Doors. Lets start on a busy afternoon with two nbc reports. Kristen welker at the white house, and Greta Van Susteren is here with legal an less. Give us more on how the white house and rnc are whiting back today. Reporter a number of talking points on display, chris. And were getting them from the president himself. Yesterday, he was remarkably silent and restrained in his reaction to all of this. But today, he was back on twitter. Lets take a look at his tweet and we can analyze it on the other side. The president tweeted this morning, despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication. And wow, comey is a leaker. Expect that last part to get a lot of attention from the president and from his surrogates. Remember, hes always said that the key issue in this entire russia probe has to do with leaking. The other point thats raised, though, by his tweet early this morning, is a question about how james comey can be a liar and also fully vin y vindicate the president at the same time. President trump will hoelzld a s conference later today. In the meantime, the president s staff going back into campaign mode. Take a look at what his surrogates had to say earlier today, chris. So wait a mine to a columbia law professor, because he wasnt man enough to give the notes directly to the media. The president never informed, directed or suggested that mr. Comey stop investigating anyone, including the president never suggested that mr. Comey let flynn go. Reporter so Deputy Press SecretarySarah Huckabee sanders trying to dismiss that question with a little bit of a joke there. But the bottom line is, a lot of people want to know if the president was being truthful when he said that there were tapes of his discussions with james comey and if there are tapes, why not produce them now to prove all of those points that you heard her surrogates making. Well ask that president later on today. Were going to be looking for that News Conference. In the meantime, greta, you have on one hand the politics of this, of the decision. Were going to go after comey and not let this testimony just lie. But let me start with the legal part of this, because as Pete Williams has said, look, hes going to file a complaint with the doj. The doj handles things within the government. They dont handle things that are by people who used to work for the government and who, if there is some sort of problem with the leak, he didnt do it while he was even employed by the government. So what do you make of this as a legal strategy . Chris, assuming theres nothing classified thats been leaked, and i see nothing to indicate its classified, is he didnt work at the government at the time he did it. While it may have been cowardly to do it through the professor at columbia university, i dont see a legal problem. The president is just fighting back. If the president wants to jam him, which would drag out for a long time but have virtually no effect on comey, is he would file a bar complaint and complain that way against him. I dont see comey in trouble with the Justice Department. He filed this he did this as a citizen after he left government. And i dont see him as having a problem with the bar. But i do see the president as trying to give him a very hard time about it. Is that all there is here, or is this about them not getting how it works . Do you think its possible this was the way to go, that they could accomplish something here . Well, i do think that what he may try to do is persuade mueller two investigainto invesr leaks. Theres been another favorable leak to the New York Times just a short time ago about the memos, to the same reporter, the one that was leaked through the cutout to davis to. Im not suggesting, but if i was investigating, i would take a look. The president has been very critical of leaks. Im sure hes goi to persuade someone to look into whether or not the leaker has been the former deputy former director of the fbi. Im not saying that he is, but i think this president is aggressive enough to look to see whether or not he is. If you look at his business career, he certainly has been aggressive in situations where he feels like hes being wronged. In the meantime, looking at how this testimony affects the investigation Going Forward, lets talk a little about Jeff Sessions reputation, which took a bit of a hit and what kind of pressure is he under now . Hes under a lot of pressure. Hes actually going to be on capitol hill next tuesday talking about the budget of the Justice Department. But hes going to get questioned about this russia probe. As you point out, yesterdays testimony raised new questions with the former fbi director saying that he expected Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from the russia probe, but that he couldnt get into details about why. So that raises a whole host of questions. We know that the attorney general did have some contact with the ambassador to russia, so he will likely get questioned about all of that. Whats also interesting, chris, is we know that the president was very frustrated with his attorney general for recusing himself. He thinks that allowed this investigation to bubble up and ultimately to lead to a special counsel. It took his aides days to say that the president does, in fact, have full confidence in his attorney general. That is a point that President Trump might get pressed on today, as well. In the annals of intrigue in the west