Rips Comey, changes firing story again
ence with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. “Believe me, there’s no collusion. Russia is fine, but whether it’s Russia or anybody else, my total priority, believe me, is the United States of America.”
Trump also repeatedly bashed Comey, saying he “was very unpopular with most people,” and suggested the reason he canned him was because of a harsh memo from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein — the official who appointed a special prosecutor.
That directly contradicted what Trump told NBC about the Comey firing last week, where he said he knew he was going to fire Comey before he saw the memo, and that decision was fueled in part out of frustration with the Russia investigation.
It also contradicted what Rosenstein told senators in a closed-door hearing Thursday: That he knew Trump planned to fire Comey before he wrote the memo.
Trump had been described as calm and determined on Wednesday, after Rosenstein announced he’d appointed a special prosecutor to investigate possible collusion. That veneer was gone Thursday morning, with Trump taking to Twitter to vent.
“With all of the illegal acts that took place in the Clinton campaign & Obama Administration, there was never a special councel appointed!” Trump wrote in one tweet, misspelling “counsel,” a word he has repeatedly failed to get right in past tweets.
“This is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!”
The special counsel, former FBI chief Robert Mueller, will not only look into the Russia angle, but also the suspicious circumstances of Comey’s abrupt firing.
Mueller’s appointment drew bipartisan praise from officials who saw him as an independent force worthy of the case.
“We’ll get rid of the smoke and see where the actual issues lie,” said Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.). “I do think that the special prosecutor provides a sense of calm and confidence, perhaps, for the American people, which is incredibly important.”