Here is the clip in question with janine pirro of fox news for an interview to air saturday. Are you moving so quickly that your Communications Department cannot keep up with you. Yes. Thats true. What do we do about that . We dont have press
elliot necessary found it so hard the believe that he would have reassured the president that he is somehow not under investigation note once, and certainly not three times. Lets bring our Kickoff Panel on the, the veteran New York Times chief White House Correspondent peter baker is with us, who happens to be our newly minted msnbc political analyst. Vivian solana, and matthew nussbaum. Good evening to you all. Peter, i was watching you on Live Television slight after 4 00 p. M. Eastern time. Micolle wallace played the clip. That i cant talk about. I wont talk about that. All i want is for comey to be honest. Im sure he will be, i hope. You reacted in real time. Im not going to talk about that. You think this is a very serious moment right there. I do. Its very striking. Its been 40 years since we had a president that we knew of anyway who wasrd recording on any regular basis, Tape Recording his conversations. There is a reason why other president s havent done it. Because it Didnt Work Out well for Richard Nixon, obviously. The idea that he is putting out there is either he is in fact taping conversations with the fbi director of all people or he is bluffing or misleading in order to intimidate somebody who might have conferring that he considers to be damaging i guess. Either scenario is stunning i think for any white house. Vivian, this would appear to be a second straight interview done perhaps outside the authority and track of the press shop in the west wing. Lester holt, and then janine pirro in two straight interviews the president has made news n. Three separate depictions of the west wing, i have read about a dark place this week a place where people who did not want to encounter the president had their doors closed. What can you speak to the mood
him since the very, very beginning, relative and closest advisors, the original staff of his campaign his inner circle is getting smaller. He is apparently getting very, very tense with the situation that they cant sort of shake off the whole russia allegation. So its really an interesting time. And definitely can be felt, the tension, throughout the white house. And matthew, Lets Talk About the comey angle, respectfully he would insert the word integrity in every sentence he utters publicly if he thought he could. He has now been accused of what the president has ascribed to him, and that is saying three times, reassuring the president , you are not the subject of an investigation. Lets talk about, call it comeys revenge and how you think thats going to play out now . Well, basically what we have is Donald Trumps credibility versus that of james comey. Im not sure if thats a fight
donald trump wants to pick. James comey, for all the controversy he has been a part of, remains a respected figure certainly among the fbi and among Law Enforcement and among some on capitol hill and the idea that hes the one pushing these false narratives and the its the president who is the one delivering the truth on this seems a little dubious to a lot of people, all the more so because the president has been acting so defensive making this veiled or not so veiled threat about recording their conversations. And then of course the quote you showed, someone close to comey saying i hope there are tapes. So, again, in a Credibility Battle im not sure if thats one that trump comes out on top. Peter we have been talking 16 weeks now of this administration that the president is not, shall we say an institutionalist. He is not among those of us who have been steeped in history in the ways of the presidency because we have learned about it and find it interesting. He came from another world. Does that explain the fact that
he apparently did not know what his words in neither confirming nor denying recording the kind of scrutiny that the brief papers with janine pirro would bring . I think you need to remember this is the first president who never serve admin in an elected office and never been in the military. This is all new to him. It is a strength and a weakness. A strength obviously because people who support him and love the fact he is shaking up the system and when they see Everybody Pile on Like Washington is doing they get defensive and say thats because he is trying to drain the swamp. Its also a weakness in that he doesnt understand where the pitfalls are like politicians would. Most politicians understand hinting at the idea of a secret Taping System would raise echos you dont want to raise. Most administrations try to avoid it. Now its unavoidable. And who does he listen to. Is there anybody out there who can get to him and make him understand why there might be consequences to the thing he does on twitter and in these interviews . The answer seems to be no at the moment. Vivian, what steps were taken to further enhance the Trump Legislative Agenda Today or at any time this week . It is a hard to say, a lot of the communications have been surrounding this issue about firing Director Comey. As far as any of the major items on the agenda that he is trying to carry out sort of further his health care bill, you know, the tax plan, things like that, everything is sort of they are still rolling but there isnt a lot of attention because so much energy and effort is going into this whole issue of Director Comey being abrupt lee
