We will play excerpts from the testimony and host a roundtable discussion will stop the first to britain, where Prime Minister theresa may suffered a major setback when she lost a majority in parliament will stop she says she will form a Coalition Government. There are increasing calls for her resignation. This is labor leader Jeremy Corbyn. Ive spoken at events and rallies all over the country. You know what . Politics has changed. And politics is not going back into the box where it was before. Amy he ran on the platform of for the many, not the few and said the voters are turning their backs on austerity. We will go to london for the latest. All of that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. In the united kingdom, british Prime Minister theresa may suffered a major setback thursday in an election that saw her conservative party lose its majority in Parliament Less than two weeks before the country is scheduled to begin talks over exiting from the European Union. May called the snap election three years early, expecting to win a large mandate to negotiate with european leaders over the terms of leaving the union. But thursdays election instead left the conservatives without a clear majority and a hung parliament. Minutes ago, Prime Minister may said from 10 downing street her party would form a Coalition Government with the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland. What the country needs more than ever is certainty. And having secure the largest number of votes in the greatest number of seats in the general election, it is clear that only the conservative and Unionist Party has the legitimacy and ability to provide that certainty by commending a majority in the house of commons. Amy the British Elections on Jeremy Corbyn and his labour party make big gains that shocked even veteran poll watchers. Corbin, who ran on a progressive platform of war the many, not the few, said the results are evidence may should step down. What happened is people have said they have had quite enough of austerity politics. Quite enough of cuts in public expenditure, underfunding our health service, underfunding our schools and our education service, and not giving our young people the chance they deserve in our society. Amy after headlines, we will go to london for more on yesterdays historic u. K. Election. On capitol hill, recently fired fbi director james comey told lawmakers thursday President Trump tried to derail an investigation into National Security adviser Michael Flynns links to russia and accused trump of lying about why he was fired. The comments came during dramatic testimony before the Senate Intelligence committee. Although the role required to reside at all to fire an fbi director, the administration then chose to defame me and more important, the fbi. By saying the organization was in disarray. That it was poorly led, that the workforce had lost confidence in its leader. Those were lies, plain and simple. Amy comey told senators he believed he was fired by trump because of his investigation into russias meddling in novembers president ial election and whether any top Trump Officials colluded with russian officials. Comey detailed how trump repeatedly cornered him in oneonone meetings, asking him to declare his loyalty to the president and pressuring him to back off the investigation into michael flynn. Comey testified he documented every meeting he had with trump. I was honestly concerned he might lie about the nature of our meeting, so i thought it really important to document. Amy at the white house, president ial Spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared the president is not a liar. Trumps personal attorney, Marc Kasowitz, suggested comey perjured himself during congressional testimony. The president never informed or substance, directed, or suggested, that mr. Comey stop investigating anyone, including the president never suggested that mr. Comey let flynn go. Amy in a tweet early this money, President Trump wrote more than two days of twitter silence, writing despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication. And wow, comey is a leaker for more and james comeys Dramatic Senate testimony, well host a roundtable discussion later in the broadcast. The house of representatives voted along party lines thursday to overturn obamaera rules aimed at preventing a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis. The house repeal of the doddfrank act faces an uphill climb in the senate, where republicans hold a slim 52seat majority. In yemen, medical groups warned thursday an outbreak of cholera has infected more than 100,000 people. The World Health Organization says the waterborne illness has claimed the lives of nearly 800 people, and oxfam estimates cholera is claiming one life every hour in yemen. The who says the number of cases could reach 300,000. The epidemic comes amid a u. S. Backed saudiled Bombing Campaign and naval blockade thats left the countrys sanitation, water, and Health Infrastructure in shambles. The u. N. Warns some 19 million of yemens 28 Million People need some form of aid, with many of them at risk of famine. Meanwhile, the Associated Press is reporting three children and their grandmother were killed today after the saudiled warplanes bombed their home in yemens capital sanaa. Their neighbor, bassem al raghy, said there were no military targets nearby. Exactly 12 15 after midnight, the Saudi Led Coalition bombed residential houses, which led to the debt of four who were martyred, along with dozens of injuries. Spreading fear. This is not a military base, nor a government building. They are all civilians. Amy the United Nations monitors have warned previous saudiled attacks on yemen could constitute crimes against humanity. During a visit to riyadh last month, President Trump signed a series of arms deals with saudi arabia totaling a record 110 