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Wolf

Comey Deliberately Leaks Memos, Said Trump Administration Lied About Me & FBI; Comey: Lynch Said to Call Clinton Case "A Matter"; Trump Attorney Marc Kasowitz to Make Statement Soon Reacting to Comey Testimony. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired June 08, 2017 - 13:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[13:30:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Do you believe Comey?

REP. MARK MEADOWS, (R), NORTH CAROLINA: Listen, I've had Comey in my committee when we were talking about Hillary Clinton and some of the other aspects, so I have always found him to be a good public servant. When we have some of the things that are here, let me tell you what's troubling today, I was surprised that he said that there was a private confidential memo that he wrote to himself and that it got leaked. That is

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: He deliberated wanted it leaked --

MEADOWS: Yes, but --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: -- to create the pressure for a special counsel.

MEADOWS: But just because you want something deliberately done doesn't make it right. And so I was troubled by that.

At the same time, Comey and the president both are serving this country. We have to understand that. As I look at that, the coming days with the special counsel will hopefully, finally vindicate what we have and put this in a perspective.

I talked to a bunch of Russian scholars. They are almost laughing at the amount of credit that the Russians are getting with the interference --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: You heard Comey, though. He said there is no doubt that Russia deliberately hacked, got into the U.S. election system.

MEADOWS: Right. And I agree with that.

BLITZER: But isn't that --

(CROSSTALK)

MEADOWS: Well, I'm not on the Intel Committee, but all roads --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: You accept that they deliberately did it --

(CROSSTALK)

MEADOWS: But did it change the minds of people in Wisconsin, Ohio?

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: But you are outraged by that?

MEADOWS: Well, certainly. You have to be outraged. Anytime that a country certainly meddles in the election process of a democratic country or any country, it is something we have to fight back with the --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: One of the points Comey was making was that, in all of his meetings, nine encounters with the president, he really didn't hear that outrage from the president himself, that the president basically wanted to speak about Michael Flynn, wanted to speak about, is he under investigation. He never really wanted to get the inside story about Russian involvement in the election.

MEADOWS: I think that's because we conflated two things. One was the whole collusion. And the president has told me, he's told a number of people, he's told a number of people there was no collusion. We sometimes conflate that with the fact with, was there Russia interference.

BLITZER: He says that's still an open question.

MEADOWS: Well, no, he says he's not going to opine on that.

BLITZER: He says Michael Flynn is under criminal investigation.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: The former national security advisor.

MEADOWS: But from that standpoint, that doesn't mean there's collusion. In fact, many of the people that I have talked to --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: But they have concluded that --

MEADOWS: Right.

BLITZER: But apparently this investigation is still going on, and Mueller the new special counsel, has his work cut out for him. At least I counted five times Comey suggested the president of the United States and his aides are liars. MEADOWS: Well, here's the thing, is that when we look at calling

someone a liar, we have to understand the intent. And there have been times when I've wanted to call Director Comey a liar when we were having him in front of me in terms of sworn testimony. When he said he didn't know if Hillary Clinton was sophisticated enough to understand what a classified marking was, I had a hard time believing that. But I didn't call Director Comey a liar.

When we look at this, what we need to make sure of is that we keep it in context. And for me, it's all about getting to the truth. You know me. I'll go after my own party as much as I will the other party.

But the other part of that, Wolf, is this. The president said that he wasn't under investigation. In sworn testimony, the director said that he wasn't under investigation. Well, if they really suspect collusion, why wasn't he under investigation?

BLITZER: He said the president's not under investigation, but he didn't rule out others associated with the campaign are under investigation, and that's still a problem.

MEADOWS: Yeah. And we want to get to the bottom of that. We are a nation of laws, rules of laws. Yet, when we have the rule of law in place, it shouldn't have a Democrat or a Republican behind it. And so I can tell you that, for me, I'm going to be full on in making sure that we get to the bottom of it. But I think, for the most part, Marco Rubio, compelling questions.

(CROSSTALK)

MEADOWS: He was very good.

BLITZER: The Senate Intelligence Committee was very good.

MEADOWS: It was outstanding.

BLITZER: I don't know if the House Intelligence Committee or other House members are going to have that kind of bipartisan cooperation. It was impressive today.

