Turkeys leader visits the white house after clashing over the u. S. Decision to arm kurdish fighters in syria. And, rethinking school bus safety. How some states are trying to protect millions of students on their rides every day. Threepoint seatbelts should be the norm on all new school buses. Were talking about trying to save every life. Yang all that and more, on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by bnsf railway. And by the alfred p. Sloan foundation. Supporting science, technology, and improved Economic Performance and Financial Literacy in the 21st century. Supported by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation. Committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. More information at macfound. Org and with the ongoing support of these institutions this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Yang theres word tonight that President Trump urged then f. B. I. Director james comey to drop the investigation of his Campaign Aides connections to russia. The New York Times reports that at a february meeting, mr. Trump told comey, i hope you can let this go. It came the day after the president fired National Security adviser Michael Flynn for lying about his contacts with the russians. The president fired comey last week. In response, the white house says that the report is not a truthful or accurate portrayal of the conversation and that the president never asked anyone to end any investigation. For more, we turn now to matt apuzzo of the times. Matt thanks for joining us. Tell me what the significance of this memo is. Well, the significance of the memo, of course, is just not you know, just last week, the president fired jim comey, the f. B. I. Director, and the stories kept changing. And one of the backandforths has ben there was this conversation between comey and the president in which the president said, i want your loyalty. And comey wouldnt give him his loyalty. And then the question became, is that why he got fired . And you will remember the president tweeted out, jim comey better hope there are not tapes of our conversations. It turns out jim comey was keeping memos and was keeping contemporaneous notes on every interaction he had with the president and was becoming very concerned about some of those interactions and sought to document those Going Forward. Yang and he showed these to colleagues at the time, right . He showed them to colleagues. He provided them with copies, and, you know, my colleague mike schmidt, who was the primary reporter on this story, talked to people who had seen the memos. That quote you read was read to us. This is this is something this is a real this is a real dramatic turn in this story about about why did donald trump fire jim comey . And what is donald trump attempting to do in terms of influencing the investigation into his campaign and his associates . Yang matt, tell us more about the specific meeting that you wrote that is written with bin the times, the story that was posted just a little bit okay . Yeah, we know its a february 14 meeting, private meeting between the president and the f. B. I. Director jim comey. And in it, the president mentioned how concerned he is about leaks and actually makes this remark that, maybe we need to throw a couple of reporters in jail anyone to sort of send a message. And then the president brings up Michael Flynn and says, look, i think hes a really good guy. And if you can see your way clear about it, just let this go. Let Michael Flynn go. Highs good man. Now, comey went back, apparently, and documented that conversation. And one thing thats interesting about comey is 10 years ago, comey was at the center of another major issue where he described this dramatic showdown with the Bush Administration over warrantless wiretapping. And the white house denied that conversation. And it underturned out that it was the f. B. I. Director at the time, bob mueller, kept his contemporaneous notes, and that backed up comeys account. So in a lot of ways, this is whats old is new again. The f. B. I. Director was keeping contemporaneous notes on his conversations with the president. Yang and not just this conversation, matt. Do we think he kept these notes throughout his conversation with the president . Our understanding is he documented every interaction, every meeting and every phone call with the president. And on a number of occasions, expressed concerns about the about the emerging relationship between the white house and the f. B. I. Director. Remember, the f. B. I. Director is normally kind of an armslength relationship with the white house for precisely this reason because sometimes, you know, the f. B. I. Can be investigating things that are politically problematic for the white house. Yang as you say, this could be a dramatic turning point in this relationship and what is going on between President Trump and james comey. Thanks for joining us. Great to be here, thanks so much. Meanwhile, the white house is standing yang and meanwhile, the white house is also standing its ground tonight in the other uproar swirling around President Trump. At issue in that case allegations that he passed along classified intelligence from another nation to the russians. William brangham begins our coverage. What the president discussed with the foreign minister was wholly appropriate to that conversation, and is consistent with the routine sharing