Support from key parts of his base. Good morning. Its thursday, may 11th. Is. And this morning a congressional investigation into Michael Flynn, its advancing as the state Intel Committee issues subpoenas to the former National Security adviser, but that is being overshadowed by the sudden ouster of james comey who was leading the probe into russia and the election. Pete williams begins our coverage. Reporter the Justice Department is now looking at five candidates all within the fbi to act as interim fbi director after the firing of james comey as the bureau struggles to adjust are to the shock. Fbi insiders tell nbc news that many at fbi headquarters believe he was fired because he would not end the russia investigation, something the president clearly wanted over tweeting two days ago when will the taxpayer funded charade end. The Justice Department and white house say the final steps in firing comey who husbandgot bac washington after being in the was, they say he met with Jeff Sessions and Rod Rosenstein and said he wanted to talk about his concerns that comey should be fired. Rosenstein said he had reached the same conclusion and agreed to put his thoughts on paper which became the three page memo blasting comeys handling evof e clinton email investigation. Congressional sources say comey asked rosenstein last week for more resources for the russia investigation, but a Justice Department official says that request was never made. A Spokesman Says the president has been thinking since he took office that comey was not respected. Rank and file of the fbi had lost confidence in their director. Accordingly the president accepted the recommendation of his Deputy Attorney general to remove james comey from his position. Reporter current and former agents say that is not true, that while some thought comey miss handled the clinton email investigation, they didnt lose confidence in him. Hes a good man. Hes well intentioned, well thought of. Is the Law Enforcement community thinks very highly of him. And its just a terrible thing that has happened here. Reporter people throughout the fbi are in shock at the firing which came with no warning. As for the investigation of russias hacking during the election and whether any Trump Campaign associates were involved, that work goes on, but some former Officials Say the firing casts a cloud. If youre an investigator, you have to ask yourself how much evidence do i need to support my claims that the point. When will i be believed or not be believed. Reporter some in congress say by playing a role in the firing, attorney general Jeff Sessions violated his pledge to keep hands off any investigations involving the campaign, but Officials Say that was a personnel decision about comeys leadership, not about any investigation. Pete williams, thank you. Senior white house official now describing a small inner circle that had been looped in on the president s thinking regarding firing james comey. Were told it was Vice President pence, Jared Kushner and white House Counsel who backed the decision. As for james comey, he was spotted at home yesterday and three sources confirm he wrote this letter to his former staff yesterday, and it reads in part, i have long believed that a president can fire an fbi director for any reason or for no reason at all. Im not going to spend time on the decision or the way it was executed. I hope you wont either. Its done and i will be fine. Although i will miss you and the mission deeply, i have said to you before that in times of turbulence, the American People should see the fooish as a rock ever confidence, honesty and independence. What makes leaving the fbi hard is the nature and quality of its people who together make it that rock for america. And russian president Vladimir Putin is weighing in on all this, he participated in a celebrity hockey game yesterday and an evening News Reporter tracked him down in the entrance tunnel. Take a listen. How will the firing of james comey affect u. S. russia relations . Translator there will be no effect. Your question looks very funny for me. Dont be angry with me. We have nothing to do with that. President trump is acting in accordance with his competence. And what about us, you see im going to play hockey and i invite you to do the same. And in case youre wondering, Vladimir Putin scored six goals, had five assists and pretty stellar performance if you ask me. The kremlin announced yesterday that putin and President Trump will have their first meeting since trumps inauguration in germany at the g20 summit. In fact u. S. Officials will only say they are discussing it. And President Trumps decision to fire james comey continues to divide the Republican Party with one top member now calling on the department of justice to investigate the move. House Oversight CommitteeJason Chaffetz has announced that hes requested the Inspector General to expand his review of russia to look to the decision to get rid of comey. And paul ryan has broke his silence. Hes standing behind the president s decision as he echos Senate Majority leader michl mcc Mitch Mcconnells rejection of