wing, this relationship between james comey and the president and how it developed certainly is at the top of the list. But greta, let me go back to you. At the center of this for a lot of people is whether or not there was an obstruction of justice. Where do you think that stands . Is it in a different place today than it was before you went into that hearing room yesterday . I think the only thing that happened yesterday, i dont think we got any new information. What is profoundly different yesterday is that rather through anonymous sources, we heard it from the source himself, james comey. So i dont know where the obstruction of justice investigation is going to go. I dont know what was obstructed. I dont know all the facts. But i do know this. If i were the former attorney general of the United States, loretta lynch, my hair would be on fire after what he said about her yesterday. He threw her under the bus big time. Not only did he mention the incident on the tarmac with former president bill clinton, but he also said, and this is astounding, that she was that when he went to talk to her about what to call the investigation of hillary clinton, he said she wanted to call it matter, not investigation. Somewhat suggesting she was helping former secretary of state hillary clinton. What we then heard in a statement later, not directly from her but someone else, is that there had merely been a discussion in the Attorney Generals Office about what to call the investigation, because they all wanted to be on the same page because they didnt want the media to run wild, and apparently, former director comey was agreeable to call it matter, but now hes acting like it was something sinister and a reason to distrust her. And finally, he said theres one other thing why i didnt trust her, but i cant tell you because its classified. He completely threw her under the bus. My hair would be under fire if i were the former attorney general of the United States. Yeah, that was not a good day for her for sure. Greta, kristen, thanks to both of yo. Tune in for on the record tonight, because greta has senat senator on with her. Bill, whats your gut reaction . What did you think when you heard that trumps legal team was going to go after james comey . I remember the clinton legal team going after ken starr. They did someamage to ken tars reputation. But bill clinton had lied under oath to the grand jury, and that came out. I guess i think bob muellers investigation is going to reveal what happened. And people are being too i mean, thats fine to follow all the subplots and interesting flaws. Its like a shakespeare play. It has tragic, comedic relief. At the end of the day, its about trump, the election, and was there collusion with the russians and how inappropriately trump misbehave with comey, did it cross the line to an actual attempt to stifle or corrupt an Ongoing Investigation or was he just nibbling around the edges . People are underestimating how much we will know. Mueller is going to have access to emails and phone records and putting people under oath. And do you think there are taping out thees out there . I dont know. I cant believe there are. Its a little weird for trump to suggest there are. All right. Im going to go back to the tapes, but dan, in your new column you worry about one thing that stood out to you yesterday, and i want to play that. I was concerned that he might lie about the nature of our meeting, so i thought it important to document. That combination of things i had never experienced before, but it led me to believe i have to write it down in a very detailed way. What struck you about that out of almost three hours of testimony . Chris, as we both were there in the room, the entire thing was gripping. I think bill is right it was gripping. I dont know how it played back on television in your living rooms, but wow. My neck was getting a cramp from just leaning over and staring the whole time. It was amazing. I think bill is right, you know, this is going to be up to Robert Mueller to tell us what happened here, all the nitty gritty, all the legal stuff. Theres a lot for him to unpack, but the most significant thing was not the legal aspect of what comey was saying, it was what he was saying about the character of the United States, our commander in chief. Basically saying this is not a trustworthy man. He lies. I expected he would lie. I had to take that into consideration. And i didnt have to do that with either of his predecessors, obama or bush. Theres nothing that bob mueller or anybody else can do about that. But i think that gets at the essence of what i think a lot of the criticism of trump is, that they cant trust his character and i think thats why hes having so much trouble with allies and moving things ahead on capitol hill. And that is very clearly how he wound up in this situation with the special prosecutor. You know, it was interesting yesterday, bill, our kasie hunt who spends more time on capitol hill than many members of congress, is saying shes sensing a shift a little bit, i dont want to put words in her mouth, but there are a lot of republicans who now are really nervous. Ider as you talk to fellow republicans what youre hearing about how they see the trajectory of this investigation going . Theyve been trying to deny the obvious, which is they have a president who is not reliable and trustworthy in what he says in the basic sense that he makes up things