Two days. That's how long it took for President Donald Trump to upend his own administration's rationale behind the firing of FBI Director James Comey, the fallout from which continued to engulf Washington on Thursday.
In a letter Trump sent to Comey on Tuesday, the president wrote that he fired the director based on the recommendations of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. But in an interview Thursday with NBC's Lester Holt, Trump claimed that Sessions and Rosenstein didn't influence his decision at all. Trump had already made up his mind.
"I was going to fire regardless of (their) recommendation," said Trump, calling Comey a "showboat" and "grandstander."
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Some Key Folks Disagree With Trump's Characterization Of Comey
Trump said this week that he fired Comey because he was "not doing a good job," telling Holt in his Thursday interview that "the FBI has been in turmoil."
You know that, I know that. Everybody knows that," Trump said. "You take a look at the FBI a year ago, it was in virtual turmoil, less than a year ago, it hasn't recovered from that."
Except everyone does not know that, including Andrew McCabe, the FBI's new acting director. The White House said this week that Comey had lost the confidence of the bureau, a claim McCabe contradicted on Thursday when speaking to a Senate committee. “The vast majority of FBI employees enjoyed a deep and positive connection to Director Comey,” McCabe said, which continues "to this day."
The firing of Comey, McCabe said, would not deter the FBI's investigation into Trump's campaign and Russia: "Simply put, you cannot stop the men and women of the FBI from doing the right thing."
Republican Richard Burr, the North Carolina senator chairing the Senate Intelligence Committee, called Comey " the most ethical, upstanding individual I’ve had the pleasure to work with."
And, for what it's worth, a new online poll from NBC News found that a slight majority of Americans — 54% — don't think Comey's sudden firing was appropriate.
So About Rod Rosenstein
The deputy attorney general is getting an invite from senators to brief them about his role in Comey's firing. According to Politico, Rosenstein reached out to Senate Intelligence Committee leaders about meeting amid reports that he was "furious" about the White House's characterization of his recommendation that allegedly caused Comey's firing.
Democrat and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer asked Rosenstein more than two dozen questions in a letter on Thursday, including whether Comeys' firing came days after he asked for more resources for the FBI's Russia inquiry, as has been widely reported.
The all-senators briefing with Rosentein is slated for next week, according to a spokesman Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Russia Reportedly Tricked Trump's White House
Optics be damned, Trump met with top Russian diplomats on Wednesday, the day after firing the man overseeing the FBI's investigation into his own campaign and Russia. In a move both surprising and not, all media was barred from the meeting except one Russia-owned news agency. Photos soon surfaced of a beaming Donald Trump with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, the man who's caused much of Trump's Russia-related headaches through his communications with Trump associates, including now-fired adviser Michael Flynn.
CNN reported Thursday that the White House is furious over release of the photos, claiming the Russians "tricked us."
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