Midatlantic to massachusetts, brace for a noreaster. And leave me be. Steve harvey defends the controversial letter he sent to staffers, warning them not to approach him on the set of his talk show. I just didnt want to be in this prison anymore. Why he is saying he has nothing to apologize for. Today, friday, may 12th, 2017. From nbc news, this is today, with matt lauer and savannah guthrie. Live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to today on a friday morning. Busy friday morning. Talking a lot of politics today. Lester holt sitting town with the president at a key moment in his presidency. It is our top story, lesters exclusive interview with the president. Were going to have new portions of it. All this raising questions about the firing of fbi director james co now saying comes in direct contrast to what weve been hearing from the white house during the week. And during that interview, President Trump said he had dinner with comey and comey told him he wasnt under investigation. Now, people close to the former fbi director are telling a different story about all that. According to a New York Times report, thats been confirmed by nbc news, during the dinner, comey was asked multiple times he would be loyal to the president. But comey says he only promised honesty. And the public is weighing in on comeys firing in a survey monkey poll. 51 say the firing was not appropriate. 55 said it makes them less confident that the russia investigation will be conducted fairly. Lets bring in lester holt. Reporter in the midst of the growing fallout, President Trump made several headlines in our oneonone, first time, his reasons for f e firing fbi director comey, who was leading an investigation into the Trump Campaigns possible ties to russia. The president made eyebrowraising statements that comey told him on three separate occasions he wasnt under investigation. The president came out swinging with harsh words for the countrys former top cop. Look, hes a showboat. Hes a grandstander. The fbi has been in turmoil. You know that. I know that. Everybody knows that. You take a look at the fbi a year ago, it was in virtual turmoil. Less than a year ago. It hadnt recovered from that. Monday, you met with the Deputy Attorney general, rob rosenste rosenstein. Did you ask for a recommendation . What i did was i was going to fire comey. My decision. Reporter you had made the decision before they came in the room. I was going to fire comey. Theres no good time to do it, by the way said i accepted their recommendation. You had made the decision. I was going to fire regardless of recommendation. He made a recommendation. Highly respected. Very good guy. Very smart guy. The democrats like him. The republicans like him. He made a recommendation. But regardless of recommendation, i was going to 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 democrats because they lost the election. And the reason they should have wob it was the Electoral College is impossible for a republican to win. F everybody was thinking they should have won the election. This was an excuse for having lost the election. Reporter are you angry with mr. Comey because of the russia i want somebody thats competent. I am a big fan of the fbi. As far as im concern, i want that thing to be done properly. Reporter let me ask you about your termination letter to mr. Comey. You write, i greatly appreciate you informing me on three separate occasions that im not under investigation. Why did you put that in there . He told me that. Reporter was it in a phone call . Was it facetoface . I had dinner with him. We had a dinner. Reporter he asked for the dinner . The dinner was arranged. I think he asked for the dinner. And he wanted to stay on as the fbi head. And i said, ill consider it. Well see what happens. But we had a very nice dinner. And at that time, he told me, you are not under investigation, which i knew anyway. Reporter that was one meeting. What was the other two . When youre under investigation, youre giving documents and everything. I knew i wasnt under. And i heard it was stated at the mm level that i wasnt. Reporter that didnt come directly from him . During the phone call he said it. And during another phone call he said it. He said it once at dinner and twice during phone calls. Reporter did you call him . One case i called him and one case he called me. Reporter did you ask him under investigation . I asked him, yes. If its possible, will you let me know, am i under investigation . He said, you are not under investigation. Reporter but he has given sworn testimony theres an Ongoing Investigation in a possible collusion of russian government. You were the centerpiece of the Trump Campaign. I know im not ernl investigation. Im not talking about campaigns or anything else. Im not under investigation. Reporter did you ask him to drop the investigation . No, never. Reporter did anyone at the white house i want the investigation speet e speeded up. To drop the investigation . Any surrogates . Not that i know of. Reporter a lot of people will find it hard to believe that its a total hoax, a taxpayer charade. This was set up by the democrats, lester. A way, an excuse for them losing. Theres no collusion. Everybody has said, and i think you will admit that, theres no collusion between me and my campaign and the russians. The other thing is, the russians did not affect the vote. And everybody seems to think that. If russia or anybody else is trying to interfere with our elections, i think its a horrible thing and i want to get to the bottom of it. And i want to make sure it will never happen. Reporter a Senate Intelligence committee wants information about your fninance, your business finance. Can you tell your family, anybody has accepted investments from russia individuals or ibs tunstitution . I just sent a letter to Lindsey