That is not accurate. Charlie the administrations credibility has been called into question from the several misleading accounts. Joining me now from washington is bob costa from the washington post. I am pleased him back on the program. Bob, one broad question, what damage do you think this is doing to donald trump, if any . Bob it is doing damage to him on several fronts. Within the white house, it has caused some tumult. The staff, in some respects, felt unprepared for this. The president made a personal decision with the attorney general and white house counsel. More broadly, the party on capitol hill im just walked over from the capital, and they feel like they were given a curveball this week by this decision. They were not ready to talk to the president s decision or defend him in an articulate way. It gives disruption to his entire agenda as he tries to pursue health care and taxes. Now, all anyone is talking about in washington is russia and former director comey. Charlie why do they think he did it . Bob he did it because, based on my reporting and those of my colleagues, it was the culmination of frustration, seething at times, anger about comey. The president told lester holt today he called the director to ask him if he was being investigated, whether the president was under scrutiny. Even at a dinner, charlie, where director comey was asking to stay on as director of the fbi, so the president was engaged in the idea that this russia investigation and interference was going on. He was also very i am told, by top people in the white house, he wanted the fbi to go after the leaks within the federal government. There was resistance from the fbi to take direction from the white house. Charlie there is also the suspicion that he did it in the end, because he was tired of this Investigation Called the russian probe. He has called it simply, nothing there. Bob he is very unhappy with this ongoing probe. Charlie is it because he fears something, or he thinks they are somehow out to get him without reason . Bob when he talks to his associates, he uses the latter explanation for his anger. I have been reporting in recent weeks about how he watches television all day and is monitoring what is on the cable networks, and he sees russia probe. When comey went to capitol hill last week and talked about how the russian interference investigation was going, i am told the president , in essence, became. As. In essence, became furious. He thought comey was strange and talking too much about russia. This is a president that wants badly to move on from the russian issue and russian ties perhaps to his campaign during last years election. But the federal government has not been willing to move on and that led to this clash over the weekend. Charlie what is your impression of the Senate IntelligenceCommittee Investigation . Bob so far, it has yielded little. Senator burr has been careful in some of the language he uses publicly to make sure he keeps his credibility. We have seen house Intelligence Committee chairman devin nunes, a trump ally, struggle. He has struggled to keep his committee going. He had to recuse himself from the russia investigations because of his behavior and ties to the white house. Yet, the Senate Mark Warner in virginia, the Ranking Member of Senate Intel Committee and burr, the North Carolina republican they have a strong, working relationship, but there is some concern about how far to lean in. Democrats want a special prosecutor. Charlie the suspicion always is, once you give a special prosecutor power, president clinton found this out, you never know how wide the investigation is going to become. On the other hand, if you want to eliminate all suspicion, you should try to create a body of investigation that will be credible and have some sense of finality to the investigation. Bob the unending nature of a special prosecutor looms over the white houses thinking. You have to remember, the core of what drove this was the president s desire to move on from the russian investigation, to get the russian probes off of his plate and presidency. That is what led to comey really getting out there. It has been tapered over by the white house. Their explanation was that the Deputy Attorney general, rob rosenstein, because of his memorandum, was the reason for the ouster. But it was the president himself fuming about russia that led to comeys dismissal. Charlie what is Rod Rosenstein saying now . Bob he is the most intriguing figure in all of this. He gets called to the white house on monday with attorney general sessions. Based off our investigation, he had been reviewing comeys leadership. He said comey had not been doing a good job in his opinion. The president tells them he wants that in writing, he wants a memorandum. By tuesday, he moves quickly to fire comey after receiving that text. Rosenstein feels, he was used by the white house. He was reviewing the fbi, but the president had made a decision before he confided with rosenstein on monday. Rosenstein remains deputy ag. We are told he was very unhappy with how this all played out and the white house pinned this on him. Charlie did he meet today with the chair and cochair of the Senate Intelligence committee . Bob he is going to keep getting called back, charlie. Everyone wants to hear, what did rosenstein say to the president on monday . What is he working on in terms of his investigation with comeys leadership . What was the nature of his conversation with jeff sessions, who was supposedly supposed to recuse himself from the russia investigation at the justice department, but was involved in the discussions about comey. Everyone wants to know what rosenstein is thinking, and what he said and the president said. Charlie what is the next step in this story . Bob congress, but congress is controlled by republicans. The extent to which they do anything will be closely watched by democrats and President Trump. If there will not be a special prosecutor, then how hard will chairman burr push in the senate . What else will be done by leader mcconnell and speaker ryan to delve more into the decision to fire director comey . The