us whats really going on and whats not media spin. We appreciate that. In the mean time we have a fox news alert. Sean spicer is holding a press Gaggle Aboard Air Force one. These happen, but its rare that we get the audio, so were going to listen. To discuss hopefully the nature of their conversations. The president is confident in the events that hes maintained and the truth will he wants the truth and the investigations to get to the bottom of this. Theres two investigations go on in the house and senate. He wants to get to the bottom of this. Have you had a chance to look into more what took place in the meeting between the president and comey in february . Whats the president s side of this . We know that he said he did not ask about the flynn investigation. Can you tell us more about what the president testified to at that meeting . The president was very clear that the account that was published is not an accurate description of how the event occurred. Could you confirm i think weve made it very clear. Im not going to give any further comment on that. Do you have any evidence to back up like what is it . Just that the president says that this didnt happen, this conversation didnt happen . I mean, is there any we are clear that this did not the president s been very clear that this is not an accurate representation of that meeting. Are you corroborating that based on his word . He made a tweet about tapes last week. Are there records of conversations . We put out statement regarding that. Is the president considering having personal lawyers outside of white House Counsel in light of these allegations and things that have come up . If i have any updates on that ill let you know. Some of the characterizations of the conversations the president had with the Russian Foreign minister. Sounds like the russian president said that their side is willing to release a transcript of the conversation. Do you support the russians releasing a transcript of that conversation to congress . And were you aware that they were recording the conversation . I am not aware of anything of that. I dont have any update. I think we put out a statement very clearly that the president doesnt believe thats an accurate representation. If theres a transcript, would you like it to be made public . Weve been very clear with the recollection of that meeting, their account of that meeting. Can you discuss more about what they talked about. Were the specific allegation of Israel Intelligence or whats behind the stuff that he told the russians . Did that have anything to do with it . That phone call was purely a logistical preparation. Can you discuss the fact that the source of the intelligence preparation. It seems that the president has been quiet in the last 24 hours, at least on twitter and making any public remarks other than the official events. Is there an effort to scale back events or any kind of other comments about the issues thats been going on in the white house right now . I made very clear what our position was. Theres been a lot of questions that other people are out there talking about this event in terms of what was appropriate with respect to some of the stuff director comey did or did not do. But the white house has put out a statement very clearly with our account. How concerned are you by comments of some of the republicans in congress, saying that this is starting to approach watergate proportions . Very clear that were focused the president s obviously focused on the speech they gave today winning widespread praise for what he talked about, the role of the coast guard and the future of the young people that will defend our homeland. Obviously going to continue to prepare for the meeting with president of columbia tomorrow and looking forward to taking off on this trip. Thank you, guys. Enjoy. Thanks, guys. Melissa okay. What you were listening to there was the gaggle that was going on between sean spicer who is, of course, the press secretary, and the press, fielding questions. This is amid the fire storm in washington over reports that President Trump, i think were gonna get it back now. Lets listen and see if we can hear more. Okay. It seems like theyre done now. That was the gaggle that goes on on air force one. Its normal that this would happen. We dont normally get to hear the audio of it. Some of the most significant things we heard, they were pressing sean spicer, reporters, about the idea that the russian president said they would be willing to release a transcript of what went on in the oval office, which led to questions, were they recording it . Sean spicer tried very hard not to answer that question. He said, im not aware. Then he said, the secretary of state has made clear our position on that. He backed away not wanting to say anything that would confirm, deny, anything about whether or not there was a recording. He was pressed again if they have a transcript, do you want to release it . He steered away from all of that. Its very interesting. Lets bring our panel back in, who i hope was listening. Chris plante and Leslie Marshall as well. Chris, what did you hear there that made an impression . Well, the press is pushing the story that the president is in legal jeopardy, is he going to be getting personal lawyers involved. The putin game that theyre playing out of moscow today with weve got a recording, weve got a transcript, i think is all just a game thats being run on us. I dont suspect that the foreign minister Sergei Lavrov or the ambassador were wired for sound, although there were Russian Press people