billion. And cutter, in qatar, aljazeera said thursday it was resisting a massive cyberattack that forced the Satellite Tv Network to temporarily shut down its website. The cyberattack came two weeks after hackers published a fake news article on qatars state news Agency Website which falsely cited qatars leader making friendly statements about iran saudi arabias regional opponent. The fake news story inflamed tensions between qatar and other arab nations, including saudi arabia, bahrain, egypt, yemen, libya, and the United Arab Emirates all of whom broke off relations with qatar this week, accusing it of backing militant groups, including isis and alqaeda. In somalia, hundreds of fighters with the militant Group Alshabab overran an army base in the Northern State of puntland thursday, killing as many as 70 people and wounding dozens of others. It was the deadliest attack on Somali Security forces in several years. Back in the United States, louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards is poised to sign legislation that would cut the states prison population by 10 over the next decade. The state estimates the measure will save taxpayers more than 260 million over the next 10 years by shortening prison time for certain nonviolent and drug offenders. Louisiana imprisons more of its residents per capita than any other state in the country, leading critics to declare it the incarceration capital of the world. In sylvester, georgia, high 900 High School Students have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit, alleging they were groped after the local sheriff ordered schoolwide patdown searches. The student say on sheriffs april 14, deputies searched hundreds of students for drugs, with some officers groping students breasts and gitalia. In an interview with local media, worth county sheriff jeff hobby said he believed the searches were legal because School Administrators were present. The patdowns did not yield any illegal drugs. In new jersey, video has emerged showing Jersey City Police assaulting a man shortly after he emerged, in flames, from a burning car wreck caused when a suspect in a highspeed pursuit crashed into his vehicle. The graphic video was first broadcast by univision. It shows 28yearold Miguel Felizrodriguez rolling on the ground to extinguish flames that had engulfed his upper body. Moments later, hes kicked repeatedly by officers who then drag him into the street. It was apparently a case of mistaken identity. The officers had been in pursuit of another suspect, leo pinkston, firing repeatedly at him during a highspeed pursuit that ended in a fiery crash. Felizrodriguez is reportedly fighting for his life, with facial injuries and burns on 30 of his body. A jersey city spokesperson said the city will seek to fire the officers and press charges against them. In augusta, georgia, u. S. Intelligence contractor Reality Leigh Winner pleaded not guilty thursday to charges she leaked a topsecret document to the intercept. Winner was charged for allegedly leaking a top secret document claiming Russian Military intelligence conducted a cyberattack on at least one u. S. Voting Software Company just days before last novembers election. Prosecutors told a judge winner had plans to reveal more classified files. A federal judge denied bail to winner pending her trial on charges she violated the espionage act. Winner was led away in shackles, wearing an orange jumpsuit. She faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. And in new york city, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton delivered a commencement address thursday to graduates of the Medgar Evers College in brooklyn. Outside clintons speech, members of the Haitian Human Rights Group komokoda held a protest, saying the Clinton Foundation stole money intended for haitis reconstruction after the 2010 earthquake. The protesters also blasted clintons record of public service. This is protester dahoud andre. Hillary clinton, the clinton family, the harm they have done to our people in haiti, in africa, in libya, in honduras, right here in the United States, the 1996 crime bill criminalizing, incarcerating mass incarceration of our youth, that she called super predators. We said, whatever donald trump can do, whatever harm he can do, it cannot be worse than what the clintons have already done to our people. Amy and those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We begin todays show in the united kingdom, where british Prime Minister theresa may has suffered a major setback thursday in a snap election that saw her conservative party lose its majority in Parliament Less than two weeks before the country is scheduled to begin talks over exiting the European Union. May called the snap election three years early, expecting to win a large mandate to negotiate with european leaders over the of the socalled brexit. At thursdays election left the conservatives without a clear majority and a hung parliament. And its ago, Prime Minister may said from 10 downing street that her party would form a Coalition Government with the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland. With the country needs more than ever is certainty. And having secure the largest number of votes in the greatest number of ses in the general election, it is clear that only the conservative and Unionist Party has the legitimacy and ability to provide that certainty by commending a majority in the house of commons. Amy this comes as the Labor Party LeaderJeremy Corbyn had said the results are evidence may should step down. Corbyn ran on a platform of for the many, not the few. He said thursdays Election Results show voters are turning their backs on austerity. What happened is, people have said theyve had quite enough of austerity politics. They have had quite enough of cuts in public expenditure, underfunding our health service, underfunding our schools