president will have a chance to respond. nobody is above the law. this is a very serious accusation. i think we don t need a rush to judgment and certainly need the facts to come before the various bodies of congress that are investigating us right now. of course. we did hear from senator john mccain who was at a dinner last night honoring him. he said essentially that these trump scandals have, to quote him, reached watergate size and scale. congressm congressman comer, do you think senators like mccain are overreacting? my father is al vietnam vet. i do think there are a few republicans in congress that are hitting the panic button right
before. i think it s reaching the point where it s of watergate size and scale. it s now accelerated. watergate took a few months, and this thing seems to be taking hours. we begin our coverage of this with new york times reporter who broke the story about the comey memo, michael schmidt. let s reset for everybody. explain exactly what comey says happened in the oval office meeting with the president on february 14th. well, comey was at the white house for a threat terrorism meeting. a lot of national security intelligence law enforcement officials were with the president in the oval office. then the meeting ended. the president told everyone to leave. the attorney general tried to hang around. the president told the attorney general that he had to go. and the president and the fbi director had an exchange. the president started off by
that special prosecutor worked for four years and more. and four years after he appointed, the work of that special prosecutor led to bill clinton s impeachment in the house of representatives followed by his acquittal in a trial in the united states senate, presided over by the chief justice of the united states. as called for by the constitution. i m bringing back all these scenarios to you so that you can imagine one of these versions playing out with different names. in 2017. or 2018. george w. bush got his special prosecutor three years into his presidency. donald trump got his special prosecutor 118 days into his presidency. and last night republican senator john mccain said that the controversy surrounding president trump are, quote, reaching the point where it s of watergate size and scale. and if that s true, if what senator mccain said about watergate and the trump presidency is true, if that proves to be true, then donald
followed by his acquittal in a trial in the united states senate, presided over by the chief justice of the united states. as called for by the constitution. i m bringing back all these scenarios to you so that you can imagine one of these versions playing out with different names. in 2017. or 2018. george w. bush got his special prosecutor three years into his presidency. donald trump got his special prosecutor 118 days into his presidency. and last night republican senator john mccain said that the controversy surrounding president trump are, quote, reaching the point where it s of watergate size and scale. and if that s true, if what senator mccain said about watergate and the trump presidency is true, if tha proves to be true, then donald trp might only have 14 months left in his presidency. that s how long it took a special prosecutor to get rid of president nixon.
different than they have in the wake of previous donald trump/white house crises. the republican chair of the house oversight committee jason chaffetz sent a letter to the fbi tonight asking for this comey memo. he said tonight he does have subpoena power. and according to tim mack of the daily beast, at a dinner held in his honor tonight, senator john mccain said, quote, i think we ve seen this movie before. i think it appears at a point where it s of watergate size and scale. the shoes continue to drop, and every couple days there is a new aspect. let us bring in our panel to start our discussion this evening. the aforementioned michael schmidt reporter for the the new york times who covers national security, broke the comey news tonight, the story came out under his single by-line. ashley parker, white house reporter for the washington post. and jeremy bash, chief of staff to both director of cia, secretary of defense during the obama administration, also happens to be important f