Realm of possibilities that someone whos a career person would take notes. I think this is frankly at this point very serious. I just came out of the annual dinner. International Republican Institute where john mccain was and we talk about this now being at a point where its the scale incise of watergate. There were four or five other senators in the audience. Congress people in the audience. I spoke tosome of them and each one told me how tiring and exhausting how taxing how distracting this has become. I think its reached a point where republicans who wanted to give him the time to find sea legs, to get his bearings are coming to the conclusion this goes beyond finding your bearings. This goes to having no moral compass and they cannot be complicit in this. Youre reaching a point where more and more republicans are coming to the table and saying we cannot continue to pretend to be deaf, blind and dumb. Ana is asking part of my question because a senior aid is saying the time has finally come to distance themselves politically from trump. Quote gross incompetence is not an Impeachable Offense. Is this president competent to lead . Of course President Trump is reedy to lead and hes done a good job when he worked on the things he ran on. Knocking the hell out of isis, immigration. And if he wants to get capitol hill republicans back on board, hes got to get back to those issues. Some of his core supporters . I think some of the supporters on capitol hill are frustrated, definitely and i think one of the things the administration is starting to realize is these hold overs who plan on being here long after President Trump is in office and the ones leaking illegally a lot of this information, the administration cant spend as much time worrying about what theyre saying. House Speaker Paul Ryan and leader Mitchell Mcconnell have stayed away from multiple controversies. We have to see. Do you think theyre going to stick by this president . I think theres a lot of truth in what jason said. The president ran on very different issues. But lets remember this was a self inflingtcted controversy. He fired the fbi director and started a lot of this. But as far as speaker ryan and mitch mcconnell, they have an important duty not only to the party but to the institutions that they lead. So i think theyre going to work with their members, the members of the house and of the senate to fulfill the duties they have with getting more information about this. But clearly they also want to giving back on an agenda focussed on taxes, health care, things related to the economy that their voters care most strongly about. Ill give you the last vote because you said youre at a republican event tonight. You seriously believing this is a turning point . I do because is there anybody out there who thinks this is the end of it . More shoes will continue to drop. This is a ball of yarn which continues to unravlg. We have not heard the end of what went on with michael flynn, what went on with james comey. He is going to have to testify probably in public. Senator Lindsey Graham told me he was going to invite him to testify in front of the Judiciary Committee in public and hes going to have to say why didnt he do something at the moment and hes going to have to tell the truth. I dont know if its a special prosecutor, a special committee but at the end of the day, its very hard in a country like america where there is a free press where there are Law Enforcement officials who are loyal to the constitution and the country to keep things hidden. So this is going to come out one way or the other and my advice to republicans is lets get it all out now for it good of the country, the good of the party, the good of the agenda and eesken of this president. Thank you, all. When im watching this white house, especially the briefings i often wuntd wonder if they forgot they actually work for the American People and not the other way around. Want to get everybody up to speed. This is cnn tonight. Im don lemon. Bryan stelter. Im going to begin with pamela because she has been working her sources. She broke some of this news. What are you learning about the comey memo, pamela . Were learning when president obama met with comey in the oval President Trump with comey in the oval office, he was at the time during this meeting the president allegedly said to director comey at the time why dont you let it go. Something to that effect. And so comey wanted to memorialize that. He felt it was momentous and wanted to write it down quickly before his memory faded and this was not the only time. I have been told by my source that he would often memorialize conversations, one on one conversations with mr. Trump. I want to read from a source flar with this matter as to why he felt it was important. There is no need to document conversations with people that are truthful or situations that there routine. Its when you have situations that there not routine and people that are not truthful he would have a memo to file. And it wasnt just specific instances. He would try to grasp everything that happened and put it in the memo to share with friends in his close circle and perhaps down the road is the expectation is theyller subpoena these records. Chaffetz released this letter