Midatlantic to massachusetts, brace for a noreaster. And leave me be. Steve harvey defends the controversial letter he sent to staffers, warning them not to approach him on the set of his talk show. I just didnt want to be in this prison anymore. Why he is saying he has nothing to apologize for. Today, friday, may 12th, 2017. From nbc news, this is today, with matt lauer and savannah guthrie. Live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to today on a friday morning. Busy friday morning. Talking a lot of politics today. Lester holt sitting town with the president at a key moment in his presidency. It is our top story, lesters exclusive interview with the president. Were going to have new portions of it. All this raising questions about the firing of fbi director james comey. Some of what the president is now saying comes in direct contrast to what weve been hearing from the white house during the week. And during that interview, President Trump said he had dinner with comey and comey told him he wasnt under investigation. Now, people close to the former fbi director are telling a different story about all that. According to a New York Times report, thats been confirmed by nbc news, during the dinner, comey was asked multiple times he would be loyal to the president. But comey says he only promised honesty. And the public is weighing in on comeys firing in a survey monkey poll. 51 say the firing was not appropriate. 55 said it makes them less confident that the russia investigation will be conducted fairly. Lets bring in lester holt. Reporter in the midst of the growing fallout, President Trump made several headlines in our oneonone, discussing the the first time, his reasons for f e firing fbi director comey, who was leading an investigation into the Trump Campaigns possible ties to russia. The president made eyebrowraising statements that comey told him on three separate occasions he wasnt under investigation. The president came out swinging with harsh words for the countrys former top cop. Look, hes a showboat. Hes a grandstander. The fbi has been in turmoil. You know that. I know that. Everybody knows that. You take a look at the fbi a year ago, it was in virtual turmoil. Less than a year ago. It hadnt recovered from that. Monday, you met with the Deputy Attorney general, rob rosenste rosenstein. Did you ask for a recommendation . What i did was i was going to fire comey. My decision. Reporter you had made the decision before they came in the room. I was going to fire comey. Theres no good time to do it, by the way reporter in your letter, you said i accepted their recommendation. You had made the decision. I was going to fire regardless of recommendation. He made a recommendation. Highly respected. Very good guy. Very smart guy. The democrats like him. The republicans like him. He made a recommendation. But regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey, knowing there was no good time to do it. And in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing, with trump and russia, is a madeup story. Its an excuse by the democrats because they lost the election. And the reason they should have wob it was the Electoral College is impossible for a republican to win. F everybody was thinking they should have won the election. This was an excuse for having lost the election. Reporter are you angry with mr. Comey because of the russia investigation . I want somebody thats competent. I am a big fan of the fbi. As far as im concern, i want that thing to be done properly. Reporter let me ask you about your termination letter to mr. Comey. You write, i greatly appreciate you informing me on on three separate cases im not under investigation. Why did you put that in there . Because he told me that. Under investigation in regard to the Russian Investigation. He wanted to have dinner. We had a very nice dinner at the white house. He asked for the dinner . The dinner was arranged. I think he asked for the dinner and he wanted to stay on as the fbi head and i said, consider, well see what happens. But we had a very nice dinner and at that time he told me, you are not under investigation. Which i knew anyway. First of all, when youre under investigation, youre giving all sorts of documents and everything. I knew i wasnt under and i heard it was stated at the committee at some Committee Level that i wasnt. During the phone call and another phone call he said it. He said it once at dinner and then he said it twice during phone calls. Did you call him . In one case i called him and in one case he called me. Did you ask him . I actually asked him, yes. I said, if its possible, would you let me know am i under investigation. He said, you are not under investigation. But he has given sworn testimony that there is an Ongoing Investigation into the Trump Campaign and possible collusion with the russian government. You were the centerpiece of the Trump Campaign. So was he being truthful . I know that im not under investigation. Me, personally. Im not talking about campaigns. Im not talking about anything else. Im not under investigation. Did you ask him to drop the investigation . No, never. Did anyone from the white house no, in fact, i want the investigation speeded up. Did anybody from the white house ask him . Any surrogates on behalf . Not that i know of. What you said about a moment ago about supporting the allegation, a lot of people find it hard to believe that people tweeted very recently, its a total hoax. A taxpayer charade. This was set up by the democrats, lester. It was a way, an excuse for them losing. There is no collusion and everybody has said and i think you will admit that, there is no collusion between me and my campaign and the russians. The other thing is, the russians did not affect the vote. And everybody seems