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tv   Early Start with Christine Romans and Dave Briggs  CNN  May 10, 2017 1:00am-2:01am PDT

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investigation that could bring down the president. that's it for this cnn special report. be sure to log on to cnn.com for all your breaking news. thanks for watching. have a great night. . the bedrock of american democracy understand siege the fbi director investigating links between russia and aides to the president is fired by the president. what's next for the fbi, for the russia probe and why the timing has almost everyone crying foul. good morning and welcome to "early start" i'm christine romans. >> i'm dave briggs. it is wednesday, may 10th. 4:00 a.m. in the east. is this the mother of all
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miscalculations if you want to give president trump the benefit of the doubt. if not it's nixon onas senator casey and "new york times" have suggested this morning. we'll try to get to the bottom of these questions. first it's hard to overstate the sheer magnitude, the far reaching impact to fire fbi director james comey. this morning there's mounting criticism of that decision from both sides of the aisle and calls are growing louder from democrats for a special prosecutor now that the president has fired the man leading the investigation into possible collusion between trump aides and the russians. now house democrats asking for the preservation of all documents related to that probe and to comey's firing. >> the fbi director's unser moneyous firing.
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rosenstein cited comey's handling of the hillary clinton e-mail probe was not the focus of the letter trump penned to comey firing him which was more about trump than comey and talked about the russian investigation not the hillary clinton e-mail scandal. >> that abrupt letter never even made to it comey before he learned of his own termination from tv monitors at the fbi office in los angeles. our coverage begins this morning with jeff zeleny at the white house. >> reporter: the white house will be waking up today to the bomb shell that president trump delivered by firing fbi director james comey late tuesday night. it is something that the white house under estimated the fallout of. the top officials worked throughout the night to reshape the narrative that got away from them in the firing of the fbi director. now the letter, the very brief letter that the president sent to the fbi director thanked director comey for his service
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but also had some very unusual language. let's take a look at that. it said this. while i greatly appreciate you informing me on three separate occasions that i'm not under investigation, i never the less encourage the judgment of the department of justice that you're not able to effectively lead the bureau. so essentially in that one paragraph there president trump, all but confirmed that russia was on his mind. that the russia investigation that the fbi is leading was on his mind. now going forward here the president did not speak about this on tuesday evening. white house officials tell me he has no plans to address it today at the white house. we'll see if that actually happens or not. but the fallout on capitol hill and across this town is swift. republicans joining democrats in their criticism of this. yes, many of them on both sides had deep questions about the fbi's handseling of the election last year, particularly the e-mail server of the clinton campaign of hillary clinton. but republicans on capitol hill
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also have deep questions about the timing of this firing. the white house acknowledging it did not do, you know, a good enough job explaining it. were caught flat footed a bit. today at the white house no doubt more questions about this as the firing of james comey, the fbi director enters its second day here. jeff zeleny with a very long night at the white house. the source with knowledge of the president's decision to fire comey tells cnn the move was being considered for days. one final straw errors in his testimony to congress leading the president to believe he lost credibility. the fbi clarified comey's testimony hours before he was fired. >> white house facing enormous backlash. senior administration officials did not think comey's dismissal would trigger this explosive reaction since theater my natured him for his unfair treatment of hillary clinton's
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e-mail issue. listen to kellyanne conway about the timing of the firing. >> you don't think it looks odd at all that the president of the united states is firing the guy who is leading the investigation into the president's white house and the people around the president? >> well, let me repeat the president has been told by fbi director he's not under investigation. >> clearly, this white house is under investigation, the people around the president. they are under investigation. you would agree with that. >> no, i don't. i know that some are obsessed -- >> james comey said there's an ongoing investigation. >> the president is not under investigation. i'm not under investigation. i can name many people in that same situation. but i know everybody wants to -- >> you're saying there's no investigation by the fbi that's ongoing right now into the people around the united states? >> i don't know that. but i'm saying to the extent that any of that is true, the
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president himself -- excuse me -- is not subject to investigation. are you talking about the folks who are involved in the campaign? >> yeah. >> you said the people around the president. people who were -- >> some of them may still be around the president. i don't know exactly who is being investigated. >> again, you want this to be about russia when this is about restoring confidence and integrity at the fbi. >> you want this to be about restoring confidence in the fbi. many people believe this doesn't restore confidence in the fbi. a lot of people are raising questions about it destroys people's confidence in the fbi, that whoever the president appoints will now be in charge of an investigation into people who have been close to the president during the campaign. any potential collusion with russia. >> today's actions had zero to do with that.