fired and the russia investigation. I just want to point out something that peter said earlier. Its really important to remember that again, is it a bluff or there really evidence of something secret . This is at same president who threw out serious wiretapping allegations against president barack obama. Yet we have never seen those claims substantiated. Again we have a situation now where there is so much energy going into these claims that have no evidence to back them up. Its engaging people on the hill. Ow lawmakers are being engaged where you are having to reopen investigations and dedicate so many resources into these issues. And then President Trump gets really angry when they get so much attention. Its sort of a vicious cycle we are leading. Thats where we are now. Its fascinating to watch, but also very troubling for a lot of people who do want to see him fulfill his campaign promises. Our whole panel is going the stand by. We are going to fit a brief break in here and continue our
conversation. Coming up, new reporting tonight on former Trump Campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Former National Intelligence director James Clapper weighs in on the russia investigations that as we mentioned keep dogging this white house. We are back with all of that right after this. Show me the top hot 100 artist. They give awards for being hot and 100 years old . Well take 2 [ laughing ] xfinity x1 gives you exclusive access to the best of the Billboard Music awards just by using your voice. The Billboard Music awards. Sunday, may 21st eight seven central only on abc. There is new reporting from the Wall Street Journal about the sweeping russia investigation of it says, quote, the justice last month requested. Bag records of Paul Manafort as part of a widening probe related to Donald Trumps former Campaign Associates and whether they concluded with colluded with russia forgive me in interfering with the 2016 election, according to people familiar with the matter. Manafort has not been accused of any wrongdoing, and in the past he said any suggestion that he coordinated with russia is unfounded. When the white house talks about the russia investigation he often points to comments made by former director of National IntelligenceJames Clapper. In march he told chuck todd to
his knowledge there was not the intelligence to definitively answer whether there were improper contacts between the Trump Campaign and russian officials. Today Andrea Mitchell asked him about that again. Its not surprising or out of or abnormal that i would not have known about the investigation or each more importantly the content of that investigation. So i dont know if there was collusion or not. I dont know if theres evidence of collusion or not. Nor should i have in this particular context. Our panel remains with us. Peter, vivian, and matthew. Matthew, well begin with you. On this week where we had the socalled two sergeis in the oval office, where we had the Russian News Agency wandering around the oval office and taking what stood for hours as the official photoers. Henry kissinger shows up in the oval office and the man running the Russian Investigation is fired. This is about optics. Is it another lost week to this matter. This week was a disaster for the white house. No other way to put it. From the mess anning perspective they were all over the map. They had the president undercutting communications staff, his own vice president. Tweeting out this morning that his Press Secretary cant always be trusted to give accurate information. And you have all this when they could be pushing Health Reform in the senate, when they could be laying the ground work for tax reform and they could be preparing the president for his foreign trip. Instead we have another week consumed by russia and with this Wall Street Journal report you are referencing its more of a drip, drip, we know the president hates the story but its a not going away. And it Doesnt Go Away when you fire the person leading the investigation. As one wag put it tonight, how many coal mines were reopened today . Zero. Peter, among your travels covering four president s you were also the former Moscow Bureau chief. How much of this, given what you learned about the soviet and
then later russian mentality, how much of this is deja vu and how much does it inform your reporting . Its deja vu. Its not surprising that the russians would try to meddle in the affairs of other countries. Its part and parcel for what they have done for many years. There is a feeling on their part they are simply retaliating. This blame us, blame the United States for meddling in their neighbor when ukraine and the ballotics and georgia and so forth. And even the election of vladimir putin. They blame Hillary Clinton for rousting out protesters in the streets. They said that was Hillary Clinton personally doing that. Thats one reason why you saw them take off after her in last years election. It is deja vu. Its surreal seeing it now on this end as opposed to that end. That does not mean there is necessarily links with the trump people. Thats still something thats an uncertain part for us. We are still waiting for real conclusions by investigators on that. Vivian im guessing the Sunday Morning Shows will be something to watch. We may have some