to think that. If russia or anybody else is trying to interfere with our elections, i think its a horrible thing and i want to get to the bottom of it and i want to make sure it will never, ever happen. Senate Intelligence Committee wants information from the Treasury Department financial crimes unit about your finances and your businesss finance. Can you tell us whether you, your family, your businesses, your surrogates have accepted any investments, any loans from russian individuals or institutions . I sent a letter to Lindsey Graham from one of the most prestigious law firms in the country of tremendous, highly rated law firm that had nothing to do with russia. None whatsoever. And i dont have any property in russia. A lot of people thought i owned Office Buildings in moscow. I dont have property in russia. And i am in very i am in total compliance in every way. Now, i have to tell you, i file documents, hundreds of pages worth of documents with the elections bureau. More involved with russia. I have had dealings over the years where i sold a house to a very wealthy russian many years ago. I had the Miss Universe pageant which i owned for quite a while. I had it in moscow a long time ago. But other than that, i have nothing to dawith ruo with russ. I dont know where to start. Si lo hubiese dicho de manera that. Maybe if that had been said in a more explicit way earlier on, we wouldnt be where we are now. Theres a shot of you when you first walk in. And it seems like the president handed you a piece of paper. Of course, the eagleeyed viewer wants to know, what was that paper . This was the paper. Its five pages of quotes of democrats who have been critical of comey. A few calling for his resignation, a few calling for his firing. Being critical. There were about 20 quotes on here. But the president wanted me to have that. And it makes a fair point that a lot of democrats were not happy with comey, either. Many believe he torpedoed Hillary Clintons chances. Unhappy with him at first. And unhappy with his firing later. But part of the reason why the white house thought, this might not be so controversial. I got the sense, a lot of people got the sense, they didnt see this blowback coming. This would be something that would be more universally applauded. Lester, thank you. Youre going to be back in our next half hour, with more from the president , including if he feels his legitimacy as commander in chief is coming under attack. As you might expect, reaction to the president s comments on james comey has been swift on capitol hill. During a senate hearing, the fbis acting director came to the defense of his former boss comey. N nbc National CorrespondentPeter Alexander is at the white house with more on it. Peter, good morning. Reporter good morning to you. President trump flatly contradicting his aides and his Vice President s assessment that russia had nothing to do with his decision to fire fbi director james comey, telling lester he had been thinking about that russia thing with trump, what he called a madeup thing, when he made the decision to get rid of his fbi director. This morning, that extended interview revealing new inconsistencies between what trump says and what his aides have been saying for days. This morning pushing back at the president , leading lawmakers defending ousted fbi director james comey after mr. Trump branded him a grandstander and a showboat. I found him to be one of the most ethical, upright, straightforward individuals ive had the opportunity to work with. Frankly, im offended at the president s comments today. Reporter on comeys dismissal, President Trump offering a new version of events. I was going to fire regardless of recommendation. Reporter contradicting top aides and the Vice President. The president acted on the clear recommendations of the Deputy Attorney general, rob rosenstein, and attorney general, jeff sessions. No one from the white house. That was a d. O. J. Decision. The next day he took the recommendation seriously and made a decision based on that. Reporter Vice President pence punctuating the point. President trump made the right decision at the right time to accept the recommendation of the Deputy Attorney general. Reporter the white house spokeswoman saying, quote, the back and forth doesnt make a difference. This shouldnt be a complicated process. The president knew that director comey was not up to the task. Reporter stepping into that role and into the spotlight, acting fbi director andrew mccabe, rebutting this white house claim from wednesday. The rank and file of the fbi had lost confidence in their director. Director comey enjoyed broad support within the fbi and still does to this day. Reporter mccabe also disagreeing with the president s assessment earlier this week that the russia investigation is a total hoax and a taxpayer funded charade. We consider it to be a highly significant investigation. Reporter an investigation he says hasnt been impeded and wont be. Simply put, sir, you cannot stop the men and women of the fbi from doing the right thing. Reporter as for the president s telling nbc news that comey told him three times he was not under investigation i will not comment on whether or not the director and the president of the United States had that conversation. Reporter and new this morning, the president unleashing a series of angry Early Morning tweets. They write, as a very active president with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy. He adds, maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future press briefings and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy. Then he appears to tlehreaten h former fbi director, writing, comey better hope there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. Matt and savannah, back to