They have. An explosive memo shakes the white house. Now with allegations that president urged them to essentially drop the investigation of Michael Flynn, enough is enough. Well, if thats true and confirmed, i think youre getting very close to the Legal Definition of obstruction of justice. If the evidence bares out that there was obstruction of justice, i think you likely will see the congress go down the road of impeachment. Its reaching a point where its a wear the gate size and scale and the shoe continues to drop. I think it will be helpful to have less drama emanating from the white house. I think its Getting Better as time goes on. Do you . It doesnt feel like that in the past few days. Thats scary as hell right there. Deadly weather pounding mexico to the canadian border. I was watching the radar. And this thing developed and came after us. Police protection worked through the night in new orleans to remove another confederate monument. Im happy the city is getting rid of it. Protests turned violent outside the turkish ambassadors residence in washington. I was so afraid. New construction at the capital is already being fought good use. Watch your shoes in that vinlt. They got a very special prize. Good luck class of 2017. And all natters. I start feeding my love of learning every morning really early. I dont just wake up perky and prepared every day at 7 00 a. M. Fortunately they dont show that part on television. On cbs this morning. The news once again is focused on President Trump. This evening we just heard that he personally asked former fbi chief james comey to end his investigation into former National Security adviser Michael Flynn. Trump told comey repeatedly to let it go. Okay . He even got ivanka to help. Let it go let it go so beautiful. This mornings eyeopener is spren presented by toyota. Lets go places. Welcome to cbs this morning. The white house is dealing with yet another crisis this morning. Officials are denying what may be most serious allegation against President Trump since he took office. Fired fbi director james comey says the president tried to convince him to end the investigation of former National Security advisors Michael Flynn. The story was first reported by the New York Times and confirmed by cbs news. He wrote a memo ban Oval Office Meeting with the president. This was the day after general flynn was forced to resign. We have a reporter outside fbi headquarters in washington. Jeff, good morning. Good morning. The comey memos are the latest bombshell in this still unfolding story. The former fbi director was known for taking detailed notes of meetings but these comey memos allegedly show a pattern and raise additional questions about whether the president was trying to interfere in the Russian Investigation and why. Reporter former fbi director james comeys memo details the february 14th meeting when alone in the oval office with President Trump. Comey says he was asked to drop the bureaus investigation into former National Security adviser Michael Flynn. I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting flynn go, the president allegedly said. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go. Comey agreed flynn is a good guy. A day earlier, flynn had resigned as National Security adviser after revealed he misled the Vice President about his contacts with russian ambassador. Those contacts are now part of the fbis Counter Intelligence investigation. The white house said the president has never asked mr. Comey or anyone else to end any investigation. This was not the only private encounter between the two men. According to sources close to the former director on january 27 27th at a white house dinner, the president asked comey if he would pledge his loyalty. Comey declined and instead telling the president he would always be honest. The president also denied that account. Hes a showboat. Hes a grand stander. Reporter after director comey was fired last week, a senior fbi official told cbs news they had never seen this level interfeerrence from the white house. I said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made up story. Reporter President Trump also denied his administration applied pressure to the fbi. Did anyone from the white house ask him to end the investigation . No. Why would they do that . Any surrogates on behalf of the white house . Not that i know of. Reporter sources familiar with comeys actions say it was not unusual for him to keep detailed notes of meetings that could later called into question. It is actually something that the fbi trains its agents to do. All right. Jeff, thank you very much. Some democrats say if President Trump did ask james comey toenld the fbis investigation of general flynn that is obstruction of justice. Nance porties son capitol hill where law makers from both parties want mr. Comey to testify. Nancy, good morning. Good morning. This development does seem to be a turning point for some republicans whose instinct up until now is to stand by the president or minimize his mistakes. The difference in this situation is that frankly many of those republicans are more apt to believe jim comeys words than they are to belie the president s. Reporter speaking with bob sheefer, john mccain made the nixon comparison for the first time. I think its reaching the point where its of watergate size and scale. As he spoke, his fellow republican Jason Chaffitz was firing off a letter to the fbi. Giving the agency a week to turn over all memoranda, notes, and recordings relating to any communication between comey and the president. South carolinas linldcy graham said comey himself should come to the hill. I dont want to read