The fisher director who is the only person who is independently leading this moving forward when you dont have him doing that you need an outside group doing it. Republicans should call for that shouldnt be a partisan thing. Cnn live coverage of this breaking news is obviously going to be continuing all night. Jake tapper along at 11 00 p. M. Eastern with a special report. First don lemon and cnn tonight with the latest. Anderson thank you very much our breaking news tonight, President Trump bombshell firing of fbi director james comey. This is cnn tonight im don lemon lets put it as plainly as we can. The president of the United States has fired the man investigating his campaigns ties to russia. Fired him. Shocking confusion tonight on capitol hill. Around the country and around the world. Now questions being raised of whether there is a coverup going on. This is definitely not politics as usual. We have said it before but its
look at this very brief letter the president sent to the fisher director hand tlifrd to the fbi late this afternoon, the second appraise of this letter perhaps says it all. Lets take a look at it don. It says while i greatly appreciate you informing me on three separate occasions that i am not under investigation, i nevertheless concur with the judgment of the Department Of Justice that you are not able to effective lead the bureau. Now, all of in is coming the white house is explaining the firing because the director of the fisher had lost the confidence of the bureau. He said the Deputy Attorney general and the Attorney General made this recommendation to the president. But in their memorandums and letters that they sent out here paul of them are talking about the Clinton Investigation, the 2016 campaign. They say Director Comey did not handle himself properly in that investigation. In the president s letter he does not mention the clinton controversy campaign one time. He brings up his own
investigation, the Russia Investigation trying to make a point on that. Don, this is not the end of the story. It seems its the beginning of yet another chapter in washington, another controversy perhaps the biggest one yet with the Trump Administration. I think youre absolutely right as astonishing as that appraise in that letter is its also astonishing to say they didnt perceive at the white house dana bash, werent prepared for the reaction how about the reaction would be who is that naive in the white house that did not realize this would be a big story. It seems like that was a pervasive. Naive is your word not mine but its probably pretty appropriate here don given the fact that i was told by earlier tonight right when in news first broke that by a source familiar with discussions inside the white house, that they did not expect in to be the political explosion that it was. And it was hard for me to even
believe that that was really the case. Because it was so obvious. It doesnt take somebody like me or others here on the panel who are covered politics or you know have studied history to know that this is a really really big deal. But the way that it bore out as jeff has been reporting and taking pictures of the scramble that has been going on outside of the white house, in the dark, with white house officials trying to do Damage Control, and its not as though this was an event that happened to them. This is an event that the white house did in and of itself. Meaning, this is not like many, many times there is Damage Control that happens in washington because a force outside or an event outside occurs. This was something that was created by the president and the and the Justice Department. But you know the president himself is the one who said, youre fired, to jamestown
comey, the fact that they were not prepared for the fallout. Were talking about fallout. Were talking about the fact that this has not happened in this way since richard nickens administration. Talking about the fact that republicans is who are loathe to criticize the president like the Senate Intelligence chair richard burr putting out a statement and issuing a tweet saying he is concerned about this. That kind of reaction they were clearly not expecting mindboggling thats the case. Gloria i want to bring in dana you may not have it because you were just mentioning burr. But jeff lake a republican from Gloria Peting Out i was food trying to find a acceptable rationale for the timing of the firing and i just cant do it. Its not just democrat its republicans as well. It is republicans. Remember you know jeff flake was not a donald trump republican. But richard burr was a donald trump republican. And i think right now you know
the Balance Of Power here is going to be really important. Because we have to see how Congress Reacts to this. Congress is going to want to investigate exactly what happened here. You dont fire your fbi director as he is investigating your campaign and russia hacking of the elections. Just which willy nily. Theyre going to want to talk to comey im sure. They were going to want to talk to Jeff Sessions im sure and Rod Rosenstein who wrote the letter. Let me say one thing Rod Rosensteins long letter detailed a lot of complaints that a lot of democrats had about james comey, that he shouldnt have gone on on july 5th after he cheered Hillary Clinton and the email controversy and said, okay but she is reckless. And he shouldnt have sent that letter on october th and turned
the election upside down maybe thats why Dan An The White House wasnt expecting this to be a disaster. Thats exactly right. For them. But you know Rod Rosenstein doesnt speak for the president who at the time these events occurred was applauding them. So, you know. Is this a firing in search of a cause gloria. Well i think its a firing in search of a rationale, right. And and the rationale here was provided by the Deputy Attorney general. But and the Deputy Attorney general im sure believes it as do lots of other people in this country, democrat and republican. But i dont know that donald trump really believes what the attorney what the Deputy Attorney general wrote. Because he was applauding comey when he said that Hillary Clinton was reckless. He would have liked to have seen her indicted, sure. But you know i dont recall him
complaining about comeys words at the time. Yeah. And the President Elect also as a candidate applauding james comey at the time as well. And also as president as well saying he has taken some heat got a strong back bone pamela here is the really important question. Comey was overseeing the russia trump investigation, fired by the people he is investigating now. So who is in charge what does it mean for the investigation. That is part of what makes this so extraordinary, don. As of ton the former Deputy Director of the fbi the andy mccabe is the Acting Director of bureau and the investigation is still being overseen by the Deputy Attorney general we were just talking about Rod Rosenstein, the person that recommended the firing of james comey to the president according to this letter. You know Career Fisher Agents and prosecutors are still working on this case, still moving forward. They are Issuing Subpoenas as we
