It borders on a constitutional crisis. The more that a broken system items you that youre wrong, the more certain you should be that you must keep pushing ahead. From abc news, its a special edition of this week. The firing of director comey. Here now, chief anchor george stephanopoulos. Good morning. And to all the moms out there happy mothers day. When this week began, the Trump White House was on something of a roll. Obamacare repeal had passed the house. Preparations for the president s first foreign trip including a meeting with the pope, were at pace. That was the calm. Then the storm. The decision to fire jam comey has plunged his white house into chaos. Galvanized his opponents. And raised the most serious questions yet about the president s competence, credibility, and judgment. Sit true that before last week, comeys toughest and president s do have the right to fire fbi directors. But its only been done once before for good reason. Preserving the idea that Law Enforcement is separate from poll sticks critical to our democracy. Never before has a president fired an fbi director conducting an investigation into the that president s campaign. Never before has a president confessed that he was thinking about that investigation when he fired the person running it. Regardless of recommendation, i was going fire comey. Knowing there was no good time to do it. And in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you know this russia thing with trump and russia is a madeup story. Its an excuse by the dmts for having lost an election that they should have won. That admission shattered the early white house spin, that the president s decision had nothing to do with the Russian Investigation. That he was acting solely on the recommendation. It also brought back three words from the days of water gate. Obstruction of justice. To be fair, the president in that same interview, said he wanted the investigation to absolutely be done properly. But his actions have raised questions about those words. And after reports that james comey denied clearing the president from the investigation thaptd he refused to pledge loyalty to trump at a dinner meeting in january, the echoes of water gate embedded in this feet tweet from washington. James comey better hope that there are no tames of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. Comey will likely tell his story to congress. Heres what the president said about a loyalty pledge. Did you ask that question . No, no, i didnt. But i dont think it would be a bad question to ask. I think loyalty to the country. Loyalty the to United States. Its important. Number one. Number two i dont know how that got there because, i didnt ask that question. What about the idea that in a tweet you said that there might be tape recordings. Well, that, i cant talk about. I wont talk about that. So at the end of a thank you multiuse week, were left with a series of questions. Is President Trump the first president since knicks within a secret taping system in the white house . Will the tapes become evidence if they exist . Will the investigation proceed . How can President Trump and his white house recover their credibility . Is a massive staff shakeup coming . And will that matter if the president himself does not change . And lets start are our reporters and analysts on the front lines. Our chief White House Correspondent jon karl. Senior justice correspondent pierre thomas. Mar that raddatz and alex castellanos. Most of the white house didnt know this was coming. You got the first inkling on tuesday morning. This may have been the closest held president ial decision we have seen of the trump presidency. I asked sean spicer about it in the press briefing that day. It was clear the White House Press office had no idea what was coming. And george, this of all the craziness, of all the tension we have seen over the course of this presidency so far this was the tensest week that i have seen at the white house. Because even before this, you had rumors of a big staff cheikhup coming. Senior folks in the white house, not sure their jobs were secure. But the real frustration for especially republicans on capitol hill is there was a sense going into this week that the president may have turned the ship. Health care reform was passed, at least in the house. And they were preparing for a very ambitious and i believe well organized, well thought out foreign trip. The first for the president. You get to the questions of credibility. The 36 to 48 hours where you had sean spicer, Sara Huckabee sanders. Kellyanne conway saying this is all about the Deputy Attorney general. The president said the same thing to members of congress. He did. Clearly there was major thift. There was fear that Rod Rosenstein could resign. He was clearly upset with the idea that it was being pinned on him. But, george, there were talking points prepared in a very small group, im told, before rosenstein was asked to write the memo. Talking points about why comey should be fired. In the white house, by the white house staff. The small group is don mcbegan. Reince priebus. Jared kushner . Anyone else . And the Vice President. Pierre thomas, you cover justice day after day. We have heard a lot of reports from those close the comey denying so much what about the president has said about those meetings. Exactly. This was a week unlike any i have seen in years at the fbi. Theyre usually in a position of knowing secrets and things they got shocked this week. Comey found out about this . Los angeles. He thought it was a joke. He thought it was a joke. It was on television behind him. Literally, the people in the room were saying, do you see whats going on . He turned around. Went to another room to find out from someone in washington he had been fired. You have the president in the initial letter saying that comey told him on three separate occasions he was not a target of the investigation. The idea he had dinner with comey january 27th, the