MEADOWS: Well, yeah, I've committed to some of my Democrat colleagues that they know I will go and get to the truth and there are some that come from very different districts from mine. The same thing. What I'm hearing back home, the American people want us to start getting something done in this place behind us, start moving on with an agenda. Hopefully today allows the special counsel to do their work and, at the same time, we start doing our work.

BLITZER: Congressman Meadows, thanks very much for coming in.

MEADOWS: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Congressman Mark Meadows, of North Carolina.

Anderson, once again, we're standing by for live coverage, the president's private outside attorney, Marc Kasowitz, is going to be making a statement. We'll have that. That's coming up momentarily.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: We'll obviously bring that to our viewers.

One of the kind of remarkable moments was early on, in Jim Comey's testimony, he did not read from his statement, which he had submitted previously, and which had been released previously yesterday by the Senate. But he basically just kind of was allowed to give an opening monolog.

I want to play some of that. Because it was interesting to hear him kind of venting in some of his thoughts about the administration. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[13:35:29] JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: On May the 9th, when I learned that I had been fired, for that reason, I immediately came home as a private citizen. But then the explanations, the shifting explanations, confused me and increasingly concerned me. They confused me because the president and I had had multiple conversations about my job, both before and after he took office, and he had repeatedly told me I was doing a great job and he hoped I would stay. And I had repeatedly assured him that I did intend to stay and serve out the remaining six years of my term. He told me repeatedly that he had talked to lots of people about me, including our current attorney general, and had learned that I was doing a great job and that I was extremely well liked by the FBI work force. So it confused me when I saw on television the president saying that he actually fired me because of the Russia investigation, and learned again from the media that he was telling privately other parties that my firing had relieved great pressure on the Russia investigation.

I was also confused by the initial explanation that was offered publicly, that I was fired because of the decisions I had made during the election year. That didn't make sense to me for a whole bunch of reasons, including the time and all the water that had gone under the bridge since those hard decisions that had to be made. That doesn't make any sense to me.

And although the law required to no reason at all to fire an FBI director, the administration then chose to defame me and more importantly the FBI by saying that the organization was in disarray, that it was poorly led, that the work force had lost confidence in its leader. Those were lies, plain and simple. And I am so sorry that the FBI work force had to hear them, and I'm so sorry that the American people were told them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Back now with the panel.

Jeff, to hear Director Comey using the word lies or liar repeatedly --

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, it was striking but it was also indicative of the sort of team culture of the FBI. That was the most emotional he was during the entire long hearing, and it was at the very beginning, because he felt, at least as he was portraying it, that it was an attack on the bureau and its people, as much as it was an attack on him. I think that is something that obviously seemed to move him a great deal. But it was only the first time that he challenged the White House's version.

COOPER: Were you surprised he didn't read from his opening statement?

TOOBIN: I guess I was, but it seemed to make sense in the moment. After all, it had become public. I just think it is such a dramatic summary. It might have been to his advantage to read it. But it would have taken a long time and I --

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEW WHITAKER, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF GEORGIA: Anderson, in my experience with Jim Comey, he is an incredibly articulate public speaker. He is that smart. He's a trial lawyer by trade. I was not surprised that he could do that.

And I think the winner of today was Jim Comey. He built so much credibility by appearing the way he did that I think everybody that was watching it that I've been talking to was very impressed by him.

TOOBIN: Not only do I agree, but I think the Senators agreed. And you saw not even one Senator went after his credibility or said, you were wrong or you're not telling the truth. That sets up an interesting dilemma for the Trump administration if they want to do it?

COOPER: I think bring in Chris Swecker, former FBI assistant director for the Criminal Investigative Division.

Chris, what did you take away from Director Comey's comments today?

CHRIS SWECKER, FORMER FBI ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIVE DIVISON: I think he came across as very human. He admitted that he didn't know, quite know what to do in some circumstances, particularly whether -- what to do with this "let it go" request. I would have expected the director of the FBI, if he thought that that rose to the level at least to open a preliminary inquiry, which is a pretty low bar, that he would have referred it to his assistant director, criminal, or across the street to the Department of Justice to at least get an opinion as to whether something ought to get opened up. I think he basically admitted, I didn't know what to do with it, we decided to keep it among ourselves. And there were other parts of the other conversations where it was almost a deer-in-the-headlights kind of reaction which, you know, to me comes across as he's very human.

