the coffin for president trump to fire him. >> bret: tonight, new questions. did the president hint at comey's firing a month ago? >> we will see what happens. it's going to be interesting. >> bret: what happens next in the russia investigation? >> catastrophically compromise the investigation. >> the investigation going on in the intelligence committee. >> bret: we have all of the angles covered. a special edition of "special report" starts right now. good evening. welcome to washington. i am bret baier. the reality tv star billionaire businessman who made "you are fired" a catchphrase used it this afternoon and what is turning out to be one of his most controversial moves yet. president trump's dismissal of james comey has rocked washington. democrats tried to link the action to the investigation of a possible connection between the trump campaign and the russians before the elections. demands for a special prosecutor are louder tonight and democrats are jumping to watergate comparisons. john roberts starts us off from the north lawn. >> good evening. fbi director was fired for usurping the authority of then attorney general loretta lynch, but he announced the results of the investigation into hillary clinton's emails last july. the president's opponents were quick to make the firing about him and not the fbi director. there were handshakes from his police escort on the tarmac in los angeles as james comey boarded the fbi jet for the final time. while it was the president who fired comey, white house or the state was the newly minted deputy attorney general rod rosenstein who had lost confidence in comey. sources say rosenstein, confirmed 14 days ago, assessed the situation and determined that comey should be replaced. democrats who had recently praised's integrity, could not question the man, only the timing. >> the first question the administration has to answer is why now. if the administration had objections to the way director comey handled the clinton investigation, they have those objections the minute the president got into office. but they didn't fire him then. why did it happen today? >> exactly when comey's tenure became a problem is unclear. in this march speech to boston college, comey seemed to think he was safe. >> you are stuck with me for about another six and a half years. >> testimony last week appeared to seal his fate. >> director comey had lost the confidence of the rank and rank-and-file within the fbi. he certainly i think lost the confidence from members of both sides, republicans and democrats in the house and senate. most important, he lost the confidence of the american people. >> the president's attitude toward comey has been a roller coaster. last july, he was incensed at comey's decision not press charges against hillary clinton. >> today is the best evidence after that we've seen that our system is absolutely totally rigged. it's rigged. >> after comey reopened the investigation in late october, president trump did an about-face. >> it took guts for director comey to make the move he made. >> when the two men met after the inauguration, got a warm handshake and a pat on the shoulder, and whispered words from the president. three hours before the firing, press secretary sean spicer was asked about comey. >> does the president still have full confidence in fbi director james comey? >> i have not asked the president. >> the president showed no reluctance or regret in firing company. in his letter writing "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 effectively lead the bureau." some democrats, pennsylvania senator bob casey called the firing "nixonian." others claim that president was trying to derail the russia investigation. insisted rosenstein appoint a special prosecutor. the ink was barely dry on the termination letter, and white house officials were saying it's time to get past the notion that the trump campaign colluded with russia. >> we have heard that time and time again. we heard it in the testimonies earlier this week. we've heard it for the last 11 months. there is no "there" there. it's time to move on. >> white house feels that has plenty of political cover and its firing of james comey, pointing out that the recommendation came from a man who was recently praised by democrats. >> bret: john roberts, thank you. by all accounts, very few people in the fbi saw this coming. but james comey had become a magnet for controversy with another serious blow to his credibility just to coming a few minutes before his dismissal was announced. catherine herridge has that story. >> half-dozen former fbi agent told fox news tonight that the bureau was blindsided by the decision including the fbi director who was traveling in los angeles. if comey had known, at the agent said, he would've sent a pe to the workforce. the agents said comey had become a polarizing figure and his testimony before the senate did not help his case. two sources tell fox news the unmasking scandal was part of the white house calculus to fire the fbi director james comey. republicans accused comey of slow walking records through congress about americans swept up in foreign intelligence. >> there should be a record somewhere in our government for a request to unmask regardless of who made the request. >> while there is an extensive paper trail showing who made the request to unmask trump campaign associates, including mike flynn, the