No regrets ‘I was always going to fire Comey’
'Regardless of recommendation, I was going to fire him.'
President Trump said on Thursday that he was going to fire FBI Director James Comey even without recommendations from top officials at the Justice Department — contradicting the initial White House version of events.
“I was going to fire Comey — my decision,” Trump told NBC News’ Lester Holt in an interview that aired Thursday.
“I was going to fire regardless of recommendation. He [Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein] made a recommendation . . . But regardless of recommendation, I was going to fire him,” the president added, referring to Rosenstein’s memo saying Comey had mishandled the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s e-mail server.
Until Trump’s remarks Thursday, White House aides had pointed to that memo, as well as one from Attorney General Jeff Sessions, as the catalysts for Comey’s firing.
Trump had also cited both memos in the letter of termination he issued to Comey on Tuesday, writing, “I have accepted their recommendations and you are hereby terminated and removed from office.”
Vice President Mike Pence even went to Capitol Hill Wednesday to reinforce that account.
“Let me be very clear that the president’s decision [was] to accept the recommendation of the deputy attorney general and the attorney general to remove Director Comey,” he told reporters then.
Speaking in Thursday’s interview, Trump said Comey’s mishandling of the Clinton e-mail case had the FBI in tatters.
“He’s a showboat. He’s a grandstander,” Trump said.
“The FBI has been in turmoil. You know that, I know that, everybody knows that. You take a look at the FBI a year ago, it was in virtual turmoil . . . It hasn’t recovered from that.”
Trump also said he had considered the FBI probe into Russian interference in the election when he decided to fire Comey. left
“When I decided to just do it [fire Comey], I said to myself, I said, ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story,’ ” the president said. “It’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won.”
Trump elaborated on his termination letter’s claim that Comey had told him “on three separate occasions” that he was not under investigation in connection with Russian meddling in the election.
The president said that one instance came over a dinner at the White House and that the other two occurred in two phone calls, one of which Trump initiated.
“I actually asked him, yes,” Trump recalled. “I said, ‘If it’s possible, will you let me know if I’m under investigation?’ He said, ‘You’re not under investigation.’ ”
Trump claimed that Comey gave him a similar assurance over their dinner and that the then-director had asked to keep his job.
“He told me that. I mean he told me that,” the president said. “I had a dinner with him. He wanted to have dinner because he wanted to stay on.”
Trump, who denied ever pushing the director to drop the investigation, said he told Comey he would consider keeping him on.
Asked about Comey’s testimony in March, when he confirmed the FBI was looking into Russia’s role in the election and possible ties to the Trump campaign, the president said it doesn’t pertain to him.
“I know that I’m not under investigation. Me. Personally. I’m not talking about campaigns. I’m not under investigation,” he said.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said there was nothing improper about the conversation between the president and the then-FBI chief.
“I don’t see that as a conflict of interest, and neither do the many legal scholars and others that have been commenting on it for the last hour,” she said.
It’s one of the many ironies of the furor over James Comey’s firing amid the FBI’s investigation of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 campaign that the ongoing Democratic impeachment-driven uproar actually serves Moscow’s interests.
Because, as Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley noted Thursday, the intelligence community concluded that the key Russian goal “is to undermine the American public’s faith in our democratic institutions.”
And the “wild speculation” coming from both congressional Democrats and their media allies that President Trump is under criminal investigation does just that.
Grassley said he and top committee Democrat Dianne Feinstein were briefed by Comey last week on the specific targets of the investigation. In his letter to Comey, Trump said the now-ousted director had told him he wasn’t under investigation. Says Grassley: “Sen. Feinstein and I heard nothing that contradicted the president’s statement.”
But because the FBI can say nothing publicly, speculation runs rampant (aided, sigh, by White House missteps and story reversals) that Trump is a target of the probe.
Democrats, predictably, are feeding that frenzy, with visions of impeachment or, at the very least, delegitimizing Trump’s presidency, dancing in their heads.
Russia is at it again, too: Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov brought a photographer along for his Oval Office visit on Wednesday, supposedly only for official Kremlin record.
But then the Russians immediately released pictures of the president shaking hands and smiling at the private meeting — massively feeding all those “Trump is a Russian pawn” fears. And Lavrov fueled the flames with jokes about the Comey firing.
The president’s best bet for calming the fury is to rapidly name someone of proven integrity and independence as the new FBI chief. Then everyone demanding a full, impartial investigation should let it proceed and wait for its conclusions.
Because all the current wild speculation — which Grassley rightly called “irresponsible and unfounded” — is making Vladimir Putin and his henchmen very, very happy.