Graham, to one of the highest rated law firm. I have no investments in russia, none whatsoever. I dont have property in russia. A lot of people thought i owned Office Buildings in moscow the i dont have property in russia. And im in very im in total compliance in every way. I have to tell you, i file documents, hundreds of pages of worth of documents with the federal elections entrepreneur. Everybodys seen them. I built a great company. But im not in involved with russia. Ive had dealings over the years where i sold a house to a very wealthy russian many years ago. I had the Miss Universe pageant, which i owned for quite a while. I had it in moscow a long time ago. But other than that, i had nothing to do with russia. I dont know where to start. I think one of the headlines, if youre someone involved in the fbi investigation of possible collusion between trump and russia, you feel the president fully supports what were doing. He no longer thinks its a fraud and charade. That was important he said that. Maybe if that was said in a more explicit way, we wouldnt be where we are right now. Theres a shot of you when you first walk in. And it seems like the president handed you a piece of paper. What was that paper . This was the paper. Its five pages of quotes of democrats who have been critical of comey. A few calling for his resignation, a few calling for his firing. Being critical. There were about 20 quotes on here. And it makes a fair point that a lot of democrats were not happy with comey, either. Unhappy with h later. But part of the reason why the white house thought, this might not be so controversial. I got the sense, a lot of people got the sense, they didnt see this blowback coming. This would be something that would be more universally applauded. Lester, thank you. Youre going to be back in our next half hour, with more from the president , including if he feels his legitimacy as commander in chief is coming under attack. As you might expect, reaction to the president s comments on james comey has been swift on capitol hill. The fbis acting director came to the defense of his former boss, comey. Peter alexander is at the white house with more on it. Peter, good morning. Reporter good morning to you. President trump flatly contradicting his aides and his Vice President s assessment that russia had nothing to do with his decision, saying he was thinking, quote, this russia thing with trump and russia, is a madeup story, when he decided to fire james comey. That extended interview lester revealing a series of inconsistencies in what the white house has for days been saying publicly. This morning, pushing back at the president , leaving lawmakers defending ousted director james comey, after mr. Trump labeled him a grandstander and a showboat. I thought him to be upright, straightforward, individuals ive had a chance to work with. Im offended at the president s comments. Reporter on comeys dismissal, President Trump offering a new version of events. I was going to fire regardless of recommendation. Reporter contradicting top aides and the Vice President. The president acted on the clear recommendations of the Deputy Attorney general, rob rosenst n rosenstein, and attorney general, jeff sessions. That was a d. O. J. Session. Reporter the next day he made a decision based on that. Reporter Vice President pence punctuating the point. President trump made the right decision at the right time, to recommendation of the Deputy Attorney general. Reporter the white house spokeswoman saying, quote, the back and forth doesnt make a difference. This shouldnt be a complicated process. The president knew that director comey was not up to the task. Reporter stepping into that role and into the spotlight, acting fbi director andrew mccabe, rebutting this white house claim from wednesday. The rank and file of the fbi had lost confidence in their director. Director will comey enjoyed broad support within the fbi and still does to this day. Reporter mccabe also disagreeing with the president s assessment earlier this week that the russia investigation is a total hoax and a taxpayer funded charade. We consider it to be a highly significant investigation. Reporter an investigation that hasnt been impeded and wont be. Simply put, sir, you cannot stop the men and women of the fbi from doing the right thing. Reporter as for the president s telling nbc news that comey told him three times he was not under investigation i will or not the director and the president of the United States had that conversation. Reporter also this morning, back live at the white house, another embarrassing headline here after the white house was forced to admit it was duped into allowing a russian state media photographer into the oval office by claiming he was the Russian Foreign ministers official photographer. The white house saying there was no immediate plan to release the images. These images, caught them offguard when the photos posted online after that meeting. The white house did not release its own photos until yesterday. And they dismiss any concerns of a Security Threat of that photographer being in the oval office. We heard President Trump talk about his dinner at the white house with director comey. Nbc news justice correspondent Pete Williams joins us now. Pete, lets set the scene there. Its january. We know the fib is investigating possible links or collusion between Trump Associates and the russians. Should that dinner have taken place . Well, during t matt, the president said twice, that comey asked for the dinner. But several people who know comey say, they heard from him shortly after the dinner that he was asked to come to the white house and did so reluctantly without telling people at the fbi about it. They confirm a New York Times account, recalling that comey told them that during the dinner mr. Trump asked him a