[ laughter and applause ] he did what . Great. Great. President trump said today that he fired fbi director james comey because he was simply not doing a good job. You know, if i were you, i wouldnt put it out there that you can get fired for that. I mean, just say, like, i dont know. [ laughter and applause ] he was misusing taxpayer money. Oh, wait, no that doesnt work either, i dont know. [ light laughter ] well well think of something. The white house is claiming fbi director james comey was fired, not because of the Russian Investigation, but over his handling of the investigation of Hillary Clintons private email use. Right. Theyre firing him for the hillary thing. [ light laughter ] kind of like how jared got fired from subway for stealing sandwiches. [ laughter and applause ] President Trump, yesterday, announced that the search for a new permanent fbi director will begin immediately, added trump, but at the same time, i dont want to be russian into anything when deciding who to putin charge. [ laughter and applause ] President Trump today met with Russian Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov. Please give Vladimir Putin my best, said lavrov. [ light laughter ] president Vladimir Putin said today, that russia had nothing to do with the firing of fbi director james comey. And you can tell because comeys alive. [ audience ohs ] [ light laughter ] in a resurfaced legal document, former fox news anchor, bill oreillys exwife claimed that she once caught oreilly engaging in phone sex half naked. And believe me, theres no good answer to the question, which half . [ light laughter ] and a new study has found that men are the loneliest at age 35 while women are the loneliest at 21. [ audience ohs ] and finally, a retreat called cannabliss will take place next month in california. Its a five day marijuana festival that lasts ten days. [ laughter and applause ] ladies and gentlemen, we have a great show for you tonight. Very excited. From nbcs chicago p. D. Sophia bush back on the show. [ cheers and applause ] we had her once and first week first week of late night guests. I believe she was our first thursday. Yeah. Also, hes a fantastic actor, hes on hbos Silicon Valley, zach woods is here tonight. [ cheers and applause ] hes a great guy. Whom ive known for a very long time. And very excited about our standup comedian tonight. He is a friend of ours and he is just fantastic, truly one of my favorite comedians, dan mintz will be doing standup tonight. [ cheers and applause ] so youre here on a great night. Before we get to all of that, today the political world has been reeling from President Trumps shocking decision to fire fbi director james comey, a surreal and chaotic development that has felt like something out of a dictatorship. For more on this, its time for a closer look. [ cheers and applause ] its been a little over 100 days and President Trump has already degraded so Many Political norms, and flouted so many conventions, that to some degree, weve become desensitized to his behavior. Still, as the Russian Investigation has escalated, most people assume there was at least one thing trump would not do, and that was fire the man who is investigating him. But yesterday we learned that for trump, even that line was not too sacred to cross. Breaking news, jim comey is out at the fbi. It is lost on no one that president just fired the man who is leading an investigation into the Trump Campaign and whether it colluded with russians. Theres a strong feeling at the fbi that the director of the fbi was fired because he wouldnt drop the russia investigation. Never in history have we had an fbi director fired by a president who is under investigation by the fbi. Or as donald trump put it, today, we made history. [ light laughter ] they said we couldnt do it. We did it. [ light laughter ] now while trump may have the Legal Authority to fire comey, its the timing of this firing thats obviously troubling. Because, of the current fbi investigation into the Trump Campaign ties with russia, and its possible for an action to be suspicious, because of its timing. For example, if you buy your wife jewelry its a lovely gesture. If you buy her jewelry after a boys weekend in vegas, theres gonna be some follow up questions. [ laughter and applause ] and just just to give you an idea of how unexpected and earth shattering this news was when it broke, reporters were literally gasping for air after sprinting out to the cameras to deliver the news. We do not have reaction yet from the fbi, but this is just happening now. Of course, this is coming on the heels of the fbi director being so central involved in this russian scandal. Excuse my breath, here wolf. [ light laughter ] i just ran out here to bring you this news. [ laughter ] this is how crazy things are in the Trump Administration. Reporters literally dont have the aerobic strength to report the news anymore. [ light laughter ] soon, cnn is gonna have to replace wolf blitzer with usain bolt. [ laughter and applause ] then later, things were so crazy, that later in the evening, a Makeup Artist just walked on camera while Anderson Cooper was doing an interview. Sean spicer, the White House Press secretary moments ago was huddling with reporters. [ light laughter ] seth i like how she noticed the camera, like it was for the first time. [ light laughter ] wait, is this whole thing for tv . [ light laughter ] so again, this is not something that anyone saw coming. In fact, the news especially, came as a shock to comey himself, who found out about it while he was speaking to fbi employees in los angeles. The New York Times account of this is just stunning. It says, mr. Comey was addressing a group of fbi employees in los angeles, when the television in the background flashed the news that he had been fired. In response, mr. Comey laughed. He said he thought it was a fairly funny prank. Seth thats right, the guy who is probably seeing the russian hooker tape, thought his firing was too weird to believe. [ light laughter ] so trump who was famous for firing people on tv, is now firing people via tv. But of course, on the apprentice, donald trump, at least, had the decency to fire people to their face using his now famous catch phrase, there were 1. 