And severe storms threaten the heartland, a system that produced tornadoes and hail in texas is on the move. Good morning, everyone. It is wednesday, may 10th. In the heat of an investigation into russia tampering with the u. S. Elections, the fbi has been fired. In an extraordinary move, james comey was ousted while on a west coast trip, no advance warning to the wider department of justice. The white house issued a statement saying President Trump acted based on recommendation from the attorney general and jeff rosen stein. Sessions said he would recuse after he failed to disclose meetings with the russian ambassador. And on the front page of the New York Times, i concur with department of justice that you are not able to effectively lead the bureau. Senior white house official tells us the former head of security and director of oval office hand delivered the letter to department of justice. Andrew mccabe, Deputy Director is now acting director. James comey had been set to testify thursday in open session in front of the Senate Intelligence committee. While in los angeles, he was set to give a speech. But it never happened, as New York Times reports, mr. Comey was addressing a group of fbi employees in los angeles when a television in the background flashed the news that he had been fired. In response, mr. Comey laughed saying he thought it was a funny prank. Then staff started to scurry in the battlegrouckground and said should step away. He proceeded to shake hands of employees he was speaking with, stepped into a side office and confirmed he had been fired. At that point had not heard from the white house. He got into a motorcade, made his way to the airport, snarled in traffic before boarding a private jet, heading back to washington, d. C. And an uncertain future. In the midst of vision into russia modeling in the election and firing of james comey, interesting event was added to the president s schedule. He will meet with Sergei Lavrov today at the white house. The secretary of state was slated to meet with him, it will be the highest level facetoface meeting with russia of the trump presidency. The white house going into overdrive, trying to explain the firing and bringing out Kellyanne Conway who hasnt been seen on cable much lately. Take a listen. Why now are you concerned about the Hillary Clinton email investigation when as a candidate, he was praising it from the campaign trail . I think youre looking at the wrong set of facts here, in other words, youre going back to the campaign. This man is the president of the united states, he acted decisively today. You want this to be about russia when this is about restoring confidence and integrity at the fbi. You want this about restoring confidence in fbi. I think the bigger point on that is my gosh, tucker, when are they going to let that go. It has been going on nearly a year. Frankly it is kind of getting absurd, theres nothing there, we heard that time and time again. We heard it in the testimonies earlier this week, we heard it for the last 11 months, there is no there there. It is time to move on. I think when someone, those individuals on the democratic side who are very clear that the director lost their confidence to lead the fbi, who would politicize the process, this is something they should be welcoming, the president s decision, something they called for for awhile. Last one, is this a coverup . Is this a coverup . Of what . People wonder if theres any coverup. Of what . Peter alexander getting straight to the point. Huckabee sanders will fill in for the morning briefing. She will stop by for a live interview. Joining us, jonathan swan. Take us inside the firing yesterday, the white house saying it was in the works for a couple weeks. James comey did a number of things that displeased donald trump. For anyone that knows donald trump, it is not that hard to imagine what they are. He contradicted donald trump publicly, which is the worst thing he can possibly do. He did that over the claims that obama wire tapped donald trump. He then also refused to help the white house push back against media stories related to the fbi, russia probe. He said during testimony last week which was televised, we know how Much Television donald trump watches, he was mildly nauseous that his comments in the campaign may have influenced the outcome of the election. If you want to enrage donald trump, what you do is suggest that some other factor apart from Donald Trumps brilliance, charisma, and genius won the election, so its not hard to imagine how he enraged donald trump. What i will say is that this was classic trump in the way he was fired. Comey got no advanced warning. It was, i mean, the vision of keith schiller, Donald Trumps security handing this to the doj and comey giving a speech, finding out about it on television. It is like the most brutal thing you can possibly imagine, and frankly last night white house officials, look, this was kept at a very close level. There were some fairly senior, not going to say the most senior, fairly senior white house officials trying to figure out what was going on last night and the preparation for this was terrible. There was no briefing of press really and it was a mad scramble to find of cover