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>> the president himself in his letter three times mentioned he's not under investigation. he himself brought up the investigation with russia and thanked the director. >> we don't know what those instances were. sean spicer was asked about that. sean spicer did not know when those instances were that james comey told the president he was not under investigation. >> deputy fbi director is now the head of the fbi. he's now under investigation. >> on capitol hill comey's firing was met with shock across the political spectrum. republicans expressing a range of concerns but then focused on the timing of the dismissal months into trump's term and a year after comey's news conference on the clinton's e-mail. senator corker one of six
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senators critical of the timing. said this the removal will raise questions. >> senator flake said i spent the last several hours to find an acceptable rationale for comey's firing. john mccain said he's disappointed in the president's decision. marks a rare break with mccain from lindsey graham. lindsey graham voiced support for the firing of comey. >> on the other side of the aisle, democrats calling for a special prosecutor. senate minority leader, chuck schumer. >> this investigation must be run as far away as possible from this white house and as far away as possible from anyone that president trump has appointed. >> president trump ready to fire right back on twitter. quote, crying chuck schumer stated recently i do not have confidence in him, james comey
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any longer then act so indignant drain the swamp. with more reaction let's bring in phil mattingly. >> reporter: two words uttered most by both republicans and democrats in the wake of that stunning firing of fbi director james comey was shock and surprise. with the exception of top congressional leaders the vast majority of lawmakers on capitol hill simply were not informed. according to several gop aides i spoke to they didn't know how to respond. they were calling office to office to unify their statement. they weren't sure. when those statements started to roll out you saw a constant theme from democrats. this under scores the need for an independent prosecutor or independent commission. republicans are a little bit more varied. some like lindsey graham say they support the decision. it was necessary for fbi to move on. necessary for new leadership to come in to play. others not so aligned with the
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trump white house. senator richard bird, the top republican on the senate intelligence committee put out a statement saying he's trouble by timing and reasoning of director comey's termination. he's overseeing the senate investigation into russian meddling in the 2016 election and he's mostly stayed away from any types of political statements. now take a listen to what the vice chairman of that committee said, democrat from virginia, mark warner. >> didn't see this coming. this is outrageous. what happened during the nixon period there were people of principle who stood up against president nixon's actions. i'm hoping in the coming days we'll see either out of administration and from my colleagues a willingness to rise above partisanship. this is so much more important than this president, it's about the whole rule of law in our country. >> the house of representatives isn't even in session. some lawmakers back home on
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recess. others out of the country, staffers trying to scramble to brief their bosses let alone get a statement from them. what the under scores this happened quickly and quietly. capitol hill for the most part not in the loop on this dramatic night, dramatic happening, dramatic occurrence. you can bet senators that are in town and house members when they come back next week will have plenty to say about this development. >> you got that right. soon after word of comey's firing broke cnn learned federal prosecutors issued subpoenas to former national security adviser michael flynn. they are seeking his business records from colleagues that worked with him on contracts after he was forced out of the defense intelligence agency back in 2014. the subpoenas single a significant escalation of the activity and the fbi's investigation into possible ties between the trump campaign and russia. investigators have been
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examining how flynn handled disclosures about payments received including russia and turkey. attorneys for flynn declining to comment. we're certainly far from done with the details on this story. >> the president has one public event today. it's a meeting with sergei lavrov. >> foreign minister of russia. >> a group with unique insight. the clinton campaign has big concern how this is all going down. that's next.