and our education service, and not giving our young people the chance they deserve in our society. Amy in the late stages of the election campaign, britain was hit by two militant attacks claimed by isis that killed 30 people in manchester and london. The shift to focus onto Security Issues hurt may in part becaus she oversaw cuts to the number of Police Officers during her previous role as interior minister. With the conservative partys parliamentary majority wiped out, may is expected to turn to Northern Irelands Democratic Unionist Party to provide her with the number of seats required for a narrow working majority. She is meeting with the queen this morning. For more, we go to washington, d. C. Mehdi hasan, an , awardwinning british journalist and broadcaster at al jazeera english. He is host of the program upfront and a columnist for the intercept. He is author of ed the milibands and the making of a labour leader and the debt delusion exposing ten tory myths about debts, deficits and spending cuts. And from london, we are joined by paul mason, a columnist for the guardian and a filmmaker based in london. His most recent book postcapitalism a guide to our , future. We welcome you both to democracy now we turn first to washington, d. C. , to mehdi hasan , your take on what has just taken place in britain . I think it is an absolute humiliation for the Prime Minister of the united kingdom, theresa may. She had a 25 point lead when this Campaign Began and ended with a hung parliament, having lost seats in parliament, of against the labor leader Jeremy Corbyn, who has increased bowsher are the biggest margin i think since 1945. It is very bad news for her. She is been Prime Minister for less than a year. How much longer she will survive, we dont know because the tory party does not like losers. The sharks are already circling. There will be an assault on her leadership im sure very soon and asked for her government, i mean, you mentioned her dep, who was the political wine 18th centuextremely reactionaryd bigoted party with ties also to the paramilitaries. The irony of forming a Coalition Government with them when she ran a campaign in which she repeated in every speech that she would bring about strong and stable government. In the last thing she has given the u. K. This morning is strong and stable government. It is an embarrassment for a probably the end of her political career. Amy paul mason, you are right there in london. The Prime Minister has just spoken from 10 downing street. Explain what is taking place right now. So the Prime Minister theresa may did not need to call the selection. She called it. Instead of getting a next her majority that would help her get through her legislator program and the socalled hard break with europe, the brexit, she failed. She lost more seats than she gain. She is had to go for this alliance with this rightwing, religiously sectarian party. Whether it is stable or not, it removes one of her key negotiating positions. It is a bit arcane for american viewers, but this party in Northern Ireland once there to be no border between Northern Ireland and the irish republic after brexit. To do that, you have to have a deal. Theresa mays negotiating position relies on the threat of walking away without a deal. So as of right now, she cant do that. It is an inconsequential threat and the negotiating partners in europe and the other 27 countries completely understand it. Completely weak interim position. Amy is it a done deal she will form a coalition with this Northern Irish party, the Democratic Unionist Party, and explain exactly what this party is. Hadn Northern Ireland, you 20 years of religious civil war. Nationalism versus unionism. Irish nationalism versus unionism. They sent in troops, a rather large number come to suppress the nationalist rising. Their roots are in the constitutional aspect of that will stop but there are many people involved in that party who has a background in the Armed Struggle on the british side, just as much as the Hours National party has a background in arms struggle on the other side. Deeply religious, conservative party. It is antiabortion. It is antiwomens rights, antigayrights. It was too close shops on sunday. It would be well at home in a donald trump rally in a way that theresa may would not be. Remember, we have remnants of religious rivalry here. In many british cities where there are irish communities. So to choose one side in the Northern Irish conflict and put them into government is going to play really badly, not just in one of our main trading partners southern ireland it also in addition cities like liverpool and glasgow. It is an act of desperation born of total strategic failure of a kind that should really have this woman clearing her backs out of 10 downing street right now. Amy what does this mean, mehdi hasan, for brexit . For britain leaving the European Union . It means we were already flying blind when it came to brexit. Theresa may at her government were famous for saying brexit means brexit when they were asked what the strategy is. Now she goes into negotiations in 10 or 11 days time with european partners, european governments who basically know that she is not this iron lady that she made her self out to be. She is not the reborn Margaret Thatcher who is going to kind of walk all over them if she ever was going to. They know for sure now she is a kind of hollow, empty vessel who talked a good game, but could not even when in an election in her own country against an opponent who was posted be this far left, terrorist loving, a popular marxist. The idea shes going to go up against merkel and macron and come up with some kind of deal in which the brits are victorious and the europeans are the losers, is absurd. I think this is a problem with the british debate and the british media coverage. You know, we of a rightwing media in the