it, sort of clean up after this detonated. Let me ask you about that letter, that infamous letter everyone is sharing it in particular about the second line or second paragraph in it. Obviously theres a lot of consternation after reports that the white house tried to get comey to knock down claims of a russia probe. Is that made worse by the line where the president writes that he appreciates being informed on three separate occasions that he is not under investigation . Yeah, yeah, and look, this has already inflamed a number of republicans. I mean, you are going to have a tough time on the hill now with all of these republican senators who are inclined to be quite independent in the way they view trump. Im thinking about folks like ben sass, jeff flag, Lindsey Graham. These are people that take their role very seriously as checks on the executive branch, and youre already seeing them coming out last night with statements saying they cant justify this so i think that problems are about to get worse, not better. Important to note the actual letter did not say thank you for the service of fbi james comey, but thanking him for telling President Trump three times he is not under investigation. Jonathan swan, live in washington. Thank you. And james comey dismissal has drawn sharp criticism from the left. Many including Chuck Schumer are calling for a special prosecutor to oversee the investigation into the Trump Campaign ties to russia. President trump called me and informed me he was firing director comey. I told the president , mr. President , with all due respect, youre making a big mistake. First question the administration has to answer is why now. If Deputy Attorney general rosenstein does not appoint an independent special prosecutor, every american will rightly suspect that the decision to fire director comey was part of a coverup. President trump responded on twitter saying crying Chuck Schumer stated recently i do not have confidence in him, james comey any longer, then acts so indig nant. Senate democrats are united in the call for a special prosecutor. Some call the situation a constitutional crisis, others compare comeys firing to nixon and watergate. Im looking closely at who this president nominates to be the next fbi director. It is more important if they try to squash somehow, which is the most significant independent investigation of ties between trump and Trump Officials and the russians. Donald trump doesnt want anyone coming any place close to an active investigation into the relationship between the russians, Trump Campaign and donald trump himself. Theres nobody left in america who believes donald trump fired james comey in order to try, because james comey was looks like that saturday night massacre when Richard Nixon fired one attorney general after another. I believe the Deputy Attorney general must appoint a special prosecutor. I urged it for months. Senator blumenthal says he will introduce legislation today to establish an independent couns counsel if they fail to appoint a special prosecutor. One senior democratic aide says senate dems may not vote to confirm a new fbi director unless the Justice Department appoints a special prosecutor, an important to note senator blumenthal will be a guest later this morning on morning joe. Lets get reaction to how this is playing out. A number of top lawmakers shared democrat concerns, richard bur oversawing seeing the investigation of russias role in the election, said he is troubled by timing and reasoning of the move. Jangs lang ford of oklahoma said the American People nooet need claire deand deserve explanation. And congressman amash, called the second paragraph in the letter of firing bizarre. Jeff flake on the Judiciary Committee tweeted i spent the last several hours trying to find an acceptable rationale for the firing. I just cant do it. Senator sasse called the timing troubling, and john mccain said he is disappointed in the president s decision to remove comey from office. Corker said his removal at this particular time will raise questions. We will get more republican reaction to james comeys firing when charlie dent joins us in a bit. Stay with us. Acting director mccabe coming with controversy, questioned by some connections to the clintons. In january, department of justice Inspector General launched investigation into the actions leading up to the election, parts of which focused on whether the fbi director should have recused himself from the clinton email probe. Potential conflict of interest, wife jill who ran for Virginia State senate in 2015 receiv 201 nearly a half million from the Political Action committee of Virginia Governor terry mcauliffe. A clinton confidant. His wife was also out of politics by the time he was named Deputy Director. Mccabe was also target of the senate Judiciary Committee after it was reported the fbi had once considered paying the author of that controversial trump dossier, christopher steele, to continue his work on behalf of the department. The deal fell apart, but by that time it was already on the radar of chuck grassley, seizing on reports that Hillary Clinton first hired him to get Opposition Research on trump. Senator sent a letter to the fbi director demanding to know