Bannon: It Was A Mistake For Trump To Fire Comey As FBI Director

President Trump, Chief Strategist Steve Bannon looks on in the East Room of the White House on February 10, 2017 in Washington, D.C. Photo by Olivier Douliery/Abaca(Sipa via AP Images)
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Steve Bannon, the ousted White House chief strategist, told CBS’ “60 Minutes” in an interview that aired on Sunday that President Donald Trump made a huge mistake when he fired James Comey as the director of the FBI.

Bannon would not confirm reports that he opposed firing Comey while he was still on the White House payroll, but he argued that the FBI is an institution in Washington, D.C., that cannot be changed by changing its leader.

“I am a big believer that this city, it’s a city of institutions, not individuals. And I think you have to look at it as institutions. The FBI is the institution. The speaker of the house is an institution. The majority leader is an institution,” he said on “60 Minutes.” “The Justice Department is an institution. They have an institutional logic of how they proceed and what they’re going to do. And you can’t get caught up in individuals.”

Bannon noted that Comey’s firing led to special counsel Robert Mueller.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt that if James Comey had not been fired, we would not have a special counsel,” he told CBS’ Charlie Rose. “We would not have the Mueller investigation in the breadth that clearly Mr. Mueller is going.”

Rose asked Bannon if he considered the firing of Comey to be the “biggest mistake in political history.” Bannon replied that it’s the biggest mistake in “modern political history.”

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Notable Replies

  1. Hmmmm…“mistake” depends upon your point of view… From my perspective Donnie’s firing Comey was the best thing that could have happened, because we now have Mueller on the scent.

    Besides, there’s nothing to guarantee that we wouldn’t have gotten to special counsel even if Comey had stayed. But it sure did sharpen and focus the hunt.

    (Also: why are we still giving headlines to this filthy windbag ??)

  2. Avatar for misha misha says:

    Even the riddled mind of this alcoholic racist knows this. Lucky for us, the Orange man still doesn’t.
    In Trump’s eyes, Prince Jared will forever pay for instigating this firing while parts of America will forever be grateful to him.

  3. Avatar for nineo nineo says:

    Steve Bannon is right (all the mirrors in the house just broke at once), this was probably the biggest unforced error made by a President in a long time. It’s baffling that it took a man with no soul to point this out.

  4. Bannon replied that it’s the biggest mistake in “modern political history.”

    No, you degenerate revanchist, the biggest mistake in “modern political history” is this:

    Nominee          Donald Trump      Hillary Clinton
    Party                Republican           Democratic
    Home state      New York              New York
    Running mate  Mike Pence          Tim Kaine
    Electoral vote   304                       227

    The biggest mistake in modern political history was made by the electoral college.

  5. By Bannon’s model of how things work in D.C., is the presidency also an institution that has an institutional logic of how it will proceed and what it’s going to do, and that one individual cannot significantly change that? Let’s hope so, no matter how much Bannon and Trump might have wanted to change that. We need to hit the re-set button soon.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

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