From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is the Daily.

Today, James Comey is known for two major investigations that shaped the presidential election.

One, into Hillary Clinton's emails. The other, into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence agency.

The question now is, which one got him fired?

It's Wednesday, May 10th.

It was 2 p.m. on Tuesday in Los Angeles. James Comey, the director of the FBI, was delivering a speech to his employees inside the bureau's local field office.

Michael Schmidt pieced together what happened.

In the background of that room, there was a television screen that began flashing.

This is an ABC News special report.

This is a Fox News alert. I'm Brett there in Washington. Moments ago, breaking news that no one saw coming today.

Breaking news. There was breaking news coming out of the White House. President Trump has informed FBI director James Comey that he has been terminated and removed from office.

That he had been fired.

At some point, Comey became aware of the breaking news behind him. He didn't think it was real.

He thought that it was some type of prank that was being played on him and he sort of laughed it off.

But at that time, what happened was his staff started screwing around in this room.

And I think he apparently realized that there was something real going on.

Comey's aides quietly suggested that he step into a private office.

Instead of doing that, Comey went up and shook the hands of all the employees in the room.

And then he walked into the side room and confirmed that he had indeed been fired.

So he's finding out on television and from an aide who probably saw it on television before any formal word has come from the White House to the FBI director.

Correct. The FBI had not heard from the White House at that point.

Mike, how did the FBI agents and employees in the room, if you know, react to what was flashing on the screen and becoming clear?

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