director only acknowledged in march the fbi probe began nearly a year ago. >> that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the trump campaign and the russian government. and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and russia's efforts. >> multiple sources told fox last week's senate testimony showed comey refused to acknowledge his mistakes in the clinton email case, specifically his public statements where critics that he took on the role of prosecutor, insisting investigators must find intent, which is not in the criminal statute. >> although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case. >> comey told senators he would do it all over again, including the decision to reopen the clinton email case 11 days before the election. >> i stared at speak and conceal. speaking would be really bad. there is an election. concealing in my view would be catastrophic. not just to the fbi but well beyond. >> explaining comey's dismissal, the deputy attorney general wrote "the fbi never conceals investigations. it is not publicly discuss them." in his hearing, rod rosenstein was nine to metal on the russia probe. >> it's an issue of principle that as a nominee for deputy attorney general, i should not take action. >> acting fbi director andrew mccabe. in 2015, his wife ran for a state senate seat in virginia. receiving money from democrats. the fbi said it was not a conflict, former agent said it was more evidence of a broken culture with special rules for comey and fbi senior leadership. the justice department inspector general's investigation into the clinton email probe was expected to be deeply negative for comey and his old boss, loretta lynch. comey supporters say lynch box to mid last year after meeting with bill clinton just one week before hillary clinton's fbi interview. >> bret: what about what's next? we are hearing the replacement could come soon. >> white house officials say we click and expect an announcement in the coming days, pointing to a law enforcement professional and not a politician paid one name i am hearing is john pistole. he spent 27 years at the fbi, rising to deputy director. he was at the heart of the post-9/11 investigations. he most recently served as tsa administrator. becoming the president of anderson university in indiana. he is said to have a strong personal relationship with the vice president. tonight he was not returning phone calls praised you one thank you. let's get some analysis now from ron haas, former assistant director of the fbi. he works with the law enforcement legal defense fund. you spent almost 30 years at the bureau. you worked alongside james comey in your last year there. your reaction tonight. >> shocking. of course, i work in the d.c. area, so i am subject to the hypocrisy on capitol hill, the politics that have swirled around the clinton investigation and the russian influence on the investigation. i am not totally shocked. i knew there had been voices within the fbi, friends and associates of mine outside the fbi who have been critical of how far the doctor went last year in july. some of his comments. and they agreed with rosenstein's assessment that the director went too far. but i will tell you, having worked with jim comey, he has the heart of a boy scout. he has a moral compass. i think jim comey has slept well with the decisions he's made. i think we heard some of his justification for those decisions in his testimony last week. i don't think the director has missed a lot of sleep because he things he did wrong. my experience with him, i was the director of criminal. i tens of thousands of cases under me, and this director is not one that's ever going to come to you and say "here's the result we want in this case or in any given case." it's about finding the truth and looking at the facts, understanding how the fax line up with the law and doing the right thing. the fortunate thing i think for america is this institution is bigger than jim comey. i do think he was widely respected and appreciated for his service to the organization, but the fbi is bigger than one person command the organizational contingent move forward. their work is to keep america safe and to get to the truth. you and you are part of the crew who believed he was boxed in essentially by loretta lynch's action with former president clinton? >> i look at hillary clinton's own decisions as being the original sin. the timing of the clinton investigation was entirely owned by hillary and her staff who kept it quiet for as long as they did. it gave the fbi a limited amount of time to investigate during the run up to the election. he knew he was under a clock, and then went loretta lynch met with bill clinton on that tarmac, it casts for the shadow on the ability of the department of justice and the fbi to come in the american public's eyes, run a thorough investigation. >> bret: do you buy the layout of the administration's actions saying it is tied to rosenstein's assessment that he was just approved. he looked at the details and it points back to the original july event as the explanation why he's getting fired. do you buy that this is the reason he's getting fired? >> i don't buy that. i think the timing lines up fairly neatly against that, but if jim comey committed a mortal sin in his position as fbi director, loretta lynch could have asked the president last july to fire him. she could have said i'm