towing ford expedition. [laughter] ♪ ♪ "i'm okay." ♪ ♪ >>> former fbi director james comey weighing in on the mueller report tonight. and i want to bring in now democratic congressman eric swalwell who sits on the house intelligence committee. congressman, thank you for joining us. i want to get your response to this report that nbc news, that james comey told an audience in charlotte, he says, i have great faith in bob mueller, but i just can't tell from the letter why didn't he decide these questions when the entire rationale for his special counsel is to make sure the politicals aren't making the key charging decisions. does the former director have a point? >> oh, yeah, he's got a big point, don. and good evening. and the point is this. the special counsel was brought into the case because we believed and the department of justice believed that you should take away this type of decision-making authority from politically conflicted officials, like the president's appointed attorney general. especially an attorney general who submitted an unsolicited letter to the department of justi

fbi director james comey and the documents include allegations that russian operatives claim to have compromising information about trump from that explosive beginning came an early set back for the new administration as questions are raised about attorney general jeff sessions and contacts he had with a russian official during the 2016 presidential campaign. >> i didn't have communications with the russians. >> turns out sessions had communicated with sergei. march 2017, sessions recused himself from overseeing the investigation. >> they said since i had involvement with the campaign i should not be involved in any campaign investigation. >> may 9th, 2017 a startling development. >> a bombshell at the white house. >> trump fired fbi director james comey, the man charged with overseeing the investigation. what's more, trump told nbc news he was considering the russia investigation when he was deciding whether to fire comey. >> i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made up story. >> reporter: may 17th, rod rosenstein addresses mueller as the special counsel an

james comey. and the president sure wanted a memo that would justify firing james comey. so in some ways, i think he's insulated himself from attacks. he's given one to one side and one to another side. i think he's tried to be an honest broker in all of this. and he hasn't been wildly wrong about any of it. so, you know, this is a guy who may have the most credibility of anybody in this process. >> yeah. of course, everyone's wondering, well, what's going to come out of this is impeachment, blah, blah, blah, blah. but nancy pelosi, frank, this is for you, once again talking about trump and impeachment. she said, you're waste ying you time unless the evidence is so conclusive that the republicans will understand otherwise, it is a gift to the president. we take our eye off the ball. do you think she's right? it's a gift to the -- >> i think she's 100% right. i think nancy pelosi has been right on this from the beginning. she's sticking with what she has always said. what she's saying is that the eye on the ball is getting trump out of office, limiting his time in the white house, ma

, he's the person that wrote the memo about firing james comey. and the president wanted a memo that would justify firing james comey. in some ways, he's insulated himself from attacks. he's given one to one side and one to another side. i think he's tried to be an honest broker in all of this and he hasn't been wildly wrong about any of it. you know? this is a guy who may have the most credibility of anybody in this process. >> everyone is wondering, what's going to come out of this, impeachment? but nancy pelosi, frank, this is for you, talking about trump and impeachment. she says, you are wasting your time. unless the evidence is so conclusive, that the republicans will understand otherwise, it is a gift to the president. we take our eye off the ball. you think she's right? >> i think she's 100% right. i think nancy pelosi has been right since the beginning. what she is saying, is the eye on the ball is getting trump out of office. limiting his time in office. making sure it's one term, one and done. she is saying impeachment may get in the way of that. you can't guess the politi

, that robert mueller and the fired fbi director james comey were best friends. is this the likely white house line of attack, do you think? >> so this one is really troubling to me because mueller is a federal prosecutor in this role, right? federal prosecutors are not elected. they're appointed. all of them always, for our whole country's history. so there's no way he was elected. this is another attempt to undermine what prosecutors do, what judges do and basically saying i'm above the law. you know, a prosecutor shouldn't be able to touch me, a judge shouldn't be able to touch me. he shouldn't be able to do anything to me. that's just another way of him saying i'm above it law. >> and releasing this report is really up to the attorney general bill barr. >> a yuls believe it is very important that the public and congress be informed of the results of the special counsel's work. my goal will be to provide as much transparency as i can consist with the law. i can assure you that where judgments are to be made i will make those judgments based solely on the law and i will not let p

james comey, the man whose firing led to mueller's appointment on may 17th of 2017. here's a quote, it says i have no idea whether the special counsel will conclude that mr. trump knowingly conspired with the russians in connection with the 2016 election or that he obstructed justice. with the required corrupt intent. i also don't care. i care only that the work be done well and completely. if it is, justice will have prevailed and core american values been protected at a time when so much of our national leadership has abandoned its commitment to truth and the rule of law. but this is far from the only investigation looming from this president, for this president i should say. remember when president trump stood next to vladimir putin and said he didn't see any reason russia would interfere in our election? taking the russian president's word over his own intelligence chiefs. >> my people came to me, dan coats came to me and some others. they said they think it's russia. i have president putin, he just said it's not russia. i will say this, i don't see any reason why it would be.