Thursday at a joint news conference with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, President Donald Trump said he believed his decision to fire FBI Director James Comey would have bipartisan support.
When asked if he urged Comey to close down the investigation into Michael Flynn? Trump said, “No. No. Next question.”
Trump explained, “I think it is totally ridiculous. Everybody thinks so. Again, we have to get back to working our country properly so that we can take care of the problems that we have. We have plenty of problems. We have done a fantastic job. We have a tremendous group of people. Millions and millions of people out there that are looking at what you have just said and said, what are they doing? Director Comey was very unpopular with most people.”
“I actually thought when I made that decision—and I also got a very, very strong recommendation, as you know, from the Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, but when I made that decision, I actually thought it would be a bipartisan decision. Because you look at all of the people on the Democratic side, not only the Republican side, that were saying such terrible things about Director Comey.”
He continued, “Then he had the very poor performance on Wednesday. That was a poor, poor performance. So poor, in fact, that I believe — and you would have to ask him because I don’t like to speak for other people, but I believe that’s why the Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein went out and wrote his very, very strong letter. And then on top of that, after the Wednesday performance by Director Comey, you had a person come and have to readjust the record, which many people have never seen before, because there were misstatements made. I thought that was something that was terrible. We need a great director of the FBI. I cherish the FBI. it is special. all over the world, no matter where you go, the FBI is special. The FBI has not had that special reputation.”
“With what happened in the campaign, what happened with respect to the Clinton campaign, and even you could say directly or indirectly with respect to the much more successful Trump campaign. We’re going to have a director who is going to be outstanding. I will be announcing that director very soon, and I look forward to doing it. I think the people in the FBI will be very, very, very, very thrilled.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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