Opener, your world in 90 seconds. Because he wasnt doing a good job. Very simply. He was not doing a good job. Questions swirl around the firing of james comey. This is an effort by the Trump Administration and the president himself to thwart or undermine this investigation. He encouraged them to complete this investigation. Theres no evidence of collusion. Lets put it behind us and move on. Thats nonsense. The investigation is barely beginning. This is a moment where the russians are coming. There is no getting through to these tin foil hat conspiracy liberals on the left. Theyre detached from reality. A controversial monument coming down in new orleans. The city is removing statute of confederate president Jefferson Davis. People are very angry and i think it split the city apart. Education secretary betsy devos getting a chilly reception during a commencement ceremony. If this behavior continues your degrees will be mailed to you. Violent protests rage on in venezuela as the country struggles with a deepening economic crisis. Construction of an italian rail line gets derailed by a massive train collapse. All that. Incredible rescue from china. Motorcyclist crashing into a truck catching fire lives to tell about it. And all that matters. How will the firing of james comey affect u. S. Russia relations . One on one with putin rinkside. The question looks very funny for me. Dont be angry with me. We have nothing to do with it. On cbs this morning. Keep your eyes on anderson cooper. Look closely. 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. That was fun. Heres what happened today. Lets watch it again. So Many Americans are feeling that exact emotion that today, apple added this to the iphone. This mornings eye opener is presented by toyota. Lets go places. Welcome to cbs this morning. President trump and the white house are still working to explain the president s firing of fbi director james comey. Comey himself is telling friends and former colleagues not to get worked up about it. In a letter obtained by cbs news comey says i have long believed that a president can fire an fbi director for any reason or for no reason at all. He also said the American People should see the fbi as a rock of competence, honesty, and independence. Sources confirm to cbs news that comey had asked the Deputy Attorney general for more resources to help the fbi investigation of russian interference in the election. The Justice Department denies that. Margaret brennan is at the white house. Good morning. Good morning. Well comeys misstatements to Congress Last week and his comment that he was made nauseous by the idea he tipped the election did not endear him to President Trump. And that was just the latest irritant in a relationship already troubled by his refusal to back up the president s wiretapping claims. Pack at his Virginia Home on wednesday, former director comey sent a message of encouragement to fbi colleagues following his abrupt dismissal. Im not going to spend time on the decision or the way it was executed. I hope you wont either. Its done. I will be fine. Asked why he fired comey President Trump gave a terse reply. Because he wasnt doing a good job. He was not doing a good job. Reporter the Oval Office Meeting with Henry Kissinger surprised reporters. They expected to see Russian Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov. The press wasnt allowed in for that meeting. Our only glimpse from these photos posted by the russian government showing mr. Trump smiling and chatting with lavrov, and ambassador Sergey Kislyak at the center of the firestorm that led to former National Security adviser mike flynns ouster. The meeting with the Russian Diplomats had been arranged at the request of Vladimir Putin. Beforehand lavrov feigned surprise at the news of comeys surprising. Was he fired . Youre kidding . Youre kidding . The white house admitted wednesday that the president had long been considering ousting comey. Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein and attorney general Jeff Sessions met with the president monday. They discussed comeys recent stumbles during capitol hill testimony and recommended his firing. The white house says that the president told rosenstein to put his concerns in a memo released tuesday that cited comeys handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation as grounds for dismissal. Rosenstein on the job just two weeks is a trump appointee, confirmed with broad bipartisan support. Gayle, hes now at the center of this controversy. Margaret thank you. Comeys firing has democrats demanding a special prosecutor investigate any links between the Trump Campaign and russia. President trump calls the democrats response a disgrace and posted a video on twitter showing how they also wanted comey to go. I think it would not be a bad thing for the American People if he did step down. Do you believe james comey should resign, senator reid . Of course. Did you want to see him gone . So its absolutely true that democrats have been very critical of james comey and many of us did call for his resignation. Democrats insist there are too many Unanswered Questions about the firing. Nancy cordes is on capitol hill where comeys temporary replacement has arrived. Nancy, good morning. Good morning. His name is Andrew Mccabe. Hes now the acting fbi director. And hes testifying here before the Senate Intelligence committee in a hearing that has just gotten under way in the place of james comey. Now the official title of this hearing is worldwide threats. Its a longplanned hearing. Inevitably senators are going to want to talk about what has become the latest