5 Million People at my inauguration. No, thats not it. What was [ light laughter ] what was his catch phrase . Oh, right. Youre fake news. No, that wasnt it either. [ light laughter ] he had a catchphrase. Grab em by the [ bleep ]. No, what, umm. [ audience ohs ] no, youre fired, youre fired. Youre fired. Im sorry, its just [ applause ] he has so he has so many catch phrases. But trump didnt have the guts to fire comey facetoface or even over the phone. After comey saw the news on tv an official termination letter was sent to fbi headquarters from the white house. But, the letter wasnt delivered by the white house chief of staff, or the attorney general, or an adviser to the president. The letter was delivered by trumps personal bodyguard. He actually dispatched keith schiller, who was his long time bodyguard, and head of personal security at trump tower. Keith schiller is now the director of Oval Office Operations at the white house. He was dispatched to the fbi headquarters to deliver, hand deliver trumps letter, terminating comey. Keith schiller his personal bodyguard, was the person who delivered the letter firing the man investigating the president s campaign . That that is correct. Seth wow, thats even worse than breaking up with a girl by text. Thats like breaking up with a girl in the chat feature on words with friends. [ laughter ] so, to repeat that, trump actually sent one of his goons to do his dirty work. Mr. Trump is very disappointed in your performance. Now, i gotta take your thumbs. [ light laughter ] and if you were worried trump would send a boiler plate letter, worry not. Because in his three paragraph note, he still found time to add, i greatly appreciate you informing me on three separate occasions thats i am not under investigation. He used a termination letter to defend himself. Donald trump is such a troll at this point, hes going to start doing his hair like this. [ laughter and applause ] and then then theres the fact, that once comey found out and left the fbi office in l. A. , Cable News Networks aired nonstop helicopter footage of his car driving on the los angeles freeway. Because nothing says the press is keeping calm more than filming a car on an l. A. Freeway. [ laughter ] and then, once comey got to the airport, there was the bizarre question of whether he would even still be allowed to use the fbi plane that he had taken to l. A. , given that he no longer worked for the fbi. The real question just how comey is going to get home. Hes out in los angeles with the fbi plane. And hes no longer the fbi director. So, will he have the ability to use the plane to fly home . Seth come on, you know trump made him fly united. [ laughter and applause ] but make sure, this is very important, make sure its on a flight thats overbooked. Because i want to see that s. O. B. s bare belly. [ light laughter ] but as absurd as the unfolding drama over comeys firing was, nothing could top the truly laughable justification Trumps White House offered for firing comey. They claimed, that it wasnt russia, but that they were upset with how comey handled the investigation into Hillary Clintons emails during the election. This news tonight, came accompanied by a chain of letters, first from Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein saying, i cannot defend the directors handling of the conclusion of the investigation of secretary clintons emails. This memo, form Rod Rosenstein, it says that, james comey was fired for being too mean to Hillary Clinton. Does anyone believe that . [ light laughter ] could anyone believe that . I mean, its just absurd. Comey was not fired because of hillary. Comey was fired because of the russians. The white house is peeing on our leg and trying to tell us its raining outside. [ laughter and applause ] seth said trump, thats ridiculous, i dont pee on peoples legs. You pay hookers for that. Ask comey. Hes seen the tape. Wheres comey. He was fired . Who did it . Me . When, yesterday . How did it go . Good . Bad . [ light laughter ] of course, the idea that trump is now upset about how comey handled the email investigation is a preposterous lie. After all, this is how trump reacted in october when comey wrote his famous letter, announcing that he was reopening the investigation 11 days before the election. I give them great credit for having the courage to right this horrible wrong. And it took guts, for director comey, to make the move that he made in light of the kind of opposition he had. But, ill tell you what, what he did, he brought back his reputation. He brought it back. Hes got to hang tough. cause theres a lot of lot of people want him to do the wrong thing. What he did was the right thing. Seth he did the right thing, so i had to fire him. Hes got guts. He had to go. [ light laughter ] so with all those contradictions out there, naturally it was time for human contradiction and white house counselor kellyanne conway, to go