the a special prosecutor. Still there is a growing number of republicans questioning the timing. It no doubt calls for a new investigation which could only serve to impede the current work being done to not only discover what the russians may have done, also to let this body and the National Security community develop Counter Measures and war fighting doctrine to see that it didnt o doesnt occur again. I dont think that is a good idea. First of all, we have three investigations going on right now, a house investigation by our Intelligence Committee which is the appropriate committee to do that and we have the Senate Intelligence community, you played richard burr, and the fbi investigating all things russia spp so i dont think that is a good idea. Special prosecutor would say i dont think i can do my job which is to lead the investigation. So im not in favor of a special prosecutor because i think the committee can carry out its important and come to a conclusion. The timing and the reasons for this decision made little sense to me. And i dont think ive heard anything since last night that would clarify that in any way. I think they have been investigating the Trump Campaigns connections with russia for a long time. I just think that it obviously was not done in an efficient fashion, but when you fire probably arguably the most respected person in america, you better have a very good explanation. And so far i vnthavent seen th. Chuck schumer called for three things to happen in the wake of james comeys firing. We will be pursuing several things in the coming days and weeks. First, mr. Rosenstein should into tnot be the one on to appoint a special prosecutor. Second, mr. Comey is needed more than ever to testify before the senate. Third, attorney general sessions and denity attorney general rosenstein should brief all senators on these events separately and in a classified setting if necessary and they should do it soon. And also House Minority leader nancy pelosi threatening to force a vote on creating an independent panel to investigation the possible ties to russia. She sent a letter to her colleagues yesterday that read in part, if republicans continue to work to hide the truth from the American People, it will be necessary for democrats to file a discharge petition to force a vote on the legislation. Discharge petition would allow a measure to be brought straute s the floor, though dems would need a majority to sign on. Joining us now, daniel clit dlt m man. How do you think this will affects the president s agenda in congress . Sucks all the oxygen out of the room because people in the senate, we thought they were going to talk about health care, repeal and replace bill, but if seems like over the next few months it will just be russia all the time. It makes it harder for President Trump to get what he wants through congress. Let me ask you about the russia investigation what you think is going to happen next with it. We heard paul ryan say that there are several investigations, richard burr reluctant to give his up. But where do you see the russia investigation going toward internally within the fbi . I think it creates a lot of enemies for trump inside the fbi. The people who are investigating him were big fans of comey and they were really shocked and angered that he fired their boss who they loved. And so it makes them even more enthusiastic to do their job and hopefully get a leader who they can rally behind and actually get this investigation done in a nonpartisan fairway so we can actually know what happened with the Trump Campaigns ties with russia. All right. Well talk to you more in a bit about the Senate Investigation later in the show. Daniel lippman, thank you. A new poll from Quinnipiac University shows President Trumps job Approval Rating sliding. 36 approve, 58 disapprove, a net negative rating of 22 points. Among independents, only 29 approve of the president and down 9 points from last month. 47 of whites without a College Degree approve. A 10 point drop for them. While 48 of white men approve the job trump is doing is satisfactory. Down 5 points overall. Asked about President Trumps first 100 days, 58 say it was mainly a failure. 38 called it a success. The president s honesty rating is at a near all time low. Only 33 say he is honest. 61 say he is not. That includes 21 of republicans. And on the question of who voters trust more to tell the truth, 57 say the news media, 31 say President Trump. So amidst all of this, the Trump Administration hosting Russian Foreign minister rlavro yesterday. Lavrov and tillerson had a closed door meeting with the president in the oval office along with bhaambassador kislya. Those photos are from russias news agency. The official white house photographer was also there, although nothing has been released yet. President trump said the meeting was, quote, very, very good and at a new conference lavrov said they did not discuss the absurd issues related to the russian interference in the election pointing to the story that is fake news. Mike pence said emphasizing unwavering u. S. Support for ukraine sovereignty and