u. K. That gives cover to rather incompetent leaders it happen with David Cameron as he was treated as this great political genius. Look what happened to him. Theresa may, within your taking over, we were told she was the new Margaret Thatcher. There was talk there would be total dominance for 20, 30, 40 years. Now the tories are unable to win a majority, forced to form a coalition with the extremist party. Ironic that theresa may ran a campaign where she accused Jeremy Corbyn of effectively being allied with terrorists, supporter of the ira, hamas, has the law. She is going into coalition with a party that is still tied to loyalist, terror groups in Northern Ireland. How ironic and housing are critical, so might say. Amy where does this leave Jeremy Corbyn . The British Labour leader suggested Election Results indicated rejection of rightwing populist waves weve been today. Stripping today. It shows the determination to do something very differently in this country. And take a different stance towards the rest of the world. Amy though the holes indicated sweept was going to be a for theresa may, by late last night, and look like, well, it was possible that Jeremy Corbyn could become Prime Minister. Talk about where he is now, the platform he ran on, paul, and could he be Prime Minister very soon . He could be Prime Minister in the fall. When we started six weeks ago, we were pulling 24 to conservatives were pulling close to 50 . The real result last night, we polled 40 in the conservatives polled 43 . We added 3 million votes to 9 million we are ready had. What were those votes . Welcome in the last election two years ago, a quarter of young people under the age of 24 voted. Last night it was 72 . But it was not just that. Corbyn mobilized the previously conservativeminded white working class. We think we were getting at least one third, maybe more, people switching from our equivalent of the altright to corbyn. Workingclass families on extremely low incomes, all of the terrorist scare stuff was targeted them, but they saw corbyn offering them hope in general and money specifically. Absolute pots of money taken from the rich through wealth taxes and income tax and given to them. I think when your viewers ask debate, bernies would have won in america. We dont know if that is true, but we know how he could have jimmyy observing what clinton did. He rode a wave of enthusiasm and credit this epic of the possibility that grew and grew. The massiven rallies he was addressing. Last night there were some streets in london, so many campaigners knocking on doors, it looked like some kind of disturbance. It was like there were so many people to the streets, people opening the door saying, hey, what is going on . They were saying were just campaigning for jeremy. Amy Richard Seymour tweeted do you agree with this, paul mason . It is not just that. Two thirds of the members of parliament for labor had a complete imagination bypass and failure. They did not understand this was possible. The only thought quite generally, leftwing politics means isolation wreckage of your vote. Were proven it is not true. Im in favor of letting bygones be bygones and i want to actually try and engage them in a constructive synthesis of what they believe in the way they want to work in the way that we, corbyn supporters in the moment to movement, want to work. For example, we sent teams of campaigners some of them trained by people from the Sanders Campaign send them to two voting areas. The party hq said could not be won. They try to turn them away. He said, go to these places we need to win, not the crazy places. In other words, we are able to inspire our colleagues on the center and right of the labor party. As i think the democrats the left of the democrats are going to have to engage their centrist colleagues in action by showing it can be done. Amy finally, mehdi hasan, you are based now in washington, d. C. Do you see parallels to what has taken place in britain, theresa may one of the first World Leaders to come to the United States to meet with trump, to politics here . On the trump angle, it is interesting he is so heavily endorsed reema penn and she got destroyed and cozied up with teresa may and she is not done very well. There is a trump luck. I think paul is right to talk about the ethics of the possibility on both sides of the atlantic. And Bernie Sanders this morning has praised Jeremy Corbyn, and rightly so. Although, bernie is facing far more resistance internally from the citrus centrists than Jeremy Corbyn. Paul is right to say, bygones be bygones. In social media, youll see lots of former blair supporters saying, we got it wrong. We underestimated Jeremy Corbyn. We are amazed by this result. Owen smith, who ran against Jeremy Corbyn says, i want to give him a hug. Theres something about this guy when he to bottle. There is one to be a resisting of the landscape, which is important. Jeremy corbyn ran on a platform of renationalizing railways, raising the minimum wage, taxing the rich. Got 40 of the vote. That is a bigger share than the last three labor leaders in the last three labor elections. That is a Pretty Amazing achievement. But we will leave it there we will continue to follow this story as it am polled. Mehdi hasan, we ask you to stay with us, as you will be joining us for the comey roundtable, the explosive testimony in the senate yesterday. A britishn is journalist and broadcaster at al jazeera english. Paul mason is a columnist for the guardian, and a filmmaker based in london. When we come back, what james comey said yesterday before the Senate Intelligence committee. Stay with us. [music break] amy london calling by the clash. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Fired fbi director james comey testified thursday President Trump tried to derail an investigation into National Security advisor Michael Flynns links to russia and accused the president of lying about why he was fired. Me when i saw on Television President saying that he actually fired me because of the Russian Investigation. And learned again from the media that he was telling privately other parties that my firing had relieved great pressure on the russian castigation. I was also confused by the initial explanation that was offered publicly that i was fired because of the decisions i have made during the election year. That did not make sense to me for a whole bunch of reasons, including the time and all of the water that had gone under the bridge since those hard decisions had to be made. That did not make any sense the. And also the all required no reason at all to fire an fbi director, administration then chose to defame me, more importantly, the fbi, by saying the organization was in disarray, that it was poorly led, that the workforce had lost confidence in its leader. Plain and lies, simple. Amy a fired fbi director james comey testified he documented every meeting he had with trump because he thought the president might lie about what had taken place. He said he leaked details of the meetings to the press with the hope of spurring the appointment of a special counsel. During an exchange with senator mark warner of virginia, comey explained why he decided to make a written record of his january 6 meeting with trump. I was alone with the president of the United States, the president elect, soontobe president. The subject matter of was talking about matters that touch on the fbis core responsibility and relate to the president , president elect personally. And the nature of the person. I was honestly concerned he might lie about the nature of our meeting and so i thought it really important to document. That combination of things i had never experienced before, but it led me to believe, i got to write it down in a very detailed way. I think that is a very important statement you just made. My understanding is that then, again, unlike your dealings with president s of either parties in your past experience in every subsequent meeting or conversation with this president , you created a written record. Did you feel you needed to create this written record of these memos because they might need to be relied on at some future date . Sure. I created records after conversations i think i did it after each of our nine conversations. If i did not, i did for nearly all of them, especially the ones that were substantive. I neither my, day when i would need a record of what had happened, not just to defend myself, but to defend the fbi and our integrity as an institution and the independence of our investigative function. That is what made this so difficult. It was a combination of circumstances, subject matter, and a particular person. In all your experience, this was the only president you felt like in every meeting you needed to document because at some point, using your words, he might put out a nontruthful representation of that meeting. Thats right, senator. As i said in my written testimony, as fbi director, i interact with president obama, spoke only twice in three years and did not document it. Windows Deputy Attorney general, i had one one on meeting with president bush about a very important and difficult National Security measure. I did not write a memo documenting that conversation, either. I sent a quick enough to my staff to let them know something was going on. I did not feel the need to document it in that way. Because of the commendation of those factors, this was not president present either with president obama or bush. Amy that was james comey being questioned by senator mark warner of virginia. Meanwhile, the question of whether or not President Trump taped conversations with then Fbidirector Comey was raised a several times during the course of the hearing. I seen the tweet about tapes lordy, i hope there are tapes. I remember saying, i agree he is a good guy come as a way of saying, i am not agreeing with what you just asked me to do. Amy for more were joined by three guests. Shayana kadidal is a senior managing attorney at the center for constitutional rights. In grand rapids, michigan is Marcy Wheeler, an independent journalist who covers National Security and civil liberties. She runs the website emptywheel. Net. And in washington, d. C. , mehdi hasan is an awardwinning british journalist and broadcaster at al jazeera english. He is host of the al jazeera Interview Program upfront and a columnist for the intercept. Author of ed the milibands and the making of a labour leader and the debt delusion exposing ten tory myths about debts, deficits and spending cuts. We welcome you all to democracy now marcy, we spoke to you at the end of the show yesterday. When james comey was about to speak. You had read already the statement that he had put out the day before, but what did you find most significant in yesterdays explosive many hours hearing . Lieportant, hes the word over and over again. That is not done in washington, d. C. Even in a subsequent day, a lot of the press is not emphasizing that as much as they should with the exception of you, obviously. And President Trump is already on twitter this morning counter accusing comey of lying and leaking. I think it is really important to stick to that word, that the reason comey did what he did and use that counter distinction. He came out of that meeting you played it, the reference to this national secured a program with bush wa. He did not document that meeting, but every single meeting with President Trump because he believed trump might lie. That is a really important point. Amy and, mehdi hasan, your take on watching the hours yesterday surprisedomey, what you most . What did you think was most significant . Apart from the fact he regrets giving up a dinner date with his wife to go to dinner with donald trump, which i