on cnn. [ audience ohs ] and do everything she could to not clear things up. Why now are you concerned about the Hillary Clinton email investigation, when as a candidate donald trump was praising it from the campaign trail . I think youre looking at the wrong set of facts here. Today, not in the campaign, in the white house, the president of the United States took Decisive Action so that person doesnt exist anymore . Candidate, donald trump, thats a thats a fictional character we no longer are allowed to refer to. We can now only refer to the donald trump who exists today . Anderson, ill ignore how unkind that is. [ laughter ] seth and im good at ignoring things, anderson. Because, every morning i wake up and ignore the fact that my boss is a lunatic. [ laughter and applause ] the only Silver Lining the only Silver Lining to that interview, is that we got one of the most epic eye rolls in cable news history from Anderson Cooper, when conway for no reason went out of her way to brag about trumps Election Night victory. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I was on your show often last fall, saying we were going to win michigan and how we were going to do it. So that was fun. But heres what happened today. [ laughter and applause ] seth he rolled [ cheers ] he rolled his eyes so far back, i expected his Makeup Artist to run back on [ laughter ] to draw in a new set of pupils. [ laughter ] as to what happens with the Russian Investigation next, its impossible to know. But no investigation is needed, to know that russia really seems to be enjoying all of this. Today trump met with Russian Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and ambassador sergey kislyak, and before him, lavrov and secretary of state, Rex Tillerson addressed the press. And watch how sarcastic lavrov is, when a Reporter Asks about comey. Does the comey firing cast a shadow over your talks gentlemen . Was he fired . [ talking over each other ] youre kidding. Youre kidding. Seth youre kidding. Get out of here. [ light laughter ] you know when they walked out of the room, lavrov said, why do you let reporters ask questions like this . You should just bang, bang. No . [ laughter ] problem over. No more questions. Why, why, why, why, why . Bang, bang. Problem over. [ light laughter ] so what really prompted trump to look for a reason to fire comey . Well, obviously, theres the ongoing russia investigation, and on top of that, there is also the Media Attention comey has gotten for that investigation. According to the wall street journal, trump grew unhappy that the media spotlight kept shining on the director. He viewed comey as eager to step in front of tv cameras. Which may explain why, when the two met in the oval office in january, trumps first comment to comey, was about how much Media Attention hed been getting. Oh, and theres [ inaudible ] hes become more famous than me. [ laughter ] seth look at that. If you missed it, trump literally blew comey a kiss, and then yesterday got rid of him. A move affectionately known as the fredo. [ audience aws ] i knew it was you, comey. If i had a heart, you would have broken it. [ applause ] of course, even if the russia investigation does move forward for now, theres a real fear that the Trump Administration will just appoint a lackey who does trumps bidding, and tries to slow, or even shut down, the investigation. If anyone thinks that a new fbi director is going to come in and the agency will just take over and continue their investigation as if this had never happened, thats not how it works. They will put in a stooge who will shut down this investigation. And now donald trump will put in maybe Chris Christie. President trump is apparently, likely to reach outside the fbi for a replacement director. There was some interesting sightings in d. C. , actually. I saw on twitter that Rudy Giuliani was at trumps d. C. Hotel overnight. Seth so the next fbi director could be Chris Christie or Rudy Giuliani. At least reporters wont have to exercise to keep up with them. [ laughter ] now democrats are, of course, up in arms, but this moment poses a crucial test for the Republican Party as well. Will they stand up and defend Democratic Institutions under threat from trump, or will they continue to choose party over country . You know, people like marco rubio, come on marco, youve been one of the most outspoken critics of russia and its interference in this election. You are gonna strongly condemn this move, right . So im surprised. You know, i didnt see it coming, but its a decision the president s made, and well go from here. Seth ugh, come on, marco is marco rubio your name or is it the spell a wizard used to make your spine disappear . [ light laughter ] marco rubio [ laughter and applause ] now, the comey firing has invited obvious comparisons to Richard Nixons actions during watergate. With many calling trumps move nixonian. In fact, the nixonian label has been tossed around so frequently in the past 24 hours, that even the nixon president ial library felt compelled to distance itself from trump. The Richard Nixon library responded to commentary that comeys firing was nixonian. In a tweet they wrote, fun fact. President nixon never fired the director of the fbi. [ audience ohs ] seth heres another fun fact. You know its bad when even the Nixon Library thinks youre bad for their brand. [ light laughter ] this has been a closer look. [ cheers and applause ] well be right back with sophia bush, everybody. [ cheers and applause ] hawe got you this. oh, boys. And i got you this. Edible arrangements for mothers day.