what role he had in fbi plans to hire him. The chairman wrote the American People should know if the fbis second in command relied on democratic funded Opposition Research to justify an investigation of the republican president ial campaign. Full disclosure is already important, he is already under investigation for his partisan democratic ties. The acting director was at the center of ethics questions. White house chief of staff Reince Priebus asked the fbi to push back at New York Times report that Trump Campaign associates had repeated contacts with russian intelligence. The fbi never gave that Public Defense but the white house claims mccabe personally told priebus there was nothing to that New York Times story, which the chief of staff took as a green light to issue this denial. I can tell you, i talked to top levels of the Intelligence Community and theyve assured me that that New York Times story was grossly overstated and inaccurate and totally wrong. I know what the Intelligence Committees in the house and senate were told by the fbi and i know what i was told and what i will tell you is that story was total baloney. Mitch mcconnell deflects criticism over an all male working group on health reform. And testimony involving human a abedin. Those stories and more when we come back. A abedin. Those stories and more when we come back. A abedin. Those stories and more when we come back. Huma abedin. Those stories and more when we come back. I am benedict arnold, the infamous traitor. And i know a thing or two about trading. So i trade with e trade, where true traders trade on a trademarked trade platform that has all the. Get off the computer traitor i wont. cannon sound mobility is very important to me. Thats why i use e trade mobile. Its on all my mobile devices, so it suits my mobile lifestyle and it keeps my investments fully mobile. Even when im on the move. Sign up at etrade. Com and get up to six hundred dollars. Welcome back. Senate democrats like to hit the reset with republican colleagues in early stages of tackling the Health Care Reform bill. All 48 democrats asked Mitch Mcconnell and Republican Leaders for a bipartisan, open and transparent effort to improve the health care system. Leader mcconnell suggested the move is the democrats signaling that obamacare just isnt working. If theyre asking to participate, they must be conceding the status quo is not sustainable. I certainly agree with that. Meanwhile, leader mcconnell standing off criticism of the group tasked with drafting that bill. Mcconnell under fire for not including any of the five women in the working group, but he says everyone is part of the process. Working group that counts is all 52 of us, and we are having extensive meetings as i said a few minutes ago every day, nobody is being excluded based on gender. Everybody is at the table, everybody. Were you disappointed when you learned there were no women on the Core Working Group . I was surprised there were not. It really is up to the leadership to decide whom they want so im not really troubled by it because im going to continue to work with the other senators. If youre asked to be on the working group, would you say yes . No, i would not at this point. Amid that criticism, Shelly Caputo was invited to discuss that for low income americans which particularly impacts her state. Lets check the weather with meteorologist bill karins. Severe weather sweeping through the middle of the country, more bad weather in time for mothers day in the northeast. I apologize for mothers in new england. It looks ugly. We will talk about that in a second. Get to immediate concerns. Show you what happened first. 8 tornadoes reported, hail, new mexico was targeted, new mexico into west texas. You can see that tornado, rope tornado in the background. Hail did fall, cause a little damage. Almost like ping pong ball sized hail there. Lot more coming today. Now shift it into more populated areas. Already this morning, amarillo has the worst weather this morning with thunderstorms and heavy rain. Lubbock dodging storms, too. For today, 10 million are threatened by Severe Weather. Some of the storms are in areas of the ohio valley, indianapolis included. Severe stuff in the quad cities, des moines to kansas city, st. Joseph, Central Illinois and through kansas. This enhanced area, if we get a strong tornado, likely between childress and oklahoma city. We will watch western oklahoma and that sliver of texas late today. Tomorrow, this is a slow moving storm. 16 million at risk of severe storms. Tomorrow, tulsa to dallas to little rock. As far as the east coast goes, we are just fine, stim tll the e and havenots. Chilly in the northeast. Orlando, today 96 degrees, one of the hottest spots. West coast is fine, too. In a little bit, how the storm will effect the midatlantic and northeast saturday and sunday, mothers day forecast. Looks like a noreaster forecast. Snow, rainy, cold. Come on. Yeah, i have to look for Witness Protection Program by the time the weekend is over. Seriously, bill. A lot of severe there. Every other sentence was a severe. We expect it. May is peak of Severe Weather season. If you dont have it, you would be worried. 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