a memo. Way tonight hear from him. Reporter gop leaders long resisted democratic calls for an independent Congressional Commission to examine the russian connection. But Florida Republican carlos crabello said that needs to change. Increasingly republicans believe that we have to do Something Different than what were doing today. Reporter idaho ace jim rish one is of the few republicans willing to defend the president. I think its Getting Better as time goes on. You do . It doesnt feel like that in the past two days. Reporter democrats argued that comey encounter is the serious sign yet of obstruction of justice. There is mounting concern over just how this administration appears to be interfearing with the Russian Investigation. A spokeswoman for House Speaker paul ryan says that he wants all the facts and that he thinks it is appropriate for the House Oversight committee to do what it needs to do to get its hands on this james comey memo. Nora . All right. Well be watching. Obstruction of justice was the main charge against president bill clinton when he was impeached in 1998. President Richard Nixon faced the same accusation before he resigned in 1974. Cbs news chief Legal Correspondent january crawford is also a lawyer. Help explain. What criteria needs to be met in order to determine if the president s actions qualify as obstruction of justice. Look, i mean this doesnt sound good what donald trump said. It certainly is a stupid thing for a froze say to an fbi director. But keet to obstruction of justice is intent. Whether President Trump specifically intended to block the fbis efforts. And we dont know the answer to that. I mean remember, the acting fbi director testified in Congress Last week that there had been no influence. So thats why youre seeing members of congress say they want to hear from comey. They want all the evidence. The memos, any possible tapes. And some are even calling for a special prosecutor to get that evidence. So, jan if, Congress Finds there is evidence of obstruction, the last 24 hours, we keep hearing that i word a lot, is impeach ment now on the snabl. I think thats why this is going to become more of a political issue than a legal one. The sitting president is highly unlikely to be prosecuted in koufrment in fact, its an open question whether a president can be indicted or prosecuted at all. But if the evidence shows he could be prosecuted, yes, that would be enough to meet the standard for impeachment. Remember, the constitution allows for impeach ment and removal of a president if he is committed high crimes and misdemeanors. And, of course, obstruction of justice is what led to impeach ment proceedings against president nixon and clinton. And thats why im saying its a political issue. At this point with republicans and n. Control of the house and senate, it seems unlikely President Trump could be impeached based on what we know now. Gayle . Thank you. A day of fwook back bombshells. A lot happened in the last 24 hours. Thank you so much. Cbs news confirmed that the classified intelligence President Trump shared with russia came from israel. Israeli ambassador to the u. S. Said in a statement that israel has full confidence in our intelligence sharing relationship with the united states. Critics say the oval Office Disclosure by the president may have hurt american intelligence gathering. But the white house says these leaks are coordinated effort to hurt President Trump. Major garrett is at the white house. Major, good morning. Good morning. Whatever the damage done to u. S. Intelligence gathering tore this new president s reputation as someone athat can be trusted to properly handle classified information, the white house is still defending the president , even if that is contradicted at times by the president himself. Did you reveal classified information to the russians, snir. Did you share classified intelligence with the russians . Reporter after ignoring questions, he placed all questionable actions with russian officials in the context of fighting terrorism. We had a very, very successful meeting with the foreign minister of russia. Our fight is against isis. Reporter h. R. Mcmaster again defending the president made the case that he was out of the loop on key details. The president wasnt even aware of where the this information came. From wasnt briefed on the source or methed off the information either. Reporter mcmaster did not deny the disclosures and claimed they were wholly appropriate in talks about terror threats to airlines. Security has been at risk by those releasing information to the press. Reporter the white house allege thats former obama officials are engaged in a timed and deliberate attempt to damage the president. In a fundraising email to supporters, the trumppence campaign said,ly to are people within our own unelected bureaucracy that want to sabotage President Trump. Republican senate ma jord leader Mitch Mcconnell laid the blame at the white house. I think question do with a little less drama from the white house. History is watching. Reporter democrats urge the white house to release a transcriptst president s meeting with Russian Diplomats. What are the republicans afraid snf are they afraid of the truth . Why are they protecting President Trump . The president s sense of frustration may be at the highest point of the presidency, the backlash of the comey firing and the latest controversy with intelligence sharing led the president to scrutinize, sometimes harshly, everyone in his inner circle that, includes his soninlaw and top adviser Jared Kushner. Sources say that he was one of the prominent voices endorsing the comey firing and the president