couple of times if he would be loyal to the president. And comey said he couldnt promise that but he would always be honest. The white house says that version of events of what happened is not accurate. That the president would not say that he expected personal loyalty. Pete, the president told lester holt that during this dinner, he asked director will comey, am i personally under investigation . So, put on your legal beagle hat. Is there anything improper, illegal, unethical about that question, from the president to an fbi director . Ive asked several former prosecutors about this. They say it wasnt illegal for the president to ask the question. Considered an attempt to interfere with a federal investigation. They said its unwise to ask a question like that, partly because of the way it could be perceived if it became public. And some of the former prosecutors say they thought mr. Comey should have said that he couldnt answer it, savannah. All right. Pete, thank you very much. Lets bring in our experts. Chuck todd, moderator of meet the press and nicolle wallace. Good morning. This is a president that believes he is his best spokesperson. And the question to be answered, if the goal was to convince people because i fired jim comey for good reason, not related to the russia investigation, how did he do . He did pretty poorly. He should have done it three months ago, when there would have been more running room to do that. More of an expectation at the start of the administration, at a time like that. But what really made this, think, a bungling attempt of keystone koplike, the fact that the staff seems to be playing catchup. We in the media seem to have the timeline better and more accurately than the white house staff themselves. And the fact that you have that disconnect, adds to this chaotic nature of what apparently was a decision that was made somewhat hastily in the last week. And based on the fact that the president s not happy with the fact that every time he saw comey on tv, he wasnt talking about hillarys emails. He was talking about the Russian Investigation. If a president comes out and contradicts what his staff has been saying, and by the way, what he said earlier and what the Vice President said, youre playing damage control the next day and were not getting that sense today. I cannot overstate how extraordinary it is. I worked in a white house that was far from perfect. But i never was asked toou by a president who went out and contradicted me. Neither was the Vice President of the United States. Neither was the senior adviser. What the president does over and over again, is create a reality that is completely detached from the reality that he believed in hours before. And he sent his entire team and no one is immune, from his, you know whatever he believes to be true in the moment. Not his Vice President. We have a Vice President , a senior staffer in kellyanne conway, an entire press office with zero credibility. That white house podium used to mean something. Now, they send them out to say whatever. Let me ask you about Vice President pence. This is two times hes been out on a limb, taking up the cause of the administration, giving the talking points, only to find out theyre in error. He went out there and stuck his neck out and said, comey was fired because the department of justice said so. And the president told lester, no, he was fired because i wanted to fire him. I mean, whats the Vice President thinking right look, youre absolutely right. Especially on the issue of russia, first mike flynn, now this. The Vice President has done his duty, stood by the president , showed his loyalty in public and was the good soldier. In the first 24 hours since right now, to many people, hes the most credible face of the administration. Hes gone out there and used his credibility. And now, its eroded away. I actually have talked to some people that are close to the Vice President. And theyre very concerned that hes being used this way. And they hope at some point he finally says, you know what, mr. President . I will do everything on health care. Ill stand up for you on immigrati immigration. Ill stand up for you on policy. Dont ask me to spin on russia anymore because it is ruining my own credibility, which then, of course, hurts the administration. All right. Nicolle and chuck, thank you. Chuck will have more on this on sunday on meet the press. All right. Lets get to some weather now. Al is are going to affect a lot of people in this country. Thats right. Especially along the eastern seaboard. But lets take a look and show you what happened in the midwest. And in fact, this is the same system that is. Good morning, everybody. A lot of rain, just down to our south. And that rain will be coming our way later on today. You may want to have the umbrella. No rain just yet. Heavier rain for the late part of temperature wise, were in the lowtomid50. We have 100 rain for your friday night and saturday morning. Rain should taper back to showers tomorrow afternoon. No sunshine today or tomorrow t. Next time we see the sun fortunately comes on mothers day. Latest weather. Savannah . Al, thanks. Coming up, the president taking direct aim at Stephen Colbert. What hes saying about the latenight host and his vulgar comments. And now colbert is responding. A new warning to uber and lyft users. What you need to know about fake drivers. First, this is today on c. Nb coming up, a very special live mothers day surprise. Trust us, you dont want lergies with nasal congestion . Find fast relief behind the counter with claritind. [ upbeat music ] strut past that aisle for the allergy relief that starts working in as little as 30 minutes and contains the best oral decongestant. Live claritin clear, with claritind. If you have moderate to severe Rheumatoid Arthritis like me, and youre talking to your rheuma