going to fire you. i'm going to make the recommendation for because last summer. could have done it again in the fall if they were inclined to. president obama could have taken this step if that much faith was lost. i think this was just an opportune time. >> bret: using this administration -- you think this administration was looking for that time? >> i do. >> bret: you are not happy and how this happened? >> not at all. jim comey traveling to the west coast. if this is your assessment, call him into a face-to-face meeting and give him his due. he is a good public servant. we heard reference to it in one of your warm ups, he saw the fbi is the pinnacle his career in public service. he certainly left a job that was paying a lot more for a lot less pressure than this job to come back and run the fbi. i think he did that as a true blue american and true and honest public service in his time there. he wanted to finish his tenure. >> bret: he didn't answer a lot of questions in his recent testimony about the investigation into russia and the possible connections. in the letter that president trump sent out today informing him that he was firing him, he said, the president, "while i greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that i am not under investigation," and he continues on. if that happened on three separate occasions, isn't that the wrong thing for somebody to do to tell somebody they are not under investigation? >> yes, generally. we are not exposing to anyone who the subject of an investigation is. the facts are the facts, they may change from tomato tomorrow, and so what i may reassure you about today may change entirely tonight. that is a mistaken path, assuming it happened. i think that is a big assumption. >> bret: thank you for coming in. when this special hour of "special report" continues, more on james comey, his firing an hour we got to this point. stay with got to this point. >> before james comey became the seventh director of the fbi, he was born in new york, raised in new jersey and married to his college sweetheart prayed he prosecuted martha stewart while serving as the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york and in 2003, the 6'8" comey was nominated by president george w. bush to be the deputy attorney general. the next year, colby had a showdown with top administration officials because they tried to get a hospitalized attorney general john ashcroft to reauthorize an nsa program from his hospital bed. >> i thought i witnessed and effort to take advantage of a sick man who did not have the powers of the attorney general. >> comey admits he was a registered republican for years but ended up being nominated to lead the federal bureau of investigation for a 10-year term by a democratic president. >> he doesn't care about politics. he only cares about getting the job done. >> comey confronted the rise of isis, telling "60 minutes" he preferred the term loan rat to a lone. -- lone wolf. >> although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case. >> comey revisited the server investigation. clinton has placed blame on-call meet for trump's win. the relationship with the winners seemed cordial enough. >> james. he has become more famous than me. >> comey's testimony about russian interference was not satisfying many in the g.o.p. because he wouldn't say for sure he would probe damaging leaks the white house police came from the last administration. >> can you assure them that if it's going to be investigated? >> i can't. but i hope people watching know how seriously we take leaks of classified information but i don't want to confirm it saying that we are investigating. >> as recently as march, comey thought he would be around a lot longer. >> you are stuck with me. >> comey testified last week that late in the presidential campaigns when wrestling with whether to speak to congress about the clinton investigation or conceal details, he prayed for a third door, but it wasn't there. today comey was shown the door. >> bret: thank you. brit hume has seen a lot. he is our senior clinical analyst, joins us tonight. good evening. get your reaction to the day and the reaction to the reaction. >> it's been quite a storm, which i fully anticipated the minute i heard it. politically, there would be hell to pay. the democrats have attacked the timing of this. it is hard to attack the substance since so many of them didn't like comey. trump suggested he ought to be fired a long time ago. the second thing is that he views it as a basis for calling for an independent prosecutor, which has been their mantra. they are all saying it. there's a handful of republican senators misgivings. richard burr of north carolina. this firestorm may involve republicans as well as democrats, in which case the travel for the trump administration is likely to be prolonged. >> bret: we have seen a few administration officials out in defense, and a short time ago we got the presidents tweet. i'm sure it's not not the last, but he says: "cryin' chuck schumer stated recently, 'i do not have confidence in him -- james comey -- any longer.' then acts so indignant. #draintheswamp that was a short time ago. >> he is right on the facts, that is what chuck schumer said. somebody mentioned it to him when he had his comment tonight, a reporter mentioned it in a prelude to a question which i thought would end up with the question being why did