partisan flashpoint. Director comey kind of became an shissue himself so its with the president s authority and role to do this. Reporter Republican Leaders standing by the president s move. So we have now, mr. President , democratic colleagues complaining about the removal of an fbi director whom they themselves repeatedly and sharply criticized. Reporter in the face of a deafening drum beat from democrats. It is time for a special prosecutor. Special prosecutor. A special prosecutor. Republicans can call for a special prosecutor to be appointed that will not be able to be fired by this president. Reporter democrats argue everything about comeys firing was unorthodox, from the way he was informed. The president s one page letter was xlooelcompletely biz reporter to the timing. You cant fire the investigator when hes investigating your administration. Reporter they found an ally in the republican chairman of the intelligence committee. The timing and the reasons for this decision did made little sense to me and i dont think ive heard anything since last night that would clarify that in any way. Reporter richard burr insists a special prosecutor would only get in the way of the investigation hes already conducting. He and his democratic counterpart have asked comey to meet with their committee next week in a closed session. I think james comey ought to have if not his day in court at least his day on the hill to be able to lay out his side of the case. Reporter before this hearing this morning the Senate Intelligence committee announced that it had issued its first spooen for documents belonging to the fired nsa michael flynn. These are documents that he has refused to hand over and some members of this committee, norah, even joked that perhaps the newly fired james comey might make a great investigator for this committee as it continues its work looking into the russia connection. All right. Well see about that. Thank you so much. Inside fbi headquarters the acting director is pushing agents to focus on their work. Andrew mccabe has taken over the russia investigation as comeys replacement. President trump met with mccabe for a second time yesterday to discuss the bureau. There are reports that morale has take an hit after comeys firing. Jeff pegues outside fbi headquarters in washington, good morning. Good morning. The white house isnt waste anything time. It is moving quickly to find an interim fbi director until the president chooses comeys permanent replacement. The firing stunned the fbi which is right in the midst of this russia investigation. One of the most important in its history. Acting director Andrew Mccabe at least one of five people who have been interviewed at the Justice Department for the job of interim director of the nib. According to sources, the way comey found out about his dismissal surprised some inside the bureau. He was visiting the Los Angeles Field Office talking with agents when news reports flashed on tv screens that he had been fired. Many field agents also received the news through the media. He was no longer had the confidence of the president or the rest of the fbi. Reporter some Bureau Agents and employees tell cbs news they took issue with Spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders claim that comey lost the confidence of rank and file fbi employees. Timothy murphy a former Deputy Director of the fbi. Director comey was well liked by the employees. You may have had a number of employees in the organization that may have disappeared greed with his approach and handling of the email investigation but he built up a lot of goodwill in the fbi about the way he treated people, respect for the employees of the organization. Reporter Law Enforcement sources tell cbs news the fbi russia investigation had been picking up speed in recent weeks. Fbi agents in the u. S. And overseas have been intensely focusing on following the money. Trying to identify who might have paid hackers involved in russias campaign to interfere in the 2016 election. Murphy says a change at the top should not affect any Ongoing Investigations. The bureau will carry on its mission like they have for the last 100 years. I have great confidence in that leadership in the bureau and they will be working together to keep the fbi intact. Reporter but whoever President Trump chooses to permanently lead the fbi, can influence any investigation by adding or pulling resources and thats why the firing this week set off alarms here in washington, not only on capitol hill, but in the halls of the fbi as well. Charlie . Thanks, jeff. White house Deputy Press SecretarySarah Huckabee sanders is in washington. Good morning. Good morning. Great to be with you guys. Let me begin with a yes or no. Will the president visit the fbi building and talk to the agents today or tomorrow . I believe that its very likely that that takes place some time in the next few days. Can you tell me whether the Deputy Attorney general threatened to resign because he felt like he was being used in the search for an explanation for the firing . Im not aware of any conversation that took place about that. What i do know is that this was an action that the president took, that the president wanted to take, and frankly had been considering since november. Let me ask you, you said specifically yesterday, that it was the Deputy Attorney generals memo that left the president with quote unquote no choice but to fire comey. Is the explanation different today . Not at all. I think that the president , this was something frankly after wednesdays testimony, he was very engaged on and certainly i think had been pushed to