president keeps saying comey failed in his leadership of the fbi. The russian probes continue and how they are handled will be closely monitored. Charlie thank you, bob. Great to see you. Bob thank you. Charlie bob costa from washington. Stay with us. Charlie admiral William Mcraven is here. He served as a navy seal for almost four decades. As a fourstar admiral, his final command was of special operations. He is now chancellor of the university of texas. His new book is called make your bed Little Things that can change your life. And maybe the world. Im pleased to have admiral mcraven here. Great to have you back. It is such a great story. You are going to write a commencement speech, and we have two things we want to do. We want to Say Something that comes from our hearts, and we do not want to say what everybody else has said. Take it from there. Adm. Mcraven i had been writing the speech for a couple weeks prior to the day i was scheduled to give it which was may 17. And the week before it was wednesday of the week before, and i could not make the speech work. I had a theme, and it was kind of coming together and then it stopped. I could not finish the theme. I had a little bit of writers block. I remember turning to my wife and i said, i cannot finish this thing. She said, why dont you write about something you know . The only thing i know is being a navy seal for the last 35 years. She said, write about that. The problem is, i am about to step onto University Campus in uniform. I do not know what the students want to hear about what it took to be a navy seals and the lessons i learned. She kept saying write about something you know. I started thursday and wrote the speech. I wrote it up until the hour i gave it. It seemed to have come together. Charlie you started with these 10 things, 10 lessons. Were they 20 that you boiled down to 10 . Adm. Mcraven no, i had in mind i wanted to frame it to about 20 minutes because i knew that was the expectation at the commencement speech. I had 10 clear lessons in mind. I probably could have gone to 11 or 12, but 10 seemed to fit. Charlie did you show them to her before you went . Adm. Mcraven i never show my speeches before i give them, it is a superstition of mine. I dont let anybody read it, and i dont let anybody here it. Hear it. I wait until i deliver it until hearing the remarks. Charlie and how many have read that speech . It went viral. Adm. Mcraven i understand about 25 Million People. The fact of the matter is, the lessons are simple. As i said at the beginning of the speech, it does not make a difference whether you spend a day in uniform. It does not matter your color, ethnicity, orientation. These are basic lessons. Dont quit, be our best in your darkest moment. Do not back down from bullies. These are lessons all of us can use in life. Of course, i put them in the context of going through seal training. But in fact, it really did not matter whether you would ever be a seal, these are lessons for life. Charlie you start with making your own bed. Why is that important to start . Adm. Mcraven when i was young, my mother was a texas school teacher, and my father was an air force officer. Interestingly enough, it was my mother who made sure every morning i got up and made my bed. Lots of parents tell kids to make their bed. I am not sure i understood the importance of it. When we got to seal training, it was required every morning. We would have a uniform inspection and a bed inspection. I am not sure i understood at the time why that was important. I had come to seal training to learn how to be a battle hardened seal and the first thing we were doing every morning was having our bed inspected. The lesson became clear as i went through seal training and frankly, through the navy. It is about one, doing the first task of the day and doing it right. If you can do the first task of the day and get that then, then that will encourage you to do another task and another. The other piece of this, the seal instructors wanted to make sure you did it exactly right. There were standards. You had to have hospital corners, 45 degrees, the pillow at the front of the bed had to be exactly right. The extra blanket had to be folded exactly right. Their point was, if you cannot do the Little Things right, if you cannot make your bed right, how will you ever run a seal mission correctly . So, it was about doing something that was good to do in the morning that started your day off right, and making sure you do the Little Things right. Charlie and you said if you want to change the world, start by making your bed. The second was, you cannot go it alone. Adm. Mcraven in seal training, you learn very quickly that i do not care if you are the strongest guy, the best runner, at the end of the day, we are called the seal teams for a reason. There is a recognition that if you are going to be successful, you have to work as a team. From day one of seal training, you get a little rubber boat, a raft. An inflatable boat, an ibs. It takes seven men to carry it. The officer is at the very back, the helmsman. You take it with you everywhere you go. You run to chow with it. You run over the dunes with it when you are doing soft sands runs. The point that they make is, if everybody does not pull together, if everybody does not help get that boat where it needs to go, then i dont care how good you are, you are not going to get there. The importance of having people help you paddle was enforced every day. Of course, it is about life. The fact of the matter is, i do not care how tough you are, most people cannot make it through life on their own. It is good to have friends and people that love you. Charlie you start with making the bed. Secondly, you cant go it alone. You need someone to help you go paddle. The third is the size of your heart. Adm. Mcraven the interesting thing about seal training, when you start off, there is someone they picked to be the most likely to succeed. The guy that will be the honor man. The team picks him, the class does. The class is new, and they find the biggest, toughest guy that looks the most like a seal. He invariably is picked