you. Peter alexander at the white house, thank you. We heard President Trump talk about his dinner at the white house with director comey. Nbc news justice correspondent Pete Williams joins us now. Pete, lets set the scene there. Its january. We know the fbi is investigating possible links or collusion between Trump Associates and the russians. Should that dinner have taken place . Well, during the interview, matt, the president said twice, that comey asked for the dinner. But several people who know comey say, they heard from him shortly after the dinner that he was asked to come to the white house and did so reluctantly without telling people at the fbi about it. They confirm a New York Times account, recalling that comey told them that during the dinner mr. Trump asked him a couple of times if he would be loyal to the president. And comey said he couldnt promise that but he would always be honest. The white house says that version of events of what happened is not accurate. That the president would not say that he expected personal loyalty. Pete, the president told lester holt that during this dinner, he asked director will comey, am i personally under investigation . So, put on your legal beagle hat. Is there anything improper, illegal, unethical about that question, from the president to an fbi director . Ive asked several former prosecutors about this. They say it wasnt illegal for the president to ask the question. It would not, for example, be considered an attempt to interfere with a federal investigation. They said its unwise to ask a question like that, partly because of the way it could be perceived if it became public. And some of the former prosecutors say they thought mr. Comey should have said that he couldnt answer it, savannah. All right. Pete, thank you very much. And the question to be answered, if the goal was to convince people because i fired jim comey for good reason, not related to the russia investigation, how did he do . He did pretty poorly. He should have done it three months ago, when there would have been more running room to do that. More of an expectation at the start of the administration, at a time like that. But what really made this, i think, a bungling attempt of keystone koplike, the fact that the staff seems to be playing catchup. We in the media seem to have the timeline better and more accurately than the white house staff themselves. And the fact that you have that disconnect, adds to this chaotic nature of what apparently was a decision that was made somewhat hastily in the last week. And based on the fact that the president s not happy with the fact that every time he saw comey on tv, he wasnt talking about hillarys emails. He was talking about the Russian Investigation. If a president comes out and contradicts what his staff has been saying, and by the way, what he said earlier and what the Vice President said, youre playing damage control the next day and were not getting that sense today. I cannot overstate how extraordinary it is. I worked in a white house that was far from perfect. But i never was asked to go out and lie. An i was never caught in a lie by a president who went out and contradicted me. Neither was the Vice President of the United States. Neither was the senior adviser. What the president does over and over again, is create a reality that is completely detached from the reality that he believed in hours before. And he sent his entire team and no one is immune, from his, you know whatever he believes to be true in the moment. Not his Vice President. We have a Vice President , a senior staffer in kellyanne conway, an entire press office with zero credibility. That white house podium used to mean something. Now, they send them out to say whatever. Let me ask you about Vice President pence. This is two times hes been out on a limb, taking up the cause of the administration, giving the talking points, only to find out theyre in error. He went out there and stuck his neck out and said, comey was fired because the department of justice said so. And the president told lester, no, he was fired because i wanted to fire him. I mean, whats the Vice President thinking right now . Look, youre absolutely right. Especially on the issue of russia, first mike flynn, now this. The Vice President has done his duty, stood by the president , showed his loyalty in public and was the good soldier. In the first 24 hours since right now, to many people, hes the most credible face of the administration. Hes gone out there and used his credibility. And now, its eroded away. I actually have talked to some people that are close to the Vice President. And theyre very concerned that hes being used this way. And they hope at some point he finally says, you know what, mr. President . I will do everything on health care. Ill stand up for you on immigration. Ill stand up for you on policy. Dont ask me to spin on russia anymore because it is ruining my own credibility, which then, of course, hurts the administration. All right. Nicolle and chuck, thank you. Chuck will have more on this on sunday on meet the press. All right. Lets get to some weather now. Al is tracking some storms that are going to affect a lot of people in this country. Thats right. Especially along the eastern seaboard. But lets take a look and show you what happened in the midwest. And in fact, this is the same system that is heading east and going to cause big problems. This is oklahoma. You can see that garage, just devastated. Trees down, power outages. A big mess. This is a big storm making its way to the east. Lets look at the radar and give you an idea of what its doing right now. Stretching from kentucky, into louisiana. Strong storms are firing up. Heres the timeline of what were seeing today. Were looking for this system that will be