you change your mind? it went somewhere else but he slipped away without having to deal with it. that's true of a lot of democrats who have been critical of this. >> bret: senator schumer has called all democrats to be in their seats in the senate at 9:30 tomorrow morning for some announcement and i'm sure a call for a special prosecutor will continue. does that have more heft now today, considering this action, even though the administration is trying to decouple and point fact the hillary clinton email investigation in this review by the deputy attorney general? >> it may, but it's not something that congress can force, and it's not something likely to be the subject of legislation which could presumably for such a thing. they can make noise about it. the pressure may become so intensely firestorm so flaming that the administration would feel compelled to go along. it would certainly help the democrats because in that regard if there were a shred of hard evidence that there had been collusion between the trump campaign and russians to defeat hillary clinton. so far, that hasn't arisen. there is plenty of evidence that they tried to interfere, and that is something that would be easily subject of a bipartisan investigation and there's no real reason to believe an investigation of that by itself would not be supported by the trump administration or any investigative agency. >> bret: quickly, the administration and maybe even the president are going to meet with russian officials tomorrow. >> what wonderful timing. [laughs] >> bret: as always, thank you. what's your reaction? let me know on twitter. at @bretbaier. use the hashtag #specialreport. on facebook at facebook.com/bretbaiersr. coming up, we'll talk about this day, the surprising firing of the fbi director, james comey, and what's next. an expanded panel jointly after stay out front with tempur-pedic. our proprietary material automatically adjusts to your weight, shape and temperature. so you sleep deeply, and wake up feeling powerful. find your exclusive retailer at tempurpedic.com eyet some cards limit where yout earn bonus cash back to a few places. and then, change those places every few months. enough with that! with quicksilver from capital one you've always earned unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, everywhere. welcome to unlimited what's in your wallet? >> the mission. upholding the constitution. the fbi can -- the the presiden fire an fbi director. i would be sad to leave this mission and businesspeople. >> boston college as a leader on thinking and educating on these issues. it's a great place to have it. hope you will do it many more times. you are stuck with me for another six and a half years. i would love to be invited back again. >> bret: well, no. james comey, fbi director, fired today by president trump. he was in l.a. about ready to give a speech, a recruiting speech, talking to fbi agents and found out he was being fired watching a television inside the office. he got official word from the fbi here in washington. let's bring in the panel. james james rosen, a.b. stoddar, syndicated columnist charles krauthammer. let's start with the first panel about why, why he was fired. james. >> james comey was fired because, due to many sets of eyes, in the congress, within the ranks of the fbi they are in the great american public, and most notably at the white house and in the department of justice, james comey had become a law unto himself. this was most clearly demonstrated in this series of times where he gave congressional testimony where james comey seemed to make up comey's rules as comey went along. as to what he was free to disclose about different investigations and when he wasn't free to disclose things pretty would tell lawmakers he had special authorization from the department of justice to confirm that the fbi is investigating alleged contacts between the trump campaign and the kremlin. but if asked about unmasking or asked about leaks and other issues come he would say i'm not authorized by doj to say anything on those matters. way back on july 5, he told us nobody at doj knows what i'm about to say, and then he launched the extraordinary moment where he sought to impeach hillary clinton rather than proceed with an indictment. >> bret: the administration points to the new deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein rod rosenstein, a memo that's attached to the letter that president trump put out. saying "i cannot defend the director's handling of the conclusion of the investigation of secretary clinton's emails and i do not understand his refusal to accept the judgment he was mistaken. as a result, the fbi is unlikely to regain public and congressional trust until it has a director who understands the gravity of the mistakes under pledges not to repeat them. the director cannot be expected to implement the corrective action." that is a direct response to his testimony on capitol hill in which he said he felt nauseous about what happened. but he wouldn't change what he did. >> the agency had to correct a statement he made huma abedin's emails. everything james said about james comey's credibility problem is true. i think in the days to come the why is going to be blurred if there is reaction within the fbi if we learn that inside the trump white house this did come from trump and not come up from president trump himself and not a