think was a huge mistake on his part no, i agree with marcy, the line part is without a doubt the most significant part of that testimony. We can talk about t legal sideobstructioof justice. From a political point of view, we know one of the biggest flaws in Donald Trumps presidency candidacy, his ability to be president is he is a serial fabricator. Now you have former top Law Enforcement officer under oath saying those are lies, plain and simple. Worried he would live. He said, i was worried about the nature of the man. This is pretty damning stuff from a lifelong rick republican. Directorlieve in fbi whose are under three president s from teedo parties or the guy who said obama was born in kenya . Mars is right to say we should be talking much more about that because you cant just say this is a party ending. This is quite important james comey goes to visit president elect donald trump at trump tower and within minutes of his first meeting with donald trump, he things, i have to write stuff down because this guy is a liar. Comey worked for george w. Bush, who lied us into the iraq war, and even bush did not make them want to write things down, but trump did. Amy in a tweet early this morning, President Trump broke more than two days of twitter silence tweeting i want to go to Shayana Kadidal, what you thought was the most significant revelations yesterday. And just this tweet i mean, you have one track if you watch fox through the night, it is all about comey admitting he is a leaker. If you watch cnn and msnbc, it is all about comey President Trump a liar repeatedly. I think the high point for me in the hearing was the beginning and the end. At the beginning, the fbi director, former fbi director saying the president lied and defamed him. At the end, more quietly saying he essentially believes it was obstruction of justice. He said he thought the endeavor was to change the way the Russian Investigation was being handled. In between gosar detail oriented and compelling factual witness in between, we saw detailed oriented and compelling factual witness. Whichrcumstances under these things were said to him, with everybody assured out of the room. That plus the very fact that comey was fired to amazing to be the strongest indicators that obstruction of justice might be happening. It is still amazing to hear him say that. Amy what exactly does obstruction of justice me . The Legal Definition is basically, the crime committed by whoever corruptly or by threats influences, obstructs, or impedes efforts to properly administer the law. It is important to remember it does not require trump have committed some crime he is hiding. To impede theying application of the criminal law to any one of his socalled satellite subordinates, any of the Little People under him because he is worried if they get indicted, maybe they will start telling more damaging information about his Campaign Relationship to the russians. Obstruction of justice on the part of the president could be happening even if the president himself did not commit any crime. For me, if you asked me on may 8 whether or not there was any fire underneath the smoke of the russia investigation, i would have said no. Comey, my feeling about it is completely changed. That is something i think was just reinvest sized yesterday. Amy explain why it changed after the firing. It seems extraordinarily foolish to fire this fbi director if there were not something out there for him to find. Amy we are one go to break and come back to this discussion. Shayana kadidal is with center for constitutional rights, Marcy Wheeler intowill. Net, and mehdi hasan with al jazeera english. We will be back in a moment. [music break] amy the truth by handsome boy modeling school. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. As we talk about the explosive testimony of fired fbi director james comey before the Senate Intelligence committee yesterday. He said President Trump tried to derail an investigation into National Security adviser general Michael Flynns links to russia and accused top of lying about why he was fired. In a statement after thursdays hearing, donald trump question is personal attorney rebutted the claims that the president asked him to drop the Flynn Investigation. Whats the president never informed or substance, directed or suggested, that mr. Comey stop investigating anyone, including the president never suggested that mr. Comey let flynn go. Any go for more, Shayana Kadidal , and mehdi hasan. Hear Marc Kasowitz, the personal attorney of donald trump it is important to note that as he has sought out personal attorneys right now, as he has had to lawyer up, it has been reported that four major law firms have said no to him. Concerned they cannot control their client. So Marc Kasowitz is a lawyer from new york that he used for his real estate business. Shayana kadidal, talk about that in the substance of what he said. I think trump clearly need someone who is not a wall street pitbull like kasowitz. The written statement he issued had a typographical error in the first sentence and one in every single paragraph. He misspelled president. The large law firms who know how to do political defense think trump will pay them. Putting that to one side, basically, what kasowitz said is he thinks comey has leaked this information through his friend dan richman in colombia to the press, and essentially implies it is protected by executive privilege. Which is ridiculous. First of all, the president let comey testified, which means he did not assert executive privilege with respect to this information. The president talked about these meetings and gave his own account of what happened in them, so he has waived any privilege that exists. National security related. It is not clear you can use executive privilege to stop somebody who you have fired from talking. It shields existing employees who do not