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unceremonious
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. james comey was fired for being too mean to hillary clinton? does anyone believe that? could anyone believe that? this is an investigator who is investigating the white house. and he was just fired by the white house. this doesn't happen in the united states. more now with our breaking
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news. our own jeffrey toobin. we're hearing from clinton campaign aides responding to the stunning news with suspicion not savings. campaign manager robby mook tweeting this morning, twilight zone. i was as disappointed and frustrated as anyone at how the e-mail investigation was handled. >> and brian fallon weighing in. >> the timing and nature of this firing that the trump administration is announcing now belies any explanation that this has anything to do with the clinton investigation. the only thing i think could have further deterry rated confidence and eroded faith in the fbi than james comey remaining there was firing james comey and now donald trump has gone and done that. >> then john podesta who chaired hillary clinton's campaign echoing the words democrats who called comey's firing nixon on. podesta tweeting didn't you know
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you're supposed to wait until saturday night to massacre people investigate underground. that's reference to president nixon's firing of special prosecutor archibald cox which led to resignation of the attorney general and deputy attorney general. it wasn't even seven or eight minutes after the news broke that comey was fired you're seeing reference to nixonian and archibald cox and saturday night massacre. >> both sides of the ailes now. republicans very critical of the timing here and that's what is the focus. this morning a range of other former officials with insight pushing back against the comey firing. former u.s. attorney, the federal prosecutor in new york who was fired by the president after being told he was staying on tweeting, everyone who cares about independence and rule of law in america should be troubled by the timing and the reasoning of comey firing. period. >> former obama administration
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officials also firing up their twitter feeds. former attorney general eric holder writing to the career men and women at doj/fbi. . >> this from the former white house communications director who is also now a cnn contributor. this should not be sugarcoated. firing comey is up there in terms of the scariest things trump has done. we'll share more thoughts and reactions throughout the morning. with director comey out where does investigation into russian meddling stand. it now rests with the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. jeff sessions, a trump campaign surrogate and adviser recused himself on matters related to trump and russia. congress could pass a bill create agnew office of independent counsel as it did in 1978. that law expired in 1999.
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>> in between the statute was used a dozen times. most famous ken starr probe of president clinton. president trump could veto a bill which would have to be overridden by two third of the house and senate. bill clinton signed a re-authorization of the original law in 1994 with several alleged scandals brewing. we'll have plenty more on the dismissal of james comey. job openings are at a record high. is this good news or something going wrong in the american economy? pain used to shut me down during pick-up games.
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24 minutes past the hour. against political turmoil in washington this is the backdrop. the u.s. labor market is humming. strong jobs growth, low unemployment and 5.7 million job openings below a record high according to labor department march jolt report. jolts tracks the pace of firing, hiring and quitting. employers hiring proves a strong jobs market as does the report's high quit rate. high quit rate, workers are reluctant to leave their jobs during economic down times but happy to quit right now. there's a lot of people quitting. that shows confidence in the labor market. the march mean job report shows a slump 78,000 jobs added. this most recent jobs report was strong. high number of joplin openings confirms a lack of skilled workers. something you've been hearing from executives for months now. wages are rising nearly double the average for jobs like
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carpenters and electricians because employees in those fields are in short supply and skills gap is holding down overall wage group a major reason why americans feel left out of the recovery. bottom line from this labor department data, people are feeling more confident to quit their jobs, electricians and car pen terrifies are having very nice pay raises because there are not enough workers in that area and real concern about we could fill those 5.7 million open jobs today if we had a match of the skills of people who don't have jobs. >> retraining the workforce is something you don't hear enough about. you'll hear enough about the firing of james comey. the future of the russia investigation on the minds of millions today. what's in store now that the president has fired the man leading the very probe. try zyrt® it's starts working hard at hour one and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. stick with zyrtec® and muddle no more®.