the point where he was ready to make that decision. He had a conversation on monday with the attorney general and the Deputy Attorney general and asked them for their thoughts, their feedback. They laid out a lot of the reasons that you see reflected in that memo. But this was certainly something that the president had been, again, considering since he had been elected back in november. There was a consistent erosion of confidence by the president and director comeys ability to do this job. Theres still questions about the explanation that the white house is giving. The wall street journal is reporting this morning that the former attorney general was receiving daily updates on the russia investigation and that furth further for comey was concerned about information showing potential evidence of collusion. Is that why he was fired . Not at all. Once again, i think we laid it out very clearly yesterday, and again, a lot of process of this, the director took steps that basically went around the chain of command within the department of justice. His testimony last week was all over the place. He had to issue corrections. When you become a bigger distraction than you are able to carry out your job as director comey had been, inning its time for us to move forward and look for somebody that better fits that role. He was poor at communications and thats why he was fired . Thats not the only reason. Lets not forget that there was a near uprising after comey from members of the fbi, this isnt just about the president losing confidence, the rank and file members within the fbi had lost confidence in the director as had a lot of you know thats being disputed by cbs news on both sides of the aisle. Sarah, thats disputed by cbs news in terms of the conversations theyve had with the fbi. Ive heard that from a number of people both former agents and others. That there was not that significant dissension. Well weve heard from quite a few from our side as well. Again, this is something both democrats and republicans on both sides of the aisle had been questioning whether director comey should be in that job. I find it quite interesting that a lot of people that are attacking the president for the decision he made this week, were the very people demanding that this decision be made several months ago. How do you convince the country that there is not a constitutional crisis coming up and this had nothing to do with the russian probe of which the attorney general has recused himself . You have to convince the country thats the challenge you have. Look, any investigation that was taking place on monday is still taking place today. Nothing has changed. You support that and and the fbi directors request for more funds to carry out that investigation . Im not aware of any request for additional funds. Thats something you would have to ask the department of justice. What i am aware of is that any investigation that was taking place has not stopped. Frankly, were ready for those things to go forward and come to their full completion so we can all move on and well continue to see because were extremely confident that when this comes to conclusion that everyone will continue to see what theyve been seeing and saying for the last 11 months, there was no collusion between the president and russia. Why not appoint a special prosecutor to make sure that everybody is satisfied there was no collusion here . Take it away from any kind of partisan conflict and give a special prosecutor the authority to discover all the facts . Its not necessary. You have groups looking into this, the house committees, the senate committees, Deputy Attorney general through the fbi, there are already looking at this. I dont think that its necessary to bring another individuals. Why not have an independent counsel and prosecutor who can handle this they can come at this from both sides. House and Senate Members democrats and republicans looking at this. Sarah Huckabee Sanders thank you for joining us this morning. Thank you for having me. New orleans overnight removed a second of four confederate monuments in the city. Crews took down a statute of Jefferson Davis. Police flooded the area to separate the rival protesters. Michele is at the site where the monument stood more than a century. Good morning. Bear witness to an action conceived two years ago after the rashly motivated racially motivated shootings of nine people in south carolina. That state removed its most visible symbols of the confederacy, a tougher task for this city to do so. This morning, crews dismantled the statute of confederate president Jefferson Davis removing it from the spot it stood more than a century. These particular monuments were put up by a particular group of people for a particular purpose. And the purpose is . Well the purpose was to whitewash history and to tell a sanitized version of the confederacy. Reporter the monuments built to memmalize robert e lee, Jefferson Davis and p. T. Beauregard in the years followed the civil following the civil war. Theyre not necessarily heros of mine or anybody. Reporter still businessman Frank Stewart took out a twopage ad in a local newspaper advocating the statute should remain. Stewart did back the removal several weeks ago of the liberty it monument. A monolith celebrating an ann ti police riot by White Supremacists in 1874. Theyre part of history and i dont think that anybody should have the privilege of changing history. History is truth. Reporter many are on the sidelines watching the heated rhetoric. Nghana lewis is an associate professor of a africanamerican studies at tulane university. It is primarily our inabi