is angry that created such a political and legal firestorm. Thank you, major. Tim kaine of virginia joins us from the capital. He was a clinton running mate in the 2016 election. Good morning. Good morning. What is that concerns you most about what weve learned in the last 24 or 48 hours and does it approach obstruction of justice . Charlie, if the facts are as they are algdz, yes, it would get close to obstruction of justice. There are a few disputes though. Let me lay it out. A director of the fbi is talk together president and essentially having a conversation about whether he gets to continue in his job. The president is asking him if hes loyal. The president asked him to drop an investigation into the National Security adviser. The director not only doesnt drop the investigation, but he publicly reveals it to congress, asks for more resource fortz investigation and then gets fired. And thent president after initial hesitation acknowledge thats he is fired because of the russia investigation. That is sort of a classic case that will get very close to being obstruction of justice. There are two facts of dispute. Did President Trump ask comb dwroi drop the investigation or not . Thats why we need to hear from the director and from the president with all notes and tapes we can get. And second, there is a little bit of dispute about whether director comey had in fact asked for more resources before he was fired. Senator, let me ask you. The acting director Andrew Mccain testified on capitol hill. He was asked about whether there was interfeerns and said clearly there had been no effort to impede our investigation to date. You know, but how do you squa fbi director . I mean, i view firing the fbi director and when asked essentially you admitting im doing it because of the Russian Investigation if, thats not an effort to impede or undermine the investigation, what is . Especially if he had earlier asked him, hey, drop this Flynn Investigation and director comey refused to. Are you surprised that were just now hearing about this memo . Do you think we should have been told about it earlier . Not necessarily. Heres the case. If the president had said that droe to director comey, its suspicious. But its until after the firing that there is an actual effort to obstruct. Vow to have an intent to obstruct. But you also have to take an action to obstruct. And the action was the firing. Asking the question is very borderline, very, very borderline behavior. But if that question was asked and comey proceeded with the investigation and there was no firing of director comey, its not clear that there would then be the actual act of obstruction. But the combination of asking him to drop the investigation and then firing him and citing the russia investigation is the reason that, really completes the allegations and what we need now is to hear from director comey and from the president about what happened. Senator tim cane, thank you so much. We reached out to 20 republican senators and representatives to appear on this broadcast. Most requested that someone from the white house join us at any point during our two hour broadcast to respond to the latest news. All declined our invitation. Washington Police Struggle to contain violence at a protest against turkeys president on the embassy row. A fight broke out yesterday during a demonstration outside the turkish ambassadors residence. This is in washington. Nine people were hurt. Some were covered in blood. Now the brawl came hours after the president met with president trum tep white house. Some witnesses say that the turkish president security was involved. Police arrest twoz people. The turkish leader left the residence. This was in washington. A string of storms tore through the country devastating several communities. Tornadoes flattened homes from oklahoma to wisconsin. At least two people were killed and dozens more were hurt. The massive system stretches across more than 1,000 miles. So far 26 tornadoes have been reported across five different states. David beckman is in wisconsin, one of the heartest hit kmuction. Good morning, david. Good morning. Were getting our first good look at the damage which apparently stretched nearly 50 miles here in wisconsin. Where we are right now, its as if somebody bulldozed what was on this slab. Take a look at the back part of the property. That house is almost untouched except for a few shingles that may need to be replaced. As this tornado continued on down another five miles, it nailed a Mobile Home Park and the damage there is severe. Video captured from above this trailer park in wisconsin shows the power of what is believed to be a tornado. We pulled walls off people and then carried them and put them on stretchers. Leg injuries, arm injuries. Its nothing ive ever seen in my 20 plus year career in law enforcement. Downed power lines, trees cut off at their trunks and a massive field of debris has littered the neighborhood many call home. One person has died that trailer park. These are people we work with. We go to school with and theyre our friends and neighbors. All my neighbors are okay. In elk city, oklahoma, a tornado tore through this subdivision. More than 50 structured were destroyed. The devastation, it is hard to xplavenlt it looked like some of the homes exploded. Some of them look like they were bologna part by high wind r wind. Reporter the winds tosses buses and trucks in this lot like match boxcars. And reports of people trapped in their homes kept rescue crews working overnight. A 53yearold man was killed after his car was thrown several hundred feet pinning him between his vehicle and his home. That man in oklaho