territorial integrity. And congressman tom mckoran played a critical role. Last night he spent five years listening to his constituents at a town hall in new jersey. Take a listen. Folks, you get to ask the questions and i get to answer them. So answer them. He faced hostile questions not only on health care and the amendment he helped write, but on an array of issues involving President Trump as well, the crowd took a page out of the democrats playbook when the congressman discuss youed his partys celebration with the president in the rose garden after the health bill passed. A question you asked before about the optics of last week. I didnt think cheerg wing was appropriate that day and i didnt think jeering was appropriate either. I didnt think singing on the house floor was appropriate either. Do you have a question . Hes in the trenches there. Before the town hall even began, a large crowd gathered outside with some lying on the Ground Holding cardboard tombstones over their bodies. Still ahead, congressman mcarthur wasnt the only one who met with an angry crowd. Betsy devos welcomed reception when she went to give a speech. And plus looking to expand a ban on certain Large Electronics on board flights from europe. Those stories and a check on the weather when we come back. What are you doing . Getting your quarter back. Fountains dont earn interest, david. You know i work at ally. I was being romantic. You know what i find romantic . A robust annual percentage yield thats what i find romantic. This is literally throwing your money away. I think its over there. That way . Yeah, a little further up. What year was that quarter . What year is that one . 98 thats the one. You got it nothing stops us from doing right by our customers. Ally. Do it right. Lets get out of that water. Ally. Do it right. Theres nothing more than my vacation. Me so when i need to book a hotel room, i want someone that makes it easy to find what i want. Booking. Com gets it. They offer free cancellation if my plans change. Visit booking. Com. Booking. Yeah. Thank you so very, very much for this great honor and privilege. [ crowd booing ] i am honored to become a wildcat. And its a real honor and privilege to be with you as we celebrate the bethune cook man class of 2017. Pretty powerful there. That was education secretary giving the commencement speech yesterday at a historically black school. You can see some of the graduated students protested standing up and turning their backs. At one point the schools president interrupted her to issue this warning. If this behavior continues, your degrees will be mailed to you. Choose which way you want to go. Devos later said she has respect for all who attended including those that disagree with her. Lets get a check on your weather now with bill karins. And bill, we still have some risk of Severe Weather from texas to virginia this morning. Yeah, severe storms today and then well talk about the noreaster and washout of a saturday coming up the east coast. Sunday may turn out okay for a few spots. So lets start with what is happening now. We dont have any Severe Weather out there. One thunderstorm headed for st. Louis. And another one trying to make its way toward ft. Worth and dallas, but also dying off. Very typical, storms fire up the a night and then die off and then regenerate this afternoon. So 22 Million People at risk are. Greatest concentration of the storms are from Oklahoma City to tul tulsa, dallas, and spreading into arkansas and louisiana this afternoon. And possibly of wind damage heading through areas like memphis and nashville and from louisville to lexington to kentucky. And maybe an isolated stlorong storm in between rich hand amon ram lee. The weekend noreaster, by the time we get to tomorrow at 5 00 p. M. , the storm located north of atlanta, steady rains unthrough southern appalachian, thunderstorms down along the gulf. We take the storm saturday morning, heavier rains midatlantic region up toward philadelphia. Saturday morning kind of a washout here in areas of the Chesapeake Bay and heading up into southern new england. Then throughout saturday, the heavy rain shifts north as the coast storm gets stronger. By 8 00 p. M. Saturday, thats when the heaviest rains are right over the top of the tristate area of new york, new jersey and connecticut. And it looks like boston is not going to be until saturday night. Rainfall totals very impressive, 1 to 3 inches all through the midatlantic and up through new england. As far as who will have the worst mothers day, it looks like the storm will be far enough north that boston up through northern new england, it looks kind of rainy. But boast souston southwards maa decent afternoon. Still ahead, two game sevens last night. Sports is next. Theres nothing more important to me than my vacation. So when i need to book a hotel room, i want someone that makes it easy to find what i want. Booking. Com gets it. They offer free cancellation if my plans change. Visit booking. Com. Booking. Yeah. Dry mouth can affect how your mouth feels and how you feel. 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