democrats actually passing out from Hyper Ventilation over this. It started today. They just cant believe they may get a shot at the possibility of recorded phone conversations. What is next week supposed to feature . Next week is jam packed actually from the beginning. We have visits from the crown prince of the you united arab emirates. We have a visit from the president of turkey, which is going to be a very significant visit because obviously he is a very controversial figure. He is basically just won a referendum to gain more power, monopolize more power in his country. Then eventually his president will make his way to the middle east, saudi arabia, israel, and europe for his first foreign trip. That was supposed to be very significant. This week, in fact, was supposed to be a planning week for him. And thats why the white house originally said he was going to
scale back his public appearances today was to prepare for the foreign visits. Unfortunately he has been consumed by other matters as weve seen. Its going to be interesting how this plays out. Even with Sergey Lavrov coming to down this week a lot of reporters asked him what do you think of the firing of james comey and he joked and said oh, my god was he fired . He kind of blew it off but im sure a number of foreign leaders overseas are going to be asked because there are a lot of eyes on this situation. Russia and the United States have been basically in a struggle for power, especially in the middle east, for many, many years now. The syria situation is a very significant one and on the mind of a lot of people. A lot of people want the know is he going to give russia a free pass or not . This is not something that is just impacting washington or the United States. All eyes around the world on this issue and everybody is going to be asking about it. Three terrific journalists to start us off late on a friday night as we put Trump Administration week 16 in the books. Peter, vivian, matthew, thank you all for coming on with us tonight. Coming up after our next break, jim comey in his own words and in the eyes of his coworkers will be joined by two former colleagues of his when The 11th Hour continues. Hey allergy muddlers
one of my daughters said dad the problem is you are the man. I thought that was a compliment. And i said thank you. She said i dopamine that as a compliment. You are the man, who would want to work for the man . I get that but the truth is if you know what this man and woman were like, you would want to be part of this. Hey guys thank you for hard you have been working. You have been killing it. You are one of the things that i have in mind when i tell the American People look, dont freak out, right, let us do our work. Thank you for that. That was from a show called inside the fbi on u. S. A. Network that Airs Thursdays at 10 00 p. M. And that comes close to portraying the james comey a lot of his associates know. This is what donald trump said about james comey yesterday. Look, hes a showboat. Hes a grand stander. The fbi has been in turmoil, you know that. I know that. Everybody knows that. Comments like that from President Trump about james comey cannot sit well with his defenders or the more than 36,000 employees and the 56 Field Offices of the fbi. We learned yesterday from comeys replacement, the acting director Andrew Mccabe what the vast majority of rank and file employees at the bureau in his view have deep and positive connection with comey. Many have quietly replaced their facebook photos with a photo of their old boss as a show of solidarity. James comey and as we mentioned a source close to comey told nbcs ken dlanian he hopes there are tapes saying that would be perfect. Joining me, stacey plastic ket. Importantly, she was senior
counsel for then Deputy Attorney general james comey. With me, ron has kell, former 30year veteran of the fbi and former Assistant Director at the bureau. Welcome to you both. Stacey, well begin with you. A lot of the president s narrative n plain english, didnt sound like the james comey people knew at the bureau. The desire to have dinner with his boss, for starters. But then asking to stay on four years into a tenyear term. And then reassuring the president he wasnt under investigation. Did you have that same reaction . That does not sounds like the james comey that those of us who worked with him at the deputy of justice during his tenure as Deputy Attorney general know. James comey was a man of you had most integrity. Almost to a fault. And we saw that earlier this summer with the way that he conducted himself, may in some instances seem to have
overstepped the line. But i think that was based on his belief in his public servitude and his idea of having an honest and open dialogue with the people of america to whom he feels the greatest bit of gratitude and servitude towards. In your day job as a member of house oversight, what was your reaction to hear there may be recorded conversations . Well, you know, back in april, myself and congressman ted lou as well as Kathleen Rice all being former federal prosecutors wrote a letter to the Department Of Justice requesting that a Special Prosecutor be put in place because of what is now happening. There cannot be any seeming politicizing of this investigation which is exactly what is happening. And the notion there would be tapes are something that the oversight committee, both the Ranking Member and i think thi