There are a couple other things that came out of it, the fact that the Russian investigation -- the interactions are being looked at by Director Mueller. He's handed his -- former Director Mueller. He's handed his memos and notes over to former Director Mueller. There was an open question for a while, until today, as to whether Director Mueller was going to look at that or if he was going to stay within the four corners of Russian collusion. [13:40:24] COOPER: Chris, there's been some criticism from folks on

the panel that the director could have stood up, should have said something. You mentioned the idea of opening up a line of inquiry. What could he have done just within the system? What were the options if he had felt when he -- that what he felt was a directive on Flynn was inappropriate?

SWECKER: Under the attorney general guidelines, which we operated under, and he operates under as director of the FBI, there's a level of what we call predication to open up an investigation. A preliminary inquiry is a pretty low bar, a reasonable indication that a crime has bene committed. And then the next step is a full investigation. That could have been done. I was very surprised when he had been asked, as an FBI agent who he sees a crime, do they have a duty to report it. He gave a very equitable answer. My answer would have been, absolutely, of course. Particularly under these circumstances. I don't think he really had a good answer to that question. That was the question I hoped that he would answer today.

COOPER: If -- given that there was already an ongoing investigation, is the argument that he was holding it for that investigation at a later date, is that a reasonable one?

SWECKER: He said he was saving it.

COOPER: Or draw the president out in some way?

SWECKER: Yeah, I think he was -- what he said was they thought it might be relevant in the near future and they decided just to sort of put it aside and with the notion that it might be relevant. To me, it was immediately relevant. And that question or that matter, potential matter should have been referred to someone. He basically became a potential witness at the moment the president said or requested that he let it go when there's an ongoing investigation. To me, it should have been handled the way you always handle things. You recuse yourself and hand it down to your number two or your number three or you go across the street to the Department of Justice. Even if the A.G. himself was convict conflicted.

COOPER: I actually want to play the sound where Comey is talking about that moment, and we'll talk about it with the panel as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED SENATOR: He did not direct you to let it go?

COMEY: Not in his words, no.

UNIDENTIFIED SENATOR: He did not order you to let it go?

COMEY: Again, those words are not an order.

UNIDENTIFIED SENATOR: He said I hope. Do you know of any case where a person has been charged for obstruction of justice or for that matter any other criminal offense where they said or thought they hoped for an outcome? COMEY: I don't know well enough to answer. And the reason I keep

saying his words is I took it as a direction. This is the president of the United States with me alone saying hope this. I took it as this is what he wants me to do. I didn't obey that, but that's the way I took it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Later he used the word directed, that he was directed.

For you, the fact that he didn't raise this up --

(CROSSTALK)

DAVID URBAN, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN STRATEGIST: You just heard the assistant director of the FBI of the Criminal Division, Swecker, say that what Director Comey should have done under protocol is take it across the street that very second. Nine times he had the opportunity to do that, and he didn't do it. And when asked by, under oath, at the U.S. Senate, he said, I don't know.

TOOBIN: Now, which one, between Comey and Donald Trump, is a private citizen in Virginia now, and which one is president of the United States and --

URBAN: That's irrelevant, Jeff.

TOOBIN: Oh, really? Whose conduct is more important to evaluate here today?

URBAN: It's going to get flushed out in that Mueller report.

(CROSSTALK)

TOOBIN: Let's flush it out.

URBAN: What I'm talking about.

(CROSSTAKL)

URBAN: Let's press rewind. Let's press rewind.

TOOBIN: Yeah.

URBAN: If Comey was so concerned about it, the very first time, why didn't he leak it to his Columbia friend then?

(CROSSTALK)

CARL BERNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: He went to the attorney general. He did go to the attorney general of the United States.

But he asked the attorney general -- he was behind the attorney general recusing himself.

TOOBIN: But why -- (CROSSTALK)

URBAN: You're treating Comey as if he's some Boy Scout. Comey, if you can't -- Comey is like a puppet master.

(CROSSTALK)

BERNSTEIN: Not only is he not a Boy Scout, but he said the deer in the headlights --

(CROSSTALK)

TOOBIN: What about the decision by the president of the United States to say to the FBI director "let it go?"

(CROSSTALK)

TOOBIN: What about the appropriateness of that?

(CROSSTALK)

TOOBIN: Why are we talking about the FBI policy?

URBAN: There's a -- you as a lawyer, and Laura, as a prosecutor, know there is a chasm between inappropriate and criminal.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: But, David, it seems to me, you'll comment on the inappropriateness of what Comey did not do, based on what Comey's statement is, but you will not comment on the inappropriateness of what the president did, based on some of the statements.

