[Music] 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 workforce had lost confidence in its leader those were lies plain and simple do you have any doubt that Russia attempts to interfere in the 2016 elections none do you have any doubt that the Russian government was behind the intrusions in the DNC and the DC Systems and the subsequent leaks of that information no no doubt what was it about that meeting that led you to determine that you needed
to start putting down a written record a combination of things I think the circumstances the subject matter and the person and I was interacting with circumstances first I was alone with the president of the United States or the president-elect soon to be president the subject matter I was talking about matters that touch on the FBI's core responsibility and that relate to the president president-elect personally and then the nature of the person I was honestly concerned that he might lie about the nature of our meeting and so I thought it really important to document that combination
of things I'd never experienced before but it led me to believe I got to write it down and it got to write it down down in a very detailed way but why didn't you stop and say Mr President this is wrong I cannot discuss this with you it's a great question maybe if I were stronger I would have I was so stunned by the conversation that I just took it in and the only thing I could think to say because I was playing in my mind because I was remember every word he said was playing
in my mind what should my response be and that's why I very careful chose the words and look I I've seen the Tweet about tapes lordy I hope there are tapes there should be no fuzz on this whatsoever the Russians interfered in our election during the 2016 cycle they did it with purpose they did it with sophistication they did it with overwhelming technical efforts and it was an active measures campaign driven from the top of that government there is no fuzz on that that happened that's about as unfake as you can possibly get and is
very very serious which is why it's so refreshing to see a bipartisan focus on that because this is about America not about any particular party so that was a hostile act by the Russian government against this country yes sir a lot of this comes down to who should we believe do you want to say anything as to why we should believe you probably my mother raised me not to say things like this about myself so I'm not going to um I think people should look at the whole body of my testimony because as I used
to say to juries that when I talked about a witness you can't cherry pick it you can't say I like these things he said but on this he's a he's a dirty rotten liar right you got to take it all together and I've tried to be open and fair and transparent and accurate a really significant fact to me is so why did he kick everybody out of the Oval Office why would you kick the Attorney General the president the chief of staff out to talk to me if it was about something else and so that
that to me is as an investigator is a very significant fact in his interview with Lester Hol on NBC the president said I had dinner with him he wanted to have dinner because he wanted to stay on is this an accurate statement no sir did you in any way initiate that dinner no he called he called me at my desk at lunchtime and asked me uh was I free for dinner that night and called himself and said can you come over for dinner tonight and I said yes sir he said will six work I think
he said first and then he said I was going to invite your whole family but we'll do that next time I want you to come over and is is that a good time I said sir whatever works for you and then he said how about 6:30 and I I said whatever works for you sir and then I hung up and had to call my wife and break a date with her I was supposed to take her out to dinner that night uh and that's one of the all-time great excuses for breaking a day in retrospect
I would have I love spending time with my wife I wish I'd been there that night the reason this is such a big deal is we have this big messy wonderful country where we fight with each other all the time but nobody tells us what to think what to fight about what to vote for except other Americans and that's wonderful and often painful but we're talking about a foreign government that using technical intrusion and lots of other methods tried to shape the way we think we vote we act that is a big deal there's no
doubt that it's a fair judgment it's my judgment that I was fired because of the Russia investigation I was fired in some way to change or the Endeavor was to change the way the russan investigation was being conducted