and lies about things and then defames people he doesnt like. Theyre kind of hoping we can put that aside, pass some good legislation, keep a distance. I mean, i would be more forthright, but theyre elected officials, they have their own balls to juggle in the air. I do think some of them are now saying whoa, boy, can we do this for another 3 1 2 years, kind of pretend we dont have to at some point say is he are we confident in him as president . Do we support him or do we reluctantly work with him as we have to . Or do we keep a real distance and make sure he doesnt define the Republican Party and the conservative movement. So right now if the republicans on the hill do nothing, trump is the head of the Republican Party, hes the face of the Republican Party. If youre a younger voter in particular, hes kind of it for the republicans. Do you really want that Going Forward . Dont you want to be able to say look, he won, hes president , fine. But we have a different Republican Party here in congress, which has some impressive individuals, a lot of them younger. Thats the future of the Republican Party, not trump. So republicans on the hill need to do some soul searching here. One of the things that struck me yesterday was the twitter. You have james comey sort of waking up in the middle of the night saying oh, the president said there were tapes. And he said it in a tweet. If there are tapes, then i have corroborating testimony essentially. I want to play for you that short excerpt from comey talking about whether there are white house tapes. Ive seen the tweet about tapes. Lordy, i hope there are tweets. All i can do is hope. The president surely knows whether he taped me. If he did, my feelings arent hurt. Release all the tapes. Im good with it. You know, dana, i dont know if its real or virtual, but i saw it on twitter, tshirts that say, lordy, i hope there are tapes. Probably somebody is taking them and selling them for 20. Without question, yes. What about that . He keeps finding himself in these situations of his own making, and this is a classic example of that. At some point, doesnt mueller have to say, are there tapes or not . And if there are tapes, hand them over. Im sure that moment has come and being asked. We already know that comeys handed over his files to mueller already. So surely that will occur. I think that line, lordy, i hope there are tapes line will be what future generations remember from this one. That might have been the joseph welch line from the mccarthy hearings. That will come down to it. Knowing what we know of trump, he was almost surely bluffing and trying to intimidate comey at that point, not realizing that comey had kept these me lick lou meticulous notes. Mueller will have the ability to see what emails, i should think, unless theres executive privilege issues, what emails were said after the meetings trump had with him, what did he say to his soninlaw and reince priebus. Its not as if its i am not suggesting youre saying this, but its not as if its tapes or nothing. Theres a lot of in between evidence that mueller in particular and the congress to some degree and house committee, will have access to it. Thats where i think this thing will play out in a way that it will be more well learn much more pretty quickly. I have the impression mueller is moving pretty fast. I was thinking about the number of columns and stories that they could get if there were tapes. Guys, thank you so much. And how about these stunning new revelations about that 25yearold Government Contractor accused of leaking classified information. Was reality winner planning to leak even more classified documents . 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Show more of you. vo you can pass down a subaru forester. dad shes all yours. vo but you get to keep the memories. Love. Its what makes a subaru, a subaru. I think very compelling in his testimony and i think leaving lots of questions to the president , which can only be reconciled if the president is willing to testify under oath. One of the number of democrats now saying that if the president judisagrees with comes testimony, the president should testify under oath. I want to go to republican congressman mo brooks of alabama. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Lets start with the basis of all this. President trumps lawyer has accused james comey of perjury. The president in a tweet this morning, did the same thing. Do you believe james comey purgered himself . I dont know. I wasnt in the conversation. Keep in mind that im a former prosecutor in tuscaloosa, alabama, and to make that kind of a charge against somebody, ive got to have compelling evidence as to who was telling the truth and who was not. But it is very common for people who are in the same kind of event, watching what would normally be the same thing, to have different recollection of bits and pieces. So i dt give too much weight to the normal types of disagreements you have with peoples recollections. So you think this is pure politics . Did the president and his lawyer jump the gun . Im not in a position to express a judgment on the motivations of the president or the president s attorneys. Im not going to say they jumped the gun or didnt jump the gun. I will say i very much appreciated james comey giving his testimony, particularly the parts from a legal perspective that cleared President Trump of any involvement with this alleged