same week the acting attorney general sally yates is telling the white house about michael flynn, general flynns problems. The same week general flynn is investigated by the fbi. Look, the people that are close to comey do not believe he would ever tell the president he was not the subject of an investigation. Hes too careful. He knows these investigations have twists and turns. You never know what will happen until its over. They think he would loyalty. He would tell the president , look, ill be honest with you. Never a situation where he would pledge loyally. Think what im hearing from people inside the bureau more than anything is that they were stunned at the white house has been talking about the need to shut in investigation so openly. Theyre also stunned at the notion of how comey was treated. They think he was treated shabbily. And thats the word im hearing. This is the kind of thing you would expect to see on tape from a white house years after the fact. But the president s doing this all very transapparently. Saying listen, i was thinking about russia. In real time. Right. And the person who is in the most interesting position is the Deputy Attorney general. Rosenstein. Im told he made a very principled argument in terms of when he was asked by the president. The impetus came from President Trump to fire comey. When asked, his legitimate answer was comey is too much of maverick. He likes to spot light. Quote, in this persons words, performance last week, when he talked about how difficult the decision was in regards to the clinton investigation. And that comey was way too aggressive in making the case publicly about it. And the president s word, a showboat. On what he said in the interview about russia. I dont think President Trump was saying i fired him because of the russia investigation. I think he was saying that on the idea that there would be massive blowback, he was firing the guy in terms of the investigation, he was not worried about the blowback because he thinks the Russian Investigation is nothing. That it will come to nothing. One of the strange twists. The day after this is all announced, the president in the oval office with the Russian Foreign minister lavrov. An extraordinary picture. Released by the russians. Smiling and laughing, there they are. I was at a later that day with the foreign minister. He was answering all the questions we wanted to do donald trump. He said, look, i had nothing to do with this. But we have to remember that at the center of all of this is the hacking. Is what the russians did during our election process. Their absolute targeting our democracy and theres President Trump, laughing with them. Lavrov said they did not talk about the charges against russia. And you still hear President Trump talking as if this may not be true. Others may have hacked as well. He makes a divide as he should that theres no evidence the russians actually hacked into any voting. But they certainly hacked into the dnc. Raised questions about our democracy. New polling numbers out this morning. Showing 29 approve of the president s decision. Of those who know a lot about it, 53 the overall Approval Rating still at 39 . You have supported the president. How do his voters view all this from outside of washington . Well, i think they see this is the washington that they hate. The phony outrage industry in full force. Democrats perhaps shouldnt have been making as effective a case for firing jim comey as they have for the past few months. Or admitted that Hillary Clinton would have fired jim comey if she had been elected if theyre going to be outraged that hes fired now. A lot of trump voters look at washington as if, these people are all over the map. They serve themselves, not us. This is the washington they hate. And who is their antiwashington hero . Donald trump. At what point do they say this is the gang that cant shoot straight . The way they did it. Yes, the way they did it is erratic. We were on the plane yesterday. With a trump we were talking. He was scared to death. We didnt know he was a trump voter. He came up and said, when is the president going settle down . Hes a wild man. Is he off the grid. Well, good luck waiting for that. But i asked him, would you vote for hillary or donald trump today again . Oh, no, we would vote for trump. Our poll still shows that, as well. On the point about the white house. There is all this talk about a shakeup. The question is, can it happen . Does the president want to it happen right now . A lot of white house aides are in the dark about this. They dont know what their last day will be. And a lot of them are worried their last day could be soon. This predates the comey firing. There has been, you know, that the president has been hearing from some of his closest advisers outside the white house that staff just the system is not working well in the west wing. He needs major changes. So its unclear when the changes will come. Before the foreign trip. They want the trip to come out well. Absolutely. This is a really ambitious trip. Hes starting in saudi arabia. Hell meet with the leaders of most of the muslim countries in the world opinion. And pierre thomas, well hear from james comey in public. He said he didnt want to testify before the Senate Intelligence committee in private next week. Likely to testify in front of congress openly . At some point, hell speak his peace. In the midst of all this, another north Korean Missile text. This one successful. There have been seven missile tests since donald trump took office. Think the administration was feeling good about the fact that there hadnt been a nuke ler test. That could happen at any time. The North Koreans will keep at it. A new president in south korea. A new what is your one big piece of advice for the Trump White House . Um when are they going to start taking advice . I dont know gnat i have noi offer. I think its important to keep this in context, george. A lot of americans and Trump Supporters see