White House deputy press secretary Sarah Sanders on Wednesday said that President Donald Trump has considered pushing out former FBI Director James Comey, who was abruptly fired Tuesday night, since the day Trump won the 2016 election.
“He’d lost confidence in Director Comey, and frankly, he’d been considering letting Director Comey go since the day he was elected,” Sanders said at the daily White House briefing. “The President had lost confidence in Comey from the day he was elected.”
NBC News reporter Hallie Jackson pointed out that White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Tuesday signaled Trump’s support for Comey, hours before the former director’s surprise termination.
“On May 3rd, Sean came out and said the President has full confidence in his FBI director,” she said. “Why did he say that?”
Sanders said Trump spoke to members of the FBI and “questioned Director Comey’s reason for needing to stay” at the bureau, which is investigating possible ties between members of Trump’s campaign and Russian officials.