to be the honor man, and almost invariably, he is the first person that falls out. You find that the little guy you never expected ends up being the best guy there. Training we divided into boat crews. These were based on size. The big guys were in one boat crew and the little guys in another. We called them the munchkin crew. Based on the wizard of oz. The fellas in that boat crew was an unusual mix, we had an indianamerican, greekamerican, frenchamerican. They were all about 55, and they turned out to be some of the best swimmers, best runners, some of the best guys in the obstacle course. You learn very quickly that it is about the size of your heart. Tommy norris, the first time i met him, i was actually a senior in college. I went out to visit basic seal training. As i was waiting around to meet a lieutenant who would talk to me about basic seal training, out of the corner of my eye, i saw what i thought was going to be a young, teenaged guy. I saw him from a distance. He was smaller than i was and thin. I kept watching him out of the corner of my eye. He was looking at these pictures that we have hanging in the seal training compound. There were pictures from guys in vietnam, and i remember thinking to myself, does this guy think he can make it through seal training . Small stature, wiry, thin. I thought, wow, this guy is he is fooling himself if he thinks he will make it through seal training. At some point, i get invited to the lieutenants office. He does look like the poster child for a seal. Doug looks past the doorway and says, hey, bill, let me introduce you to somebody. He yells out into the hall, tommy, come in here a minute. Tommy norris walks in and, of course, he was one of the last medal of honor recipients from vietnam. He was by far and away the toughest seal in the history of the seals at that time. It was a lesson for me to realize. You have to be careful about appearances. Tommy norris went on to be on the fbi hostage rescue team, and an incredibly tough, tough guy. But not the biggest guy. Charlie didnt he received the medal of honor . Adm. Mcraven you may recall, there was an old movie, an air force Lieutenant Colonel whose plane got shot down over it non. Over vietnam. He had parachuted out. Lieutenant norris went behind enemy lines to find him. Eventually, managed to pick him up and had to fight his way back to friendly lines. This day after day of trying to find this downed Lieutenant Colonel, finding his way back, rescued the Lieutenant Colonel and for that, he received the medal of honor. Charlie the next is, life is not fun. Life is not fair, drive on. Adm. Mcraven this is about what we refer to as a sugar cookie in the seal training. The sugar cookie is when an instructor arbitrarily and this is an important point arbitrarily says, i do not like your looks. Hit the surf. You whirl around in the sand and you are covered from head to toe in sand and you are wet and sandy and you spend the rest of the day kind of wet and sandy with sand in your armpits and legs. It is the arbitrariness that always frustrated people. Sometimes guys looked perfect in their uniform and their brass and shoes were perfectly polished and they expected they would be rewarded for the great effort. Every once in a while an instructor would say hit the surf and become a sugar cookie. Charlie life is not fair. Adm. Mcraven and that is the point of the lesson. Look, sometimes i do not care how hard you try, how good you can be. Is not fair, and you have to get over it. Charlie let me just point to this number. In your class, only 33 graduated. There were 150 students that started with you. What is the difference between those who ring the bell and those who pass the finish line . What is the difference . Adm. Mcraven i had a young man who was graduating from the university of texas last year. He was a decathlete. He was getting ready to go to seal training. Nationally ranked decathlete. He wanted to come talk to me about the secrets of making it through seal training. I had him over for lunch, and he sits across from me, incredibly sharp young man. He says, well admiral, obviously i would like to know, what is the secret to making you making it through seal training . Do i need to spend more time running . I said, no, you look like you are in pretty good shape. Well how about swimming . No, you look like a decathlete,. You look like you will be able to do this. He went through the litany of things. I said, it is easy to make a through seal training, you just dont quit. He kind of took a deep breath and said, i understand. But should i strengthen my upper body . I said, let me be clear. It is easy, you just dont quit. There will come times in training when you will be exhausted, when you will begin to doubt yourself, when the instructors will be applying pressure on you. You just have to tell yourself, i am not going to quit. So the difference between those that make it through and those that dont is just that. That is why it does not make any difference how fast you are, how strong you are. It matters about your determination not to quit. So, when you look at life, at some point in time, life deals all of us a difficult hand. Charlie what is the Biggest Surprise in your new job now as chancellor at the university of texas . Adm. Mcraven the transition of the military to running the university of texas system i think went pretty smoothly. Im used to running large organizations. You realize when running a large organization, it is all about the people. You have to respect the people. I got a very diverse population, it is 28,000 students, 100,000 employees spread across 14 different institutions. It is fabulous and fascinating. One day youre talking to a nobel laureate, and the next to a Heisman Trophy winner, and everything in between. I tell you what has pleasantly surprised me. The number of people that want to give to the university, to give to causes. We have a cancer clinic. There are folks from all walks of life that want to contribute to try to help cure cancer. There are folks that want to improve the quality of life for young kids in south texas in the rio grande valley.