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a truly stunning development rocking the foundation of american government, president trump firing the fbi director investigating russia's ties to trump's aides. this morning demands for a special prosecutor amid growing doubts over this investigation. welcome back to "early start" everybody, on an extraordinary morning in this nation. i'm dave briggs. >> i'm christine romans. 31 minute past the hour. so this morning was james comey fired as fbi director for the handseling of the clinton e-mail investigation or something else? the reality for the bureau and white house is this. the russia probe is alive without anyone to lead it and the president of the united states is taking serious heat from both sides of the aisle for a move that stunned the nation and among them raises serious questions about why this move came at this time. democratic calls for a special prosecutor on the russia probe are growing louder this morning. house democrats now asking for
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the preservation of all documents related to russia and to comey's firing. the fbi director unceremonious termination of echos of watergate. >> the president acting on advice from attorney general jeff sessions and deputy attorney general rod rosenstein who cited comey's handling of the hillary clinton e-mail probe not once mentioning russia. trump, on the other hand, clearly had russia on his mind when he penned an abrupt letter to tell comey he was out of a job. comey actually learned of his own termination from tv monitors in the fbi office in l.a. our coverage begins with jeff zeleny at the white house. >> reporter: the white house will be waking up today to the bomb shell that president trump delivered by firing fbi director james comey late tuesday night. it is something that the white house under estimated the fallout off. white house top officials worked
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throughout the night to reshape the narrative here that frankly got away from them in the firing of the fbi director. now the letter, the very brief letter that the president sent to the fbi director thanked director comey for his service but also had some very unusual language. let's take a look at that. it said this. while i greatly appreciate you informing me on three separate occasions that i am not under investigation, i never the less encourage the judgment of the department of justice that you are not able to effectively lead the bureau. so essentially in that one paragraph there president trump all but confirmed that russia was on his mind. that the russia investigation that the fbi is leading was on his mind. now going forward here the president did not speak about this on tuesday evening. white house officials tell me he has no plans to address it today at the white house. we'll see if that actually happens or not. but the fallout on capitol hill and across this town is swift. republicans joining democrats in
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their criticism of this. yes, many of them on both sides had deep questions about the fbi's handling of the election last year particularly the e-mail server of the clinton campaign of hillary clinton. but republicans on capitol hill also had deep questions about the timing of this firing. the white house acknowledging it did not do a good enough job explaining it. were caught flat footed a bit. so today at the white house no doubt more questions about this as the firing of james comey the fbi director enters its second day here. jeff zeleny, thank you. source with knowledge of the president's decision to fire comey tells cnn the move was being considered for days. one final straw we're told errors in the fbi director's recent testimony to congress, leading the president to conclude he lost all credibility. it should be noted the fbi clarified comey's testimony hours before he was fired. >> so enormous backlash for the white house here. cnn learned senior
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administration officials did not think comey's dismissal would trigger such a reaction since they efficientlily terminated him for his one fair treatment of hillary clinton. listen to cnn's anderson cooper questioning kellyanne conway about the timing of this firing. >> you don't think it looks odd at all that the president of the united states is firing the guy who is leading the investigation into the president's white house and the people around the president? >> well, let me repeat the president has been told by the fbi director he's not under investigation. >> clearly, this white house is under investigation. the people around the president are under investigation. you would agree with that. >> no, i don't. i know that some are obsessed -- >> comey said there was an ongoing investigation. >> the president is not under investigation. i'm not under investigation. i can name many people in that same situation. but i know everybody wants to -- >> you're saying there's no
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investigation by the fbi that's ongoing right now into the people around the president of the united states? >> i don't know that. i'm saying to the extent that any of that is true, the president himself -- excuse me -- is not under investigation and most importantly are you talking about the folks who were involved in the campaign? >> yeah. >> okay. you said the people around the president. are you talking about people who were -- >> some may still be around the president. i don't know exactly who is being investigated. there's an ongoing investigation by the fbi. >> again, you want this to be about russia when this is about restoring confidence and integrity at the fbi. >> you want this to be about restoring confidence in the fbi. this doesn't restore confidence in the fbi. a lot of people are raising questions saying it destroys people's confidence in the fbi. whoever the president appoints will now be in charge of an investigation into people who
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have been close to the president during the campaign. any potential collusion with russia. >> and, today's actions had zero to do with that. the president three times in his letter mentioned the russian investigation. >> just interesting to see kellyanne conway out front on this. we haven't seen her much in recent weeks pup add to that today, sanders will do the briefing at the white house not sean spicer. different voices at the most pivotal time for the trump white house. andrew mccabe is the acting director of the fbi. he's also under investigation. the justice department inspector general is looking at whether he should have been recused from certain aspects of the clinton e-mail investigation. >> on capitol hill comey's firing was met with shock across the political spectrum. republicans expressing a range of concerns many focusing on the timing of dismissal.
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tennessee senator bob corker saying in a statement saying his removal at this particular time will raise questions. >> senator flake of arizona tweeting i spent the last several hours trying to find an acceptable rationale for the timing of comey's firing. john mccain says he's disappointed in the president's decision. and that marks a rare break from mccain with south carolina lindsey graham who did voice support for the move. >> democrats largely unified in their calls now for a special prosecutor. here was senate minority leader chuck schumer. >> this investigation must be run as far away as possible from this white house and as far away as possible from anyone that president trump has appointed. president trump ready to fire back. crying chuck schumer stated recently i do not have
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confidence in him james comey any longer. then acts so indignant indignant, #draintheswamp. >> that's the only reaction from president trump besides the letter that he issued firing comey. with more reaction from capitol hill, let's bring in phil mattingly. >> reporter: two words that were uttered most by both republicans and democrats in the wake of that stunning firing of fbi director james comey was shock and surprise. with the exception of top congressional leaders the vast majority of lawmakers on capitol hill simply weren't informed. several gop aides i spoke to didn't even no you know to respond. they were calling office to office trying to unify their statements. was it a good thing, bad thing, was it necessary? in the near term they weren't sure. when those statements started to roll out you saw a very constant theme from democrats. this more than anything else under scores the need for an independent prosecutor or independent commission. republicans are more varied.