washington as one of these airlines that drags passengers down the aisle and bloodies them. And the only person who stands up for them is donald trump. Hes the only thing between them and a washington establishment that would devour them and maul them. They need him. And before we go. I apologize. I wanted to get to this first. A lot of interviews for the future fbi director yesterday. We saw senator john cornyn. Former congressman mike rogers. Talk about the interviews. Two junls on the list. Two current fbi agents on the list as well. A couple of judges as well. I think that, the bureau wants someone who is above reproach. Association put out today theyre in favor of mike rogers. Hes a former fbi agent. The president knows, he needs to have somebody that is politically bulletproof. I would not be surprised if it was someone not on that list. Maybe like a robert muller, the former fbi director who served under democratic, republican president s. Mike rogers has big nance the west wing. You could see, dont rule out merrick garland. He was floated by senator mike lee. Who could be confirmed 1000 in the senate. President obamas nominee for the supreme court. Denied that. That would be aplaying. We have seen a lot dont rule it out. Up next, well hear from nikki haley and her response to how the tumult is affecting americas standing in the world. Stay with me, mr. Parker. When a critical patient is far from the hospital, the hospital must come to the patient. Stay with me, mr. Parker. The at t network is helping First Responders connect with medical teams in near real time. Stay with me, mr. Parker. Saving time when it matters most. Stay with me, mrs. Parker. Thats the power of and. For all kinds of things. Like walking. Ewarded hey, honey. Dad, wheres the car . Thought wed walk. Hes counting steps. Walk, move and earn money. Goal dad. Hey, we wanna welcome everyone to the father daughter dance. Look at this dad, hes got some moves money you can use on outofpocket medical expenses. Hes ok, yeah unitedhealthcare what we do every night is like something out of a strange dream. Except that the next morning. It all makes sense. Fedex powers global ecommerce. With networks built over 40 years. That are massive. And, yes. Maybe a bit magical. Visit fedex. Com slash dream successful missile test last night. Well talk about that and more with nikki haley. Thank you for coming in. Happy mothers day. The seventh missile test this year from the North Koreans. Your administration has said this era of strategic patience is over. Is there anything you can do right now to stop the tests . You have to get into kim jonguns head. Hes in a state of paranoia. Hes incredibly concerned about anything and everything around him. I think this was a message to soout korea, after the election. Were going to continue to tighten the screws. He feels it. He absolutely feels it. Were going to continue whether its sanctions it doesnt appear to be affecting his actions. I can tell you. Were working better china than we ever have. Were determined to take care of south korea. Were going to continue to take care of japan. What we do know is that the International Community is concerned. Its not just u. S. Against them anymore. Youll see the entire International Community isolate north korea and let them know this is not acceptable. A senior official in the north key yan Foreign Ministry said theyre prepared for direct talks with the Trump Administration in the conditions are right. President trump said he would be honored to meet kim jongun under the right circumstances. What are those . Its not this. Having a missile test is not the way to sit down with the president. Because hes absolutely not going to do it. I can tell you, he can sit there and say all the conditions he wants. Until he meets our conditions, were not sitting down with him. The president cant imagine that russia is pleased with this test. Any didnt occasio theyre prepared to take tougher action now . Theyre concern period thp is getting kind of close to home for them. So theyre concerned. Certainly, well start rallying the troops again and say, okay, what do we need to do next . Theres a lot of sanctions left we can start too, whether with oil, energy, maritime ships, exports. Or options are there. We have to send a strong, unified message that this is unacceptable. The day after the president s meeting with foreign minister lavrov, he tweeted, russia must be laughing up their sleeves watching as the u. S. Tears its apart over a democratic es kus for losing the election. Is that what you think the russians are doing . Theyre trying to figure out what to do. They dont know what to do with our president. I dont think they know what to do with the situation. Theyve been isolated when it comes to syria. Theyre their place in the world. I think now we have to move forward and figure out what can we work with them on. What are we not going to work with them on. You said to martha, the president hasnt told you to stop beating up on russia. Doesnt appear thats what the president was doing in the meeting with the rub yans. His job is to find common ground. There is no one better to sit down with a foreign leader than the president. When he gets in front of them, things change. Things move. Its very positive. He makes a difference. Think what were seeing is theyre testing each other. Russia is testing us. Were testing them. Its part of the phew president coming in. The president appeared so full of himself. Having that meeting right on the heels of the firing of james comey . No. Russia is full of themselves. They have always been full of themselves. But its more of a fa said they try to show as opposed to anything else. What we are is serious. You see us in actions. It its actions. Thats what we do. Its why russia was left on an island when it came to syria. Even else isolated them. Youll continue to see us do that in other directions. Its very important to work with russia on our fight against isis. Many