recommendation made on the basis by the deputy attorney general. >> bret: if it was top-down, not bottom up. >> there are indications this might have come from trump. we are going to have to wait and see what happens. there is a lot we don't know tonight, but it's the timing, obviously that's more in question tonight then the why. spewing democrats putting out all kinds of statements. chuck schumer saying "senators need to be seated at something tomorrow morning." >> democrats are united they want a special prosecutor. i think they are going to bang the drum on this for weeks if not months. the republican statements are more interesting for you don't have anyone defending call me. what you do have those questions about the timing. richard burr has questions, senator ben sasse, you're getting statements saying we don't understand why he did it now. if president trump had a problem with the director of the fbi, why didn't he get rid of them on day one or week one? i think this goes to your point, was it rosenstein who believed this or was it trump? trump was praising comey on the campaign trail eight days before the election. he said comey had real guts re-invoking the hillary clinton email scandal. it will be interesting to see if trump can explain that now and give a different answer. >> bret: president trump now, then candidate trump. take a listen. >> is it too late to ask him to step down? >> no, it's not too late, but i have confidence in him prayed we'll see what happens. it's going to be interesting. >> that is why i am asking for >> i want to give everybody a good, fair chance. it took guts for director comey to make the move that he made in light of the kind of opposition he had trying to protect her from criminal prosecution for you know that. it took a lot of guts. i really disagreed with him. i was not his fan but what he did, he brought back his reputation. he brought it back. >> bret: charles. >> well, now he lost it again. what is so striking is how on both sides, we have heard situational ethics. this is situational sensibilities. when what comey was doing was hurting trump come he was a bad guy. then when he did what he did come he was a good guy. the democrats are even more critical. the reaction tonight. if mount st. helens exploded at midnight tonight, you would get, within an hour, 18 democrats demanding a special prosecutor to look into the issue. everything leads them to demanding a special prosecutor. i wouldn't take them seriously. again, what they are talking about is smoke. after six months, eight months, a year? no hard evidence whatsoever of collusion. i think the reason comey is gone is because generally speaking we say if you make enemies on both sides, you must be doing something right. with him, he made enemies on both sides and he was doing a lot wrong. he had no one to stand up for him. in the end, he had so angered the two sides so many times switching back and forth that he was left without any allies. you can interpret this as rosenstein coming in and thus that is the timing, or as suggested by a.b., trump doing it. you would get the deputy attorney general to draw up the document which would be the execution documentary that's how you would do it. we still don't know. >> bret: the reason the deputy attorney general will be doing it is because the attorney general recused himself from the russia investigation because of meetings he had with the russian ambassador. we will be back with the panel after a quick break >> does the president still have the full confidence in fbi director james comey? >> i have no reason to believe -- i have not asked him. i have not asked the president since the last time we spoke about it. >> last time he did have confidence but you're not sure. >> i don't want to start speaking on behalf of the president without speaking to him first. you and that is one way to answer it. sean spicer at 2:00. democrats pounced with a familiar line. this is senator leahy. "the president's action in the way it's been handled is shocking. no one should accept president trump's absurd justification that he is concerned that fbi director comey treated secretary clinton unfairly. this is nothing less than nixonian." we have adam schiff from the house intelligence committee to take this action without addressing the profound conflicts of interest, it hearkens back to a similarly tainted decision by president nixon. tweets. we are back with the panel. our resident historian, particularly on water kate coming -- watergate, james. >> hillary clinton probably wishes she enjoyed some nixonian lock. he ran five times in the national ticket, something only fdr also did. nixonian should mean more than watergate. here, if these comparisons are apples to oranges, when president nixon fired that special prosecutor, archibald cox, watergate was already 18 months old. it had begun with a definable crime, breaking and entering at the dnc headquarters and there had been convictions. quite incriminating. here we have, this alleged russian occlusion story, not a single crime yet established. in the investigation has really got no place that the public can see. so it seems to me to do a disservice to president trump to liken this firing to president nixon's. i would say this president, donald trump, especially for a new president, is discharging presidential power in a very assertive way, and a way that theoretically should cheer