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lindsay graham said he supported the decision necessary for the fbi to move on, necessary for new leadership to come in to play. others not so aligned with the trump white house including one in particular. senator richard bird. he put out a statement saying he's troubled by the timing and reasoning of director comey's termination. he's overseeing the senate investigation into russian meddling in the 2016 election and he's mostly stayed away from any types of political statements. take a listen to what the vice chairman of that committee said, democratic from virginia mark warner. >> shocked would be a gross under statement. didn't see this coming. obviously outrageous. what happened during the nixon period there were people of principle who stood up against some of them president nixon's actions. i'm hoping in the coming days we'll see either out of the administration and frankly from my colleagues a willingness to rise above partisanship. this is so much more important
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than just this president. it's about the rule of law. >> the house of representatives isn't even in session. some lawmakers back home on recess about to walk into town halls. others out of the country, staffers trying to scrambled to brief their bosses let alone get a entertainment if them. what this under scores this happened quickly and quietly. capitol hill was certainly for the most part not in the loop on this dramatic night, dramatic happening, dramatic occurrence. you can bet senators that are in town and house members when they come back next week will have floent say about this development. certainly everyone will be pressed to have an opinion on in. senior justice department and fbi officials telling cnn comey's firing came as a complete shock to them. they tell us tensions have been escalating in recent months between the two agencies with justice officials questioning comey's handling of the clinton investigation and his overall management of the bureau.
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we're told more changes at the fbi could be in the works. we're also told friction was building between the white house and fbi over persistent leaks and how aggressively the fbi was or was not trying to stop them. >> the bureau was notified of comey's dismissal by jeff sessions. jeff sessions pened a letter to the president recommending comey be fired. many critics worried has jeff sessions recused himself in the investigation. hillary clinton's former running mate senator tim kaine comey firing recommended by sessions. i thought he had recused himself from russia investigation. >> one of millimeter contradictions of this firing. hours before comey's dismissal sean spicer gave no hint of what was about to go down. looking back at tuesday's press briefing spicer spoke volumes by saying nothing. >> does the president still have confidence, full confidence in fbi director james comey?
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>> i have no reason to believe -- identify not asked the president since the last time we spoke about this. >> the last time you spoke he has confidence? >> i don't in light of what you're telling me i don't want to start speaking on behalf of the president without speaking to him first. >> now spicer won't be at the podium for the rest of the week. sara sanders will handle today's on camera briefing while spicer fulfills his navy reserve duties at the pentagon. soon after word broke cnn learned federal prosecutors issued grand jury subpoenas to associates of michael flynn. the move signals a significant escalation in the fbi's russia investigation. the subpoenas seek business records from colleagues who worked with flynn after he was forced out of the defense intelligence agency in 2014. that when flynn received payment from foreign governments
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including russia. attorneys for flynn declining to comment. a group of some unique insight into the russia mess. the clinton campaign. concerns about the way this is going down.
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james comey was fired for being too mean to hillary clinton? does anyone believe that? could anyone believe that? this is an investigator who is investigating the white house. and he was just fired by the white house. this doesn't happen in the united states. they are calling it nixonian when the president of the united states fired special prosecutor looking into water get. one example of outrage to that comey firing. we're hearing from clinton campaign aides responding to the stunning news with suspicion not satisfaction.