want to talk. To sing employee wants or their former employee, there is nothing there. Look, what of implications that comes out of that, if there are tapes, theyre not going to be protected by executive privilege, either. Difficult,s is very the issue of the tapes. Comey talked about how shocked he was when the first tweet attacking him from President Trump was, what if there are tapes . I dont think there are tapes. The white house staffers seem to have difficulty turning lights on. Amy you could have a tape recorder in your pocket. You could come in at large fitting suit that trump always has. It is not going to be protectable, given how much has only been set about his conversations. Amy i want to go to maine republican senator Susan Collins who russian james comey about what he did with the written notes from his january 6 meeting with donald trump. And finally, did you show anyoneof your memos to outside of the department of justice . Yes. And to whom did you show copies . I asked the president tweeted on friday after i got fired, better hope theyre not just. I woke up in the night, there might be corroboration for our conversation, there might be a tape. And my judgment was, i needed to get that out into the public square. I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter. I did not do it for myself for a variety of reasons. I asked him to because i thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel. I asked a close friend to do it. , talk aboutheeler the fbi director as leaker, and admitted one. I dont think we should use the term leaker. I think we should use the term release. Theres nothing about the memos that are in question here. The memos describing unclassified meetings that prohibits these memos from being released. Comey explain them as his recording of his own memory. Yeah, we can talk about the propriety of the fbi director using a cut out, you know, leaking to the press or providing we all say it. But this is not somebody taking a classified document and secretly handing it off to a journalist. It is some of the taking and unclassified memo and sharing it with the press. The president would like us to talk about this as leaking. It is something different. Documents. Sing cya amy you wrote in your column, marcy, kasowitz focus on reportedly privileged documents is all the more interesting giving the pathetic conduct director of National Intelligence dan coats and nsa director mike rogers at yesterday 702 hearing. After a great deal of observation for both men about why they could not answer questions about trumps request, to intervene in the fbis mike Flynn Investigation and king finally got rogers to admit he and coats never got a conclusive answer about whether the white house was invoking privilege. Explain what you meant. So this hearing was about 702, about fisa, but it focused russian these questions. Whether the asked them to intervene in this very same investigation. And they refused outright to answer questions about a matter that was not classified. Privileged, if they were people who still worked for the president who wanted to protect this information, is it was privileged, the matter right to keep quiet about it. But they were very clear. Mike rogers explicitly said, we dont know. There is been no invocation of executive privilege. Kept pursuing them and ultimately, he asked director coats, what is the legal basis for you refusing to answer my questions as an Oversight Committee member . Coats said, i dont know that i have a legal reason. Yet this contrast, day one, day two, with easement who are still leading the Intelligence Community offering basically oatmeal as an explanation for why they wont explain whether or not the president asked them to intervene in this investigation. Compared with jim comey, who, yes, he provided these memos that provide details of these conversations, but the president still has not done what he would need to do this start protecting himself and state very clearly that he considers the details of his obstruction of justice. That is what were talking about, to be privileged. I think the two hearings really do make an interesting plugin. In a contrast between comey amy point that we say the other two talk about thefisa hearing, why that was even held. Every year in advance or every time they reauthorize major surveillance program, they have these hearings which are basically meant to make citizens learn to love the dragnet, is what i call it. It is meant to reassure you, the men, the people running the massive surveillance infrastructure are honorable and do what theyre supposed to do. There were reasons to doubt that otherwise in the hearing. In particular, they were basically making themselves out to be protectionists for the president. They were willing to just come out of a feeling of loyalty, hide embarrassing details about the president without as director coats said, without any known legal basis to do that. Amy mehdi hasan, i want to get your response to the line of questioning during thursdays hearing by West Virginia democrat joe manchin. After figure 14 the oval office, yesterdays sessions to ensure you are never left alone with the president. Whyyou ever consider attorney general sessions was not asked to stay in the room . Oh, sure, i did. And have. And in that moment did you ever talk to him about it . No not at all. On any of your meetings . No. He inquired did he show any inquiry whatsoever with the meeting was about . No. Youre right ive forgotten his, when i talk to him and said, you have to be between me and the president , and that is incredibly important and i forget my exact words, i passed along the president s message about the importance of aggressively pursuing leaks of classified information, which is a goal i share. I passed that along to the attorney general. I think it was the next morning in a meeting. But i did not tell him