reported tonight. But of course something of this magnitude happening could have a Chilling Effect among the investigators as you know don there are frohhing calls particularly from exactic lawmakers for independent prosecutor to take over the investigation. And Rosenstein Has said previously during his Senate Confirmation hearing that he would indeed appoint a Special Prosecutor if if enact necessary. I wouldnt be surprised if you continue to see these calls. Umhum. Pamela, you also have some reporting tonight. Regarding grand jury subpoenas have been issued in this fbi Russia Investigation. What can you tell us about that. Thats right we learned that just in the last couple of weeks federal prosecutorers have issued grand jury subpoenas to associates of former National Security adviser Michael Flynn seeking Business Records as part of the ongoing probe of russian meddling in last years election. The subpoenas represent the
first sign of a significant escalation of activity in the fbis broader investigation that began last july into possible ties between Trump Associates and russia. They were received by associates who worked with Michael Flynn on contracts after he was forced out as director of the Defense Intelligence agency in 2014. Robert kjell ner an attorney for flynn he declined to comment as to the justice dp, the fbi and the u. S. Attorneys office. But you know just looking at the circumstances here just in the last couple of weeks you had the subpoenas issued to associates of President Trumps former National Security adviser. En and its remarkable to think the man overseeing this whole investigation james comey has now been fired by the president. So that that information that youre giving now is exclusive information that youre giving. Groeria i want to go back to something that you we talked about lets go over the letter from Rod Rosenstein deputy to Attorney General now and going to be Acting Director. In the memo he points to the press kerns that comey held back
in 2016 during the campaign saying he wasnt recommending charges against Hillary Clinton. He is pointing to how the Clinton Investigation was handled. Really. . Why are they point pointing that out . You got me. Look, i think its something Rod Rosenstein probably believes it was mishandled as do lots of other prosecutors. That was july of 2016 though. Right. And i and i think a lot of people believe that that was a mistake its not a prosecutors job to tell people why i did not Diet Somebody for example. He also went after him for his testimony last week on on why his choice between conceal or speak. But but you have to put this in a wider context. We are talking about now president donald trump, who didnt find anything wrong back then with comeys behavior, more
did he find anything wrong with the letter comey sent to congress, saying that he had to reopen the Hillary Clinton investigation. And so you have to wonder whether you know trump is saying donald trump is saying i want to fire this guy, give me give me the reasons here. Yeah. I stand stsh shall have been stand by i want to bring somebody stand by you guys i want to bring in congressman elijah cummings. Swal we chl Congressman Cummings start with you reaction to tonight events. Well im not surprised. It seems as if when miss yates appeared yesterday i said to myself, were going to have a new issue tomorrow. And we have constantly seen don this movement of hoke us poke us when something gets close to the russian investigation, the next thing we know we moved on to
something another issue. But there is something that your guests dont seem to understand. One of the reasons why keep in mind comey came to our committee, Oversight Committee back in the summer and made the announcement how he thought Hillary Clinton was sloppy but he wasnt going to prosecute. I told him at that hearing. I said, they are coming after you. That is the republicans dont like what youre doing. And they are going to put you on trial. The thing that your guests dont know is that after that decision was made not to prosecute they basically the republicans on the Oversight Committee subpoenaed almost every single document in the fbi file. And i think that what happened with comey is that he came back later on closer to the election to make those announcements because i think he was contender that they would come after him. Thats what i believe. But, again, i think the timing
of this is is horrible. I think i mean if we look at it, don, he the president treated flynn far better than he treated the fbi director. I mean the fisher director doesnt didnt even flow he was being fired. Yeah. And while flynn had 18 days after the president even knew that he had lied to the Vice President weve got to get to the bottom of this. I think the fact that there is a grand jury and that questioning is now being opened up i think youre going to see a whole new escalation thereof case. I want to ask you going, Congressman Swal well i know both ever you congressmen have been privy to Classified Information and you know whats happening with the investigation. There is reporting tonight cnn and others as the Washington Post said reporting that the white house and the Attorney General had pushed the fbi to pursue leaks rather than pushing them to pursue with the investigation was about and that
was possible collusion from the Trump Campaign with russia. Did you know anything about that Congressman Swalwell. Well don i hope thats notes case. Our country was attacked by russia. There is a sowers fbi investigation going on into whether any u. S. Persons were involved. To make that a priority over protecting our democracy would be a serious misjudgment. As far as firing fbi Director Comey, to the average american this stinks. The United States is a democracy. The president cant fire the person who is investigating him. That violates Bedrock Principles of independence. Elijah cummings and i also wrote legislation to have a independent commission thats the best way to get to the bottom of what happened to make sure we never find ourselves in a mess like this again. Your colleague Ranking Intelligence Committee member put pout a statement saying the decision by the president have under the investigation by the
fbi Fore Collusion with russia to fire the man over the recommendation on the recommendation of the Attorney General who has recused himsz from that investigation raise profound Question Base whether the white house is brazenly interfering in a criminal matter. Congressman, do you see it that way and what is the recourse if so . Jeff sessions should be noware near the firing ever Director Comey he was supposed to be recused remember he was supposed to be recused he was asked by the senate if he had any contacts with russia during the election. Twice he said no we learned later because of Press Reporting he had. For him to be involved also raises questions on the Judiciary Committee where i serve i think we should have Jeff Sessions before us to explain just exactly why this was not just exactly why efts involved in this while he was supposed to be recused Congressman Cummings and go ahead, congressman. Im just going to say i agree totally with congressman
swalwell. I was shocked we had a letter coming from the Attorney General with the workmens. Isume any any recommendation would be solely that of the Deputy Attorney general who i know quite well and i think the world of. He is he was our u. S. Attorney here in maryland over ten years. Rosenstein. But i think rosenstein now has a duty i think were going to have to do two things. One i think we need to to have the independent commission as Congressman Swalwell and i put forward. But we also have to make sure that an independent counsel is appointed by rosenstein because some kind of way you basically have to have both one checking each other. I want to ask you dwresman about a little bit more about the Deputy Attorney general since i recommended in firing because of