URBAN: If the president did it, perhaps it was inappropriate.

(CROSSTALK)

TOOBIN: Perhaps. Perhaps.

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

URBAN: I just don't want to be Jeff Lord --

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

BERNSTEIN: One thing about this deer in the headlights that the former assistant director was talking about here, this deer in the headlights figured out that he was going to get a special prosecutor.

(CROSSTALK) BERNSTEIN: That means --

(CROSSTALK)

BERNSTEIN: Indeed, he figured out, OK, this needs to be investigated and it needs -- and the attorney general himself had lost his credibility and was under a cloud himself.

URBAN: As you heard the assistant director of the fib, the Criminal Division, day one, when Director Comey heard that, he should have recused himself because he was going to be a witness, if there would have been a crime. He should have walked across the street and put it on somebody else's desk.

COOPER: Matt, do you agree?

WHITAKER: Yeah. I think the other thing, let's make sure everybody has the cards here.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITAKER: Bob Mueller worked for Jim Comey at the Department of Justice, so it's not just getting a special counsel. It's getting Bob Mueller to be special counsel to investigate this.

(CROSSTALK)

BERNSTEIN: Comey didn't do that.

JEN PSAKI, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, he didn't pick him.

WHITAKER: His fingerprints are all over this.

PSAKI: I think there's another context I heard from what Comey said which is a concern about corruption or whatever you want to call it in the chain of command in the Department of Justice.

BERNSTEIN: That's right.

PSAKI: He had concerns about the attorney general.

(CROSSTALK)

PSAKI: Let me finish -- about Sessions. He went to Rosenstein, who then wrote a memo that was used to justify his firing. That raises a whole host of other questions. He didn't know what to do. He was stunned. Should he have handled it better? Maybe. But he had concerns he expressed even during the hearing about who he would have gone to on this specific matter.

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: One small point is he did consult with his senior staff on this. It wasn't as if he kept it to himself. So when you say said have consulted with others --

(CROSSTALK) TOOBIN: And there's just another factor to remember about how James Comey should have handled this. We'll never know how he ultimately would have handled it because the guy he was investigating fired him.

COOPER: You keep bringing up that point.

TOOBIN: I know. You know what? Because I think it's pretty darn relevant.

LAURA COATES, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: He didn't just contact Jeff Sessions. In his statement, he says he tried to contact dana ben and got no answer. You talk about the word puppet master. That's what he was trying to investigate. Were those strings attached and who was holding that little crossbow at the top of it? It is very prudent that he would have investigated the matter further before handing it over to -

(CROSSTALK)

URBAN: There are 535 people at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue who feel like they could have been a big help. 100 Senators, 435 members of Congress he could have gone up to. Independent, you saw today.

Jeff, you said yourself, fair and objective. He could probably get a leadership and said, I'm very concerned about this, and gone to the leader of the Senate Judiciary Committee --

(CROSSTALK)

COATES: They lack criminal authority.

(CROSSTALK)

URBAN: Nonetheless, if you don't do nothing, you don't go back in your car and write a private memo to yourself and put it in your lock box in case something happens down the road.

COATES: It's nothing versus proactive investigation, and in the end, assessments of what he's done -- I don't judge him to be the Boy Scout you're describing. I don't believe -

(CROSSTALK)

COATES: And I probably would have, in hindsight, done it better if I were him. I'm sure he agrees. But it's a distinction. To be so dismissive and cavalier about a contemporaneous recollection of what happened, would we allow that in the trial court? All the time. It's on.

(CROSSTALK)

URBAN: I'm saying he should man up.

COOPER: Wolf?

BLITZER: All right, good discussion.

We're standing by. Marc Kasowitz, the private outside attorney hired by the president to represent him, is about to make a statement over at the National Press Club. Not at the White House.

At the National Press Club, a few blocks away, Jeremy Diamond is on the scene for us.

Set the scene, Jeremy, for that.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're expecting the president's attorney, Marc Kasowitz, to come out here momentarily to deliver a statement. Essentially, this is going to be the president's response to the testimony that we just heard a little bit earlier from Jim Comey, the former FBI director that, of course, the president fired.