about the flynn part. Do you believe this will rise to an obstruction of justice . I dont know. That is Robert Muellers job. Robert mueller is a special counsel, chris been appointed. Mehdi hasan, what he was talking about, this valentines day meeting in the oval office when he asked everyone to leave, boss,ing james comeys the attorney general Jeff Sessions, the less you to leave as described by james comey were Jeff Sessions to leave the room because they were clearing out a bunch of people, as well as his soninlaw jared kushner. Talk about the significance of then him being alone with the president , something he had asked the attorney general to ensure he never had to the. First of all, i love the idea of being afraid to be alone in the room with donald trump. Adjust on the specific legal constitutional political issues, i think james comey made it clear in a statement and and the testimony yesterday that this is not a done thing. There was supposed to be a buffer, this independent attorney general. The problem, the bigger picture, you just sessions as attorney general who is a deeply compromised attorney general. He recently gave a press conference from the White House Press room, which is not the done thing by attorneys general. There is a real issue that even if just sessions had been in the room, Jeff Sessions have been in the room, do we think you would have protected james comey from trumps inappropriate requests . As for what happened in that whosare there tapes, telling the truth, who is a liar, i would not rule out there being tapes. Donald trump has a history of recording employees, secretly recording employees, of listening in on phone calls between guests and more logos and other resorts. It would not be surprised if there were recordings in the white house. Amy what evidence do you have of that . A recording . Amy yes. Quick it is been said it. Ave trump has intimated he was listening to conversations, if you go back to earlier reports. Comey went out of his way to say, im not going to say whether there is obstruction of justice, pushed it over to robert mueller. It is going to take a lot to prove obstruction of justice and it is going to take a lot to produce the smoking gun i wrote recently it is a liberal fantasy to talk about impeaching trump. I stand by that. I do not think this Republican Congress has any interest in impeaching donald trump even if you were to produce a video of trump talking and russian to putin asking for his marching orders, i suspect paul ryan and co. Would not decide to impeach him. Theyre too busy rolling back financial do regulation, ning to put neil gorsuch amy paul ryan from the house speaker, shrugged off trumps testimony. He said of trump, he is new to government, so he probably was not steeped in the longrunning protocols that establish the doj, thehips between department of justice, fbi, and white house. He is just new to this. Clearly true, but also. Roubling is th amy clearly, he knew something when he said i want to clear the room when he wanted to be alone, even separate from one of his biggest supporters, the attorney general sessions, who is comeys boss. Was. The circumstances are the along with fmf comey. One of the footnotes yesterday, sessions and Loretta Lynch came off terribly. Sessions for his lyrical weakness and lynch for her political interference. It illustrates amy explain quickly. Lynch basically told, to talk about the clinton email as a matter rather than an investigation which comey replied with complied with. That was part of the politicized interference that made them think the public would not have confidence in the fact the a of justice was done correctly, if you let Loretta Lynch announce sibley there was no criminal charges being brought against clinton. That is why he decided in part to announce his own conclusions in some detail. A system of separation of powers, everyone has struggled with the difficult problem, were going to put the prosecuting an Investor Court investigatory function. The founders thought about it, too. You do that because you want independence from the elected officials that may have to be investigated. Sometimes you want a political check will stuff you want people to vote in, obama who named eric holder who does not enforce the drug laws in the same way. This tugofwar is kind of a fundamental problem. There is no good solution to it. Yesterday you saw something good about the independence of the fbi and you also saw the downside throughout last year with the clinton email scandal. Everything i think comey is done through his career has been motivated by desire to protect the independence of the fbi, but the fbi sometimes is served as a really problematic check on political dissent. We also need an fbi director who will fight back. We have never had it. Any finally, Marcy Wheeler, where does this lead . Mehdi hasan said it is not leading to impeachment. What do you say . I think there is a much higher chance than mehdi does. One thing that was interesting yesterday, comey differed all questions about the obstruction of justice investigation to robert mueller. Yeah great things to say about robert mueller. There will be more to come out. Amy we will leave it there. I want to thank you all for your input. Marcy wheeler of emptywheel. Net, speaking from michigan. Mehdi hasan of al jazeera english, host of the program upfront and a columnist for the intercept. And thank you to Shayana Kadidal , for constitutional rights. Democracy now is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. Email your comments to outreach democracynow. Org or [announcer] P Allen Smiths garden to table is brought to you by the berry family of nurseries growers of edibles, hardy trees and shrubs, and fresh holiday greenery. And by the makers of jobes organic fertilizer now in spikes, granular and water soluble formulas easy gardener. Com. Hi, im allen smith