of information. Brangham National Security adviser h. R. Mcmaster used that phrase, wholly appropriate, nine times today, as he pushed back against reports that President Trump made a damaging disclosure to Russian Diplomats last week. The storm began monday evening, first in the Washington Post, and quickly followed by other major news organizations. All reported that President Trump told the Russian Foreign minister and Russian Ambassador about highly classified information given to the u. S. By an ally in the middle east but without that allys permission. It pertained to an Islamic State plot based in syria that involved laptops on airplanes. The New York Times reported today that israel was the source of that information, though israeli officials would not confirm it. Mr. President , did you share classified intelligence information with the russians . Reporter the president himself ignored questions today as he met with turkeys president recip Tayyip Erdogan in the oval office. Later, though, he said this we had a very, very successful meeting with the foreign minister of russia. Our fight is against isis, as general mcmaster said. And we want to get as many to help fight terrorism as possible. Brangham that followed a series of tweets this morning, saying as president , i wanted to share with russia, which i have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining to terrorism and Airline Flight safety. Last night, as the initial shockwaves over this alleged revelation spread through washington, mcmaster appeared outside the white house. The story that came out tonight, as reported, is false. At no time, at no time, were intelligent sources or methods discussed. And the president did not disclose any military operations that were not already publicly known. Brangham but none of the news accounts had alleged that the president revealed sources or methods or military operations. Today, mcmaster was asked to respond directly to what the reports did say that the president revealed highly classified intelligence to an american adversary, russia. Mcmaster didnt deny that, but he did elaborate, just a bit that the president wasnt even aware of where this information came from. He wasnt briefed on the source or method of the information either. Brangham but the episode raised fears about how u. S. Allies might react. One european official told the Associated Press that his country may stop sharing intelligence with washington. The revelations also rippled through congress, on the heels of the president s firing of f. B. I. Director james comey. Republican senator and chair of the Foreign Relations committee, bob corker, said the white house is in a downward spiral right now, and have got to figure out a way to come to grips with all thats happening. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell complained of yet another distraction from what republicans want to talk about. I think itll be helpful to have less drama emanating from the white house. Brangham as for democrats, Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer demanded the white house release the full record of the Oval Office Meeting with the Russian Diplomats. Until the Administration Provides the unedited transcript, until the Administration Fully explains the facts of this case, the American People will rightly doubt if their president can handle our nations most closely kept secrets. Brangham with the white house in damage control mode, c. I. A. Director mike pompeo went to the capitol this evening to brief the house intelligence committee. For the pbs newshour, im William Brangham. Yang for more on this story, we are joined by the newshours Lisa Desjardins on capitol hill, and olivier knox, chief washington correspondent for yahoo news. Oliver, let me start with you at the white house. We have the report from the New York Times about the comey memo. This is sort of the third crisis that the white house has tried to deal with in the past past two weeks. How did they do today on the on the the report about the intelligence being shared in the oval office with the russians . How did they how did they fare with that . Well, i think you have to notice that their story is evolving a little bit. H. R. Mcmaster, the president s National Security adviser, came out and said its false. As your reporter pointed out. He denied things that were not in the original bombshell Washington Post report. And today they pivoted. Its well maybe it happened, but its entirely appropriate. Thats a notable shift in the rhetoric. Yang lisa, i understand you have some reporting on this comey report. Thats right. Senators were just finding out. This report as they were voting for a nomination. And i talked to richard burr. He said he had been told about this by senator john mccain. We went through the New York Times report with him and he told us, i believe director comey might have told us if a request like that, from the president , had been made. And burr said, it was never mentioned. John, essentially he is questioning the New York Times report saying he thinks comey would have brought that up. He also said he believes the onus is on the New York Times to present this memo, not just have someone read from it. He went even further, john, and said he thinks there is a very legitimate question, in his mind, as to whether someone out there in the stwels intels community or elsewhere is trying to