requesting that the comey documents. How do you see this playing out . I mean this is an extraordinary letter, an extraordinary step. What happened today is that we started to see and even yesterday after it was disclosed that trufrm trump had cis closed this information. There is so much frustration and fatigue on the part of republicans at this point and i think that youre really starting to see people back off and wait. It was like crickets tonight calling a lot of people not wanting to answer their phone and when they did saying i dont know what to say right now. We dont know enough. Theres a feeling this is a much heavier, weightier issue and that they now potentially are facing certainly will be facing calls for impeempment by the democrats and potentially another circus that distracts from their agenda and lessens their chances of holding on to the house in the future. Remember we were discussing the night that broke the access Hollywood Tapes. Is this going to be like that where its arbig uproar and then this has been a onetwo punch, hasnt it . The Washington Post story and the New York Times story 24 hours. I think people are probably just catching up to it, realizing the gravity of it and its silent night at the iswho. No tweets from the president , no on camera interviews from his aids. No statements from aids. We have that one vague denial. But it how much credibility really does this white house have left . How much of a denial is this worth . The night of the access Hollywood Tape at midnight is wh donald trump released a stamnts on camera. I wunlder if were going to hear from him tomorrow but right now theres nothing on his twitter feed. It almost feels too quiet and this crisis of credibility does deepen by the day. You need to be careful who you mess with. Did he mess with the wrong person . The president . I mean, listen when you go after the Intelligence Community during the campaign and then in your first couple weeks in office and then go after the Law Enforcement community, specifically someone like james comey. He has his issues and his critics specifically on the democratic side of the aisle but by and large considered a boy scout, that become as problem. And in washington where what is true is that we all live amongst each other. Whether youre a civil servient, politician, we all live in the same neighborhoods beutwhen you tong to people in the communities connected to the white house, there is a level of dissat isfaction and frustrationing with how hes handling things right now. One thing was really important and we saw it bouts an hour ago when we had the Ohio Governor john kasich come on the air and he said its not time for republicans to hide and its not time for democrats to exploit. I think thats extremely important to highlight because at this time in our nations history its not about being a democratic or republican or independence. Its about being an american and i think we need more of that from our law makerser in d. C. I heard that james comey did the right thing by documenting this incident and not coming forward. So the question people are asking why didnt james comey tell anybody if he felt the president was trying to interfere in the investigation . But even someone who came on in support of the president said thats what he was supposed to do. My colleague jake tapper was talking to his source. First off as one person said what was his obligation to do so . And the source told jake tapper that essentially he felt he was making end roads with the white house and he felt he pushed back enough in the meeting and made clear it was inappropriate to ask that. So he felt he didnt need to take any other steps. The big question for me is if he believed this could be obstruction of justice. As we keep hearing legal analysts saying this could be. Did he take steps internally to flag it. Interesting. Maybe he thought it would hinder the investigation. If he added this part of it too. And maybe theres much more. Lets talk about the politics of this. How much of this is bouts the investigations . How much is about republicans gauge wlg theing whether theyro take beating in the midterms in 2018 . I think what were learning today is troubling on an entirely different level for a lot of republicans. But certainly that has been the concerns pardon the interruption but do you think theyre thinking how much more dogic to hold my nose and deal with whats happening . Do you think this is that big for them . I think that has been the discussion now for weeks and months and donald trump has s survived every controversy he has created. And thats because they are behind him. Right. I think theres a feeling that this week in particular were talking about something different. We are talking about revelation of classified information that potentially puts lives at risk. We are talking about potentially ubstruksz of justice. That is different than accidental tweets or the access Hollywood Tape. And what is there that we havent heard . What else is in the memos that we havent seen . I suspect theres so much we dont know that are epoureders are trying to dig up we may hear about in the days to come. A lot of people seemingly wanting to share. There certainly are more memos because as we were told he documented