in the room at the same time, too. So its difficult to say. But the press is pushing the trump is in trouble story. Trump might need a personal lawyer. Trump might be impeached. There might be a special prosecutor. He might have committed a crime, obstruction of justice. Thats the tune in at 6 30 tonight on the domestic Entertainment Networks and i think youll see a heavy emphasis on that. Melissa leslie . Well, i think again, chris, we need to have the facts. One of the things that bothered me here was the hesitancy by sean of some very specific questions. Melissa like what . Tape recordings. Regarding tape recordings and transcripts. Its very common to have a transcript of these type of meetings. The russians did it. Russian reporters were in the room so its easy for tows get that information. If there are any recordings of whether its with russia melissa he said im not aware. I dont believe that. Melissa you think hes lying. Im not saying hes lying. He may have been advised not to comment on that. Oh, come on. Melissa he said hes not aware. Hes not aware. So you want the kremlin to release a legitimate recording unedited, of course. And that will solve all of our problems. That will answer all of our questions. Youre looking to vladamir putin to provide us with a transcript and no. Melissa i dont think vladamir putin will be helpful in this situation. I agree. Melissa its just an instinct im getting here, leslie. What do you think . Well, no, i agree with you there. But heres the thing. If somebody were accusing me of any of what people are talking about and accusations coming forth towards the president , i would put everything out there. I would say, see, im clean, this is what we discussed and, quite frankly, i think we owe it to our allies like israel. Melissa hang on. Let me ask you though. In all honesty, if you were in the middle of this kind of feeding frenzy, does that make sense . If you put on anything, everything is sort of ripped to shreds. Maybe the idea is rather than being on twitter, rather than responding, get the fbi do its investigation and pivot around the country. I agree with you 100 , no question. I dont feel, quite frankly, even though we are in an age of tweeting and people want full transparency and they like having connections to the commander in chief. I just dont feel that tweeting, regardless of who the person is doing it as president. Melissa we also heard joe lieberman, a democrat, is being interviewed as candidate for fbi director. Chris, you first. What would you think of that . Good choice . I would not suggest it was a good choice, no. Hes a political figure. Hes now former senator. He is a life long democrat, independent at the end. He doesnt have a Law Enforcement background, department of justice background. Other than that, he would be ideal. Melissa leslie, what do you think . Just to play the other side, would there be anything unifying about that . Would it restore some sort of trust that you had somebody who didnt walk in with definitely a bias one way or the other, who might be able to stand in the middle and get to the bottom of this . Because everyone says that thats what they want, whether its the viewers or people on both sides of the aisle. They say, can we please just get to the bottom of this. Could he do that . I agree to get to the bottom of this with all respect to lieberman, i dont think hes the guy. I actually agree with chris on this. Im concerned with some of the background. I dont think that hes not bias, quite frankly. He was a democrat, an independent. Although in caucus with the democrats hes thrown some stones at republicans. I dont think hes unbiased. A wise answer. Melissa is there a person . Seems like thats the way we move on from here. Maybe thats the way we restore faith in government. We need a new fbi director that makes almost everyone or as many people feel better. Who could that be. Chris, real quick . Who could that be . Leslie, youre next. Whoever it is they have to be career Law Enforcement, ideally fbi with a Justice Department background. Perhaps a former prosecutor who doesnt come with political baggage and it will not restore faith in our government regardless. Melissa that is so bleak. Leslie, please help me out better than that. Well, first of all, you have to have the background and you have to have somebody that, without question, doesnt have any political gain and has not been outspoken for or against one party or one candidate or the other. Remember what has been called into question here is loyalty or not loyalty to the president. It has to be somebody that is pledging their allegiance to the constitution and to Law Enforcement and has the background that is that follows suit. Melissa any name . Ten seconds. Quick name. I vote for leslie. I agree. Honestly for names there are a number in the hopper. Melissa we gotta go to make room for shep. Thanks. Im melissa francis. Shepard its noon on the west coast. 3 00 in washington with where a Top Republican is comparing President Trump to richard nixon. Its now accelerated. Watergate took nothing. This seems to be taking hours. Shepard now gop leaders want answers. Did president trust request that james comey drop the investigation of the former National Security adviser Michael Flynn . For now the white house denies it. The president accusing the media of treating him worse than any other politician. Now one democratic politician is calling for impeachment. Other democrats are saying not so fast. And Vladimir Putin offering to
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