undermine the president. Thats one of the strongest reactions weve had in the president s favor on capitol hill today. Yang and beginning to question the Intelligence Community. Olivier, all this is happening as President Trump is about to leave on his first overseas trip. How do you think this is going to affect the trip . Well, you know, they were already pretty much pretty stressed out about this trip. Its his first foreign trip. Its big. Its high stakes. Its high profile riyadh, israel, the vatican, nato, and a group of rich countries. I dont know how much its going to affect the trip except if theres a drip, drip, drip of revelations which certainly the New York Times suggests, given that comey documented every think interaction he had with the president thats certainly a possibility. I think you have to look at h. R. Mcmasters briefing today, this was originally designed as a briefing about the trip. He read us, roughly, the schedule. But then, questions about the intelligence. And so its going to be a pretty big distraction, i think, from what the president s president wants the agenda to be. Yang lisa, very quickly, senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell today said he wanted a little less drama, more focus on the agenda. Is this getting in the way . It is a distraction. Republicans tell you that across the board. They are still hoping to get a Health Care Plan out of the senate as early as july, but more and more, john, people say thats optimistic. Theyre now talking about august, september, for health care and tax reform. Yang Lisa Desjardins on capitol hill, olivier knox of yang lets keep our focus on capitol hill, and to republican senator james risch of idaho. Hes a member of the Senate Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees. I spoke with him earlier this evening, just as the story on comeys memo broke. Senator, welcome. I want to begin by asking you about a story the New York Times has just posted about a memo, a contemporaneous memo that former f. B. I. Director james comey wrote after a meeting with the president on the day that Michael Flynn resigned as National Security adviser. He quotes the president as asking him to let the investigation into flynn go. I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting flynn go. He interprets it, mr. Comey interprets it as asking for an f. Bi. Investigation not to go forward. Do you have any reaction to this . I havent seen it. Dont know anything about it. I havent read it. And before i comment on it, i want to know a lot more about it than i do, but thanks for asking. Yang i understand. Lets move on to the other news of the day, thalses, or the suggestion that President Trump gave shared classified information with the russian officials in the oval office. Are you satisfied with the white house explanation . Or do you have any other further questions . I dont really need the white house explanation on this. There is only one person on the planet who can make the decision whether to declassify and and whether to talk to someone outside of those of us cleared with the security, and thats the president of the United States. If, indeed, it was n the subject that and im neither going to confirm or deny it was but it was fit was on the subject of airliner safety, i believe the president , obviously, had the Legal Authority to do it. He can declassify at any time. But, secondly, i think he has an obligation under his oath as president of the United States, when he in his judgment determines its in the best electricity people of the United States to declassify something and do it. The National Media has treated this story as if this was a oneoff, like this never happens. Look, the president of the United States deals every day with heads of other countries, with highlevel people of other countries. And he constantly discusses classified information with them. Not only can he do that. He should do that because we exchange classified information with almost every country on the face of the earth, with the exception of a couple of them. And we even ones that were not particularly friendly with, we do have overlapping interests in things like airlt safety. And so if, indeed, that was the subject, and thats whats been reported, he should be commended for that. The real story here is theres a weasel here. And that is the person who reported about this conversation. This is a person who is a traitor. They betrayed their own country. They betrayed their families and their neighbors. And when you disclose classified information, classified conversations that you have access to, it is an act of treason. Its unfortunate we cant get that person identified. But he or she should be held to answer for that and treated as any treasonous person would be. Yang senate, you say the president can declassify any classified information. I understand thats true for u. S. Intelligence products. But this was an intelligence intelligence developed by another country. Can he also declassify material given by another countrys Intelligence Service . Of course. We dont even have laws that cover classified information from another country. People could talk about that wherever they want to. You dont generally do that. You treat like all other classified information. But the president of the United States is fully entitled to discuss this with people he sees fit to do it. Yang senate, youre chairma