Were going to continue our breaking news live coverage of this. I wanted to amplify for you what andrea was just telling you about the Wadirector Comey former Director Comey found out about this, the New York Times account of this is just stunning. He was addressing a group of fbi employees in los angeles when the television in the background flashed the news that he had been fired. In response, mr. Comey laughed. He said he thought it was a fairly funny prank. And then his staff started securing around in the background, told mr. Comey that he should step into a nearby office. Mr. Comey stopped addressing the group. He proceeded to shake hands with the employees he had been speaking to and he stepped into a side office where he confirmed that he had been fired. At that point, he had not heard from the white house. Shortly after that, rachel,
after all of that, its been on television, a letter from the president was delivered to the fbis headquarters just 7 blocks from the white house,
to him and he doesn t know who is running the fbi as of that moment. i don t know the timing. i don t know when he went to the white house. i know that when we first heard about this, which was i m trying to think back now, it s been a while, 5:30 or so eastern time tonight. approaching about 5:45. that was before it was on any of the cable networks. when i reached out to senior people at the fbi, they said we don t know what you re talking about. what are you telling me. so i don t know, but i don t know when mccabe went to the white house for his meeting. i do know that justice department officials tell us that sessions and rod rosenstein called him to tell him about this, so i m i gather that he found out about it before jim comey did. pete williams, thank you very much for joining us on this long and important day. really appreciate your time. you bet. she s the president of the center of american progress. she supported hillary clinton. also joining us for msnb
analysts here have just explained why the official explanation doesn t add up. but because of the entire process, it is clearly suspect. to make a couple of points on that, number one, there s an open doj issue how comey handled the e-mail investigation. that was not finished, that was not taken into account. number two, the official story is we are led to believe that deputy attorney general who has a lot of power but is not the boss, comes into office. comes to meet and greet. set up his office, put his books on the shelf. within 13 days is looking for a midterm firing of the fbi director, something that s happened once in american history only after full review as i mentioned that was done then by the office of professional responsibility. that he sends this over, not through the typical way the doj speaks, which is through research memoranda with precedence and law and citations. with a series of quotes, something that campaigns tend to put together.
whenever i determine it s appropriate based upon the policies and procedures of the justice department. ari, the policies and procedures are that it s all up to him. it s certainly all up to him. there was once upon a time, a statute that allowed for congressional involvement in that appointment. it was criticized for a number of reasons. long story short, the only remaining independent inquiry that you can get with that bpoena power out othe federal investigative powers of the d.o.j. and the fbi is by that appointment which in case falls squarely on the shoulders of this deputy attorney general. i will say this, nothing in the letter he has written which according to the white house originated in the d.o.j., came to the white house and rlt resulted in an instant giant decision nothing here would suggest he is close to doing that. let s not forget, although so much has happened, that on the
we re going to continue our breaking news live coverage of this. i wanted to amplify for you what andrea was just telling you about the wadirector comey former director comey found out about this, the new york times account of this is just stunning. he was addressing a group of fbi employees in los angeles when the television in the background flashed the news that he had been fired. in response, mr. comey laughed. he said he thought it was a fairly funny prank. and then his staff started securing around in the background, told mr. comey that he should step into a nearby office. mr. comey stopped addressing the group. he proceeded to shake hands with the employees he had been speaking to and he stepped into a side office where he confirmed that he had been fired. at that point, he had not heard from the white house. shortly after that, rachel,