Those two issues were covered in separate meetings, at least weeks apart. There is no conncetion between them.
On the ordering Comey to go public with "Trump is not under investigation," I have a hard time seeing how that has ANY scandal potential, even if it is true. Trump askes Comey to tell the public THE TRUTH, and Comey does ..... what?
Sure, the way you put it is not likely to go anywhere. But the way CBS put it looks absolutely horrible. You seem to be totally ignoring what partially factual, but very misleading spin can do. Can you really not see how damaging CBS’s false claim that Trump “ordered Comey to publicly clear him of wrong doing” would look to people who are not Trump fans, not willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, and not willing to do extra research on the details (which I would imagine are most of CBS’s viewers)?
It makes it sound like Trump wanted Comey potentially to lie to the public and declare him innocent regardless of the situation, even if he’s guilty as hell. That’s why what CBS said is so very much worse than what Comey actually claimed.