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campaign manager robby mook tweeting this. twilight zone. i was as disappointed and frustrated. >> clinton's former press secretary brian fallon weighing in on cnn last night as well. >> the timing and nature of this firing that the trump administration is announcing now belies any explanation this has anything to do with the clinton investigation. the only thing that could have further deteriorated faith and confidence of james comey remaining there is firing koem. donald trump has now gone and done that. >> john podesta who chaired hillary clinton's campaign echoing the words of democrats who called comey's firing nixonian. podesta tweeting at trump didn't you know you're supposed to wait until saturday night to massacre people investigating you? reference is to president nixon saturday night massacre when nixon ordered the firing of watergate special prosecutor
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archibald cox which led to reis inations of the attorney general and deputy attorney general. >> this morning a range of other former officials with insight pushing back. former u.s. attorney federal prosecutor in new york who was fired by the president after being told initially he was staying on. he tweet this. everyone who cares about independence and rule of law in america should be troubled by timing and reasoning of the comey firing. >> former obama administration officials also firing up their twitter feed. stormser attorney generaleric holder writing to the career men and women at the doj/fbi you know what the job entails and how to do it. be strong and unafraid. duty, honor, country. here's former presidential adviser dan pfeiffer. trump just fired the man who was investigating his campaign. and former communication
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director, this should not be sugarcoated. firing comey is up there in terms of the scariest things trump has done. we'll share more thoughts and reaction. >> these democrats, these people with clinton and obama ties are not disputing what rod rosenstein wrote in his letter. not disputing he mishandle james comey the clinton e-mail investigation. they are questioning the timing and motives and reasoning of why now. we should be clear about all that. with director comey out? where does the investigation stand right now? all decisions about appointing independent counsel to investigate particular cases now rests with deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. that's because attorney general jeff sessions a trump campaign surrogate and adviser recused himself on matters related to trump and russia. congress could% a bill create agnew office of independent counsel, as it did in 1978 but
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it expired in 199. >> is statute was launched a dozen times most famously kenneth starr investigation into president clinton. bill clinton signed a re-authorization of the original law in 1994 with several alleged scandals brewing. if the president is looking to ease concerns about his campaign's ties to russia today's meeting with russian foreign minister sergei lavrov may not help in that capacity. the white house confirming the sit down in the oval office later this morning after lavrov meets with secretary of state rex tillerson. they are expected to cover a wide range of issues including syria and ukraine. it will be the highest level of meetings between the u.s. and russia since president trump took office. we should note we have not seen the president in recent days. no public events in five days. this will be day six. this lavrov meeting was previously planned. the timing here strange to say the least.
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>> sean spicer yesterday said the president has been preparing for his big international trip. he's been hunkered down with his aides and national security adviser. >> if he doesn't speak publicly about this firing, you wonder how that foreign trip goes. saudi arabia. the vatican. >> tweets at 10:00 last night, crying chuck schumer. >> american people deserve and investigation. the special adviser carl icahn. we'll tell you about it next.
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let's get a check on money. futures in global be markets lower. turning lower after wall street once again barely moved. still yesterday the nasdaq hit
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another close. dow and s&p closed lower. energy stocks dragging them down. more earnings on deck today. strong earning season. companies have been making a lot of money. however disney shares down 2% after revenue there came up short. yelp plummeting over 20%. erases an entire year of stock gains. the company struggling to raise ad revenue because of stiff competition. activists billionaire investor and trump friend and adviser carl icahn may have broken securities trading laws what democratic lawmakers want to investigate. they want the sec to investigate it. it has to do with cvr energy a small oil refinery. the company bet against something called biofuels credit. epa regulations require refin y refineries to buy them.
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the price plummeted after icahn and white house planned to revamp those regulations. democratic lawmakers argue resulting profits could be insider trading. icahn did not immediately respond our request for a comment. former starbucks ceo howard schultz has high hopes for the 2017 graduating class. >> you can innovate, create and lead. your generation will transform our economy and create millions of new jobs. >> fantastic millennials will save us. no stranger to speaking out about social issues he also told students they will develop cleaner energy. starbucks launched a program in 2014 that covers online tuition at asu. so interesting so many commencement speakers staying clear of politics. interesting time. everyone trying to scrub politics out of their speeches. >> hard to do these days. speaking of our continued coverage of the firing of fbi
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director james comey continues right now. and that breaking news the bedrock of our democracy under siege. fbi director investigating links between russia and aides to the president fired by the president. what's next for the fbi? the russia probe? and why the timing? why now as everyone asking questions. good morning everybody welcome to "early start". i'm dave briggs. >> i'm christine romans. it's wednesday, may 10th. 5:00 a.m. in the east. we're so glad you're here this morning. hard to overstate the smaug and far reaching impact of president trump's decision to fire james comey. there's mounting criticism of that decision from all sides and calls are growing louder from democrats for a special prosecutor now that the president has fired the man leading the investigation