What this is today also beyond simply a response to the Comey testimony is also the beginning that we're seeing of how this White House, how this president hopes to respond to the Russia probe going forward. We've seen earlier today, Sarah Sanders, the deputy press secretary, gaggling with reporters in the White House briefing room. She declined multiple times to answer questions about the testimony, saying repeatedly that she would refer the matter to Marc Kasowitz, who, as you said, is expected to give a statement. And this is what we're seeing from this White House which has gotten repeatedly bogged down in this Russia affair, repeatedly got prevented from going forward and trying to move forward on policy items. And now we're seeing this White House trying to farm some of this out. They are trying to farm it out, of course, to Marc Kasowitz, the president's newly hired attorney, on this matter. And the RNC, the Republican National Committee, which we've seen in recent days really trying to take the helm of some of this rapid response effort. They were responding in real time to a lot of the Comey testimony, and sharing talking points with surrogates who have been going out and try and essentially rebut James Comey's testimony and trying to smear and/or tarnish, rather, his credibility.

Certainly, what we'll be hearing from Marc Kasowitz is probably going to be something of a vindication. As we saw yesterday, Marc Kasowitz said that he believes the preplanned testimony from James Comey vindicated the president. So I expect that we'll be hearing a lot more of that today. But it still remains to be seen what we'll be hearing. We'll be standing by here in just a few moments -- Wolf?

[13:51:00] BLITZER: Jeremy, do we know if Marc Kasowitz, the private attorney, is simply going to read a statement, make a statement, will you answer reporters' questions at the same time? Do we know the answer?

DIAMOND: We don't know at this point whether we'll be able to ask questions of Marc Kasowitz. Certainly, my colleagues and I in this room will be trying to do so. But we expect him to deliver a statement about James Comey's testimony just earlier today.

BLITZER: Do we know who is accompanying him to that statement that he's about to make? DIAMOND: I'm sorry. What was that, Wolf? We're having trouble --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Do we know if any White House officials are joining him over at the National Press Club, Jeremy, where you are, to make that statement?

DIAMOND: Yes, we don't know at this point whether that's the case but we're a few blocks from the White House. It's notable that this is not happening at the White House. Clearly, White House officials trying to put some distance between the White House and this James Comey testimony. As I said, the White House also looking to put greater distance between the president and, of course, all of this Russia investigation. You know, we've seen this repeatedly bogged down the president and his agenda. Clearly, the White House has been trying to keep the president on message and keep the president busy today in meetings and events so he's not going on Twitter and firing off a response to James Comey. That's certainly what White House officials have been trying to do today.

Again, we'll be hearing from the president's attorney. That is significant because, in the past, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer and other White House officials have been pressed repeatedly to respond to these kinds of developments, sometimes daily developments, regarding the federal investigation into the Russia inquiry.

Again, when this special counsel was named into this matter, some White House officials began to see that as an opportunity, an opportunity for the White House to take some distance from this matter and focus instead on their agenda. As the Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Sanders was trying to stress today, today is business as usual at the White House even though, clearly, it's really not -- Wolf?

BLITZER: It's certainly not business as usual.

Jeremy Diamond, we'll get back to you. Let us know as soon as Kasowitz shows up to make that statement. We'll have live coverage.

I want to play another clip. This is an exchange that Comey had talking about one of the dinners he had with the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COMEY: Well, again, it's my impression -- and again, it's my impression. I could always be wrong -- but my commonsense told me that what was going on is, either he had concluded or someone had told him that you've already asked Comey to stay and you didn't get anything for it. And that the dinner was an effort to build a relationship. In fact, he asked specifically of loyalty in the context of asking me to stay. As I said, what was odd about that, we had already talked twice about it by that point and he said, I very much hope you'll stay, I hope you'll stay. I just remembered, sitting here, a third one. When you've seen the picture of me walking across the blue room, and what the president whispered in my ear was, I really look forward to working with you. So after those encounters -- (CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFEID SENATOR: And that was a few days before --

(CROSSTALK)

COMEY: That was the Sunday after the Inauguration. The next Friday, I have dinner, and the president begins by wanting to talk about my job. So I'm sitting there thinking, wait a minute, three times you've already asked me to stay or have talked about me staying. My commonsense told me -- again, I could be wrong - but my commonsense told me what's going on here is, he's looking to get something in exchange for granting my request to stay in the job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Interesting exchange, Gloria Borger, and it says a lot. The president, according to Comey, kept saying to me, you're doing a great job, doing a great job, looking forward to working with you. Next thing he knows, he's fired.