every one on one conversation he had with President Trump and well have to wait and see what happens. New york times first reported the story and said alone in the oval office, mr. Trump saying that mr. Comey should consider putting reporters for posting classified information. According to one of comeys associates. Putting reporters in prison. I understand. This is just one source saying this. The white house has not commented. Pointedly not denying this part of the story. But if this source is correct that the president was talking about wanting to lock up reporters that would be a dark new chapter in these antimedia attacks. Normally they have prosecuted leakers but not the reporters that have been given the nrmation. I think it shows his anger and paranoia. Hes unable 250 stop them from speaking out. We see this with dictators wanting to lock up reporters for doing the amount of hours were working now, don. As i watch this Administration Come out and respond and these pres briefings i said do these people realize that they are Public Servants that they work for the American People and not the other way around. It is a privilege they have been allowed to be in those positions by the American People. One and this is from a very high ranking republican that has been around this town for a very long time. They said to me literally a few hours ago. The president does not understand the graphvity and th seriousness of his job. And he has forced most of his aids quite frankly, put them in bad positions to have to defend him. In many ways when you get the back story, they feel like more than to be there because more than to try to keep the train from going off the tracks. And they become the pinata for the press. But to donald trump to the point of is he a public servient . I cant get inside his mind but i would go on a limb and say i dont think so and the reason is he keeps on pointing to the electoral victories he has made. He almost aktsz like heacts liks a king and he was dethroned this to become president of the yu s United States. Hes not a ceo of the company and the American People are his employees. We come right back. More on our breaking news. Was this obstruction of justice and what happens next . 3 terrible twos, and a onecoat wonder named grams. It survived multiple personalities, 3 staycations, and 1 tiny announcement. Behr. Number one rated interior paint, exterior paint and stain. Protecting and perfecting since 1947. Only at the home depot. Itthe power of nexium 24hr protection from frequent heartburn. All day, and all night. Now packed into a pill so small, we call it mini. New clearminis from nexium 24hr. See heartburn differently. 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Is this a clear sign, you say of obstruction . I was never a federal prosecutor so im not as familiar with the federal statute as possibly i should be but theres no question he was trying to stop the investigation. And one of the things he said to comey was i know flynn did nothing wrong. He did nothing wrong. How is he going to know that. He tried to stop the investigation and thats what we saw in water gate. That was one of the very first things we saw in terms of the cover up was Richard Nixon trying to get the fbi investigation stopped but he didnt directly enthusiastic cia. He had his chief of staff tell the c ierngs a to stop the investigation and then he fired the special prosecutor from going ahead. Too many echoes of watergate. He said i hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, letting flynn go. Hes a good guy. I hope you can let this go and he told mr. Koimy mr. Flynn had done nothing wrong. Mr. Comey did not say anything saying i agree. Hes a good guy. So you say its an Impeachable Offense it could be. It certainly falls within what we found to be an Impeachable Offense with nixon. Trying to stop an fbi investigation and abusing his power by firing the special prosecutor. If you were in to advice by bringing the processes of justes to work, it brought it country together. First you have to have a special prosecutor. Since there are elements of possibility criminality by the president. We need an independent investigation by an unquestionably honest and impartial person. That has to happen. And new director of the fbi. Whos also impartial. Many people are wondering why jimp kimi didnt report this to congress. Do you think that diminishes his credibility . I really dont. It goes to show he intended to protect the investigations. He felt he could document what happened at the time. That would not be uncommon for a Law Enforcement officer to do that. And youdver have to look at the memo and give it a great deal of credibility. A lot of times theres a premise in the law that a writing made contemper in aiously is givingen great weight because its more likely it was accurate closer to the time this conversation with trump. I dont find it unusual he wouldnt have reported it. I think he documented it so he would have a complete fbi file. Apparently its not the only memo out there and it may in fact ultimately be the straw that breaks the camels back. I think thats the way it looks like its moving at this point. Who would he talk to at this point . Because sessions recused himself . And why would he