conservatives who bemoaned the erosion of presidential power. >> bret: 109 days paired he has fired his national security advisor, moved out his deputy national security advisor, fired the acting attorney general. he has fired the fbi director. he, as most presidents do, fired the 46 u.s. attorneys. he did it in a different way, kind of sudden. a lot has happened. >> he's the most unorthodox political figure in modern american history. he acts on a whim. that's why the statements from the press secretary at 2:00 can never be relevant at 5:00. he makes decisions very quickly on his gut, and i would say with this move, he played some political jujitsu. for regular americans not in washington and not following every single light of our james comey and sally yates, they know james comey is a guy who cost hillary clinton the election. that is how he's defined. i think trump smartly knew that and knows that now democrats who put out all the statement saying we don't like comey. he cost hillary the election. we lost confidence in him. now they have to say why did you dump him? they put chuck schumer in a tough spot when he was asked why in october did you say you lost confidence in comey but now you say -- >> the utter hypocrisy on comey. the other part of this is, again, as opposed to what nixon and watergate invoked every minute and a half by democrats, this is a scandal in search of a crime. after all of this time, show us the evidence of a crime. if there were any of that, i think there would be a real firestorm over real stuff. right now, it's a firestorm gotten a lot larger. again, over allegations of collusion that nobody has been able to demonstrate actually occurred. >> bret: to be fair, sally yates was asked about that and said there's a classified investigation going on. in the former director of national intelligence, clapper, said he reported up to his point. >> democrats are acting as if it's been shown, as of the way the only way to understand that is that it's a cover up of a crime. they haven't produced any evidence of a crime. >> bret: final thoughts, a.b. after a comey go. >> bret: looks like the oj drive from l.a. his former fbi director james comey and ellie headed to the airport. the administration's point of view from sarah huckabee. a.b., what's next? the white house as to expected name soon. what does that look like? >> back to the previous discussion, what's next is grand jury subpoenas issued for associates of michael flynn. the fired national security advisor. this is actually not a joke of investigation. it's not smoke looking for a fire. put the democrats talking about mixing over here -- talking about nixon over here. there are multiple and visit -- multiple investigations into russia and the election. real investigations going on within the fbi. until and unless those are concluded, in your words, we don't know what we don't know. donald trump never acknowledges, in fear of the potential political peril of the collusion suggestion to which there has, you are right been no evidence presented part of an ongoing investigation. he refuses to acknowledge the gravity of the political interference by the russians. here, in brexit, in france, anywhere. it will continue to happen. everyone of these committees says so, all the experts say so. this investigation. we are going to learn whether or not he decided on impulse to fire james comey or it was truly the recommendation of the deputy ag. what is coming next is that the russia thing isn't over with. >> bret: meantime, the russians are meeting with the trump administration tomorrow. >> when jim comey came out in july of 2016 and announced they would be no prosecution of hillary clinton, the clinton email server investigation was 14 months old. after "the new york times" broke it in march of 2015. think how much evidence about hillary clinton's conduct in the server case, including the memo where she ask someone to send her something classified nonsecure was in the public domain by the time mr. comey announced the decision. almost a year into the legend of russian collusion case, how little information there is in the public sphere toward a judgment of yes. >> are going to have a confirmation hearing on fbi director. can president trump choose anyone who is respected by the other side that can continue this investigation? is going to be a tough sell. there is going to be a war on capitol hill over this. >> it's going to be the number one issue. the number to reach was going to be when did the president decide? was it his decision or not? what's impressive is that this story did not leak into that happen which is very unusual. the tick-tock will depend on a leak which we haven't had yet. >> bret: "special report" was interesting at 5:55. we will wrap it up for you after this about the fbi director being fired by president trump, or it had words "no longer being able to effectively lead the borough borough." andrew mccabe has now taken over an acting capacity. the bureau for the president and the administration remains unknown. what we do know is that we will be covering all of it here every weekday at 6:00 p.m. eastern time. wednesday i have an exclusive interview with speaker of the house paul ryan. there are a few things to talk about. thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. that's it for this latest edition of "special report." fair, balanced, and is still unafraid. ♪