BORGER: Right. And the next thing he knows is the president is asking him to do something. It's a quid pro quo. I'll keep you on if you do what I want. And if you look at Comey's testimony, as outlined yesterday and today, skepticism grew. He was there from the very first meeting at Trump Tower, where he rushed in, and he started taking notes, and he said, I wasn't sure that the president wouldn't lie about the nature of our meetings. So that's on January 6th. January 27th, he has this weird dinner where the president asks him for loyalty. Then, the big one was the Valentine's Day meeting. February 14th, they're in there and Comey said quite specifically that he thought Sessions was kind of hanging around because maybe he knew something was going on that shouldn't go on, and that was the meeting after Sessions and Jared Kushner left that the president asked him to end the investigation into Flynn. So, you know, you see that Comey was skeptical at the outset.

[13:55:54] By the end of his testimony today, he made it very clear and he said, I was fired to change the way the Russia investigation was being conducted. This is a very big deal.

So while Comey would not talk specifically of how he felt about the obstruction issue, you see this building in his mind. I don't believe he was in the same place on day one on his meeting with the president or day two in that second meeting with the president that he is now after having been fired as a result of the Russia investigation.

BLITZER: And, John, you could see how angry he was at the president in his opening remarks. He didn't read the long statement he released yesterday, but in his opening remarks when he recalls how he was in Los Angeles, he was watching television, he learns that he had been fired. He couldn't -- and he immediately, of course, resigned. He couldn't even go back to FBI headquarters here in Washington to thank the men and women with whom he had worked for three and a half years.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So he took time in that opening statement to do that.

Let us not underestimate Jim Comey's knowledge of Washington and how to manipulate Washington and how to make his own case for himself. That's part of this today. His own reputation and indignation at how this was handled, let alone the substance.

So what you saw was very important, central testimony, both to the congressional investigations and to a special counsel investigation that, by everything we heard today, when Jim Comey was FBI director, the president of the United States was not under direct investigation. From everything we heard today, the special counsel is at least going to look at the possibility of launching an investigation of the president based on his decision to fire James Comey. So this is getting wider, not more narrow, for the president of the United States.

There's a spirit of legal conversation going on with Jeffrey Toobin and everyone else in the studio as this goes forward. We're months, if we're lucky, from figuring this out. So politically, where are we? I think it's interesting to listen to the Republican argument today. They are not challenging what James Comey said. They're challenging some of his interpretations of what happened. That the president was just trying to -- Mike Flynn was his friend. He was just trying to say he's been fired, can you cut the guy some slack? What they are saying essentially was what the president did was improper, maybe, it was icky, it was inappropriate, but not illegal.

The speaker of the House saying, oh, Donald Trump is new at this. Lindsey Graham saying he's rude and crude and a bull in the China shop, but that's not illegal. What they are asking, Wolf, is for you to dramatically lower the standard for being president of the United States, acceptable behavior for a president of the United States. And these are the same people, remember, who said Hillary Clinton couldn't be president of the United States because her conduct was beneath the dignity of the office. They are asking you politically to lower the bar for acceptable conduct by a president.

BLITZER: These congressional investigations are intensifying. Special counsel's investigation really only just beginning. If the president thought the removal of Comey would remove the cloud hanging over that -- the Trump administration, he was very, very wrong.

Although, a lot of Republicans, Nia, they are pointing to this exchange that Comey had involving the former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who was part of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's e-mail server. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COMEY: We were getting to a place where the attorney general and I were both going to testify and talk publicly about it, and I want to know, was she going to authorize us to confirm we had an investigation. And she said, yes, but don't call it that, call it a matter. And I said, why would I do that? And she said, just call it a matter. We had an investigation open at the time, and so that gave me a queasy feeling. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right. A lot of people are pointing to that exchange, Nia, to show that Loretta Lynch was not necessarily being objective in that investigation of Hillary Clinton's e-mail.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: That's right. That was a claim of Republicans during the Clinton administration, and Comey, of course, finally decided that he should essentially make the final decision in terms of that investigation and take -- and Loretta Lynch not involved in the final resolution of what was to come of that Clinton -- that Clinton investigation. It will be interesting in the next minutes or so to hear from Donald Trump's attorney here. We obviously know that their talking points is that this was a good day for this president, that he's essentially been exonerated by James Comey today. It'll be interesting to hear from Democrats how --