White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders asserted on Wednesday that President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey because he committed “atrocities” against Hillary Clinton. While standing in for Press Secretary Sean Spicer at Wednesday’s press briefing, Sanders was grilled by reporters who clearly weren’t buying Trump’s excuse for firing Comey. “Director Comey has shown over the last several months and frankly over the last year a lot of missteps and mistakes,” she insisted. “I think it’s startling that Democrats aren’t celebrating.” Fox News correspondent John Roberts noted that Trump had “celebrated” Comey before the election in October. “He was a candidate for president, not the president,” Sanders opined.
The deputy press secretary then proceeded to argue that there was a time when former Director Comey “did his job flawlessly, which is why I believe he was chosen to be the head of one of the most important federal law enforcement agencies in the country in the first place.” She added, “regardless of what the reason for his removal is, I know for a fact that President Trump is still deeply grateful to James Comey for the entirety of his service. It took a lot of guts to take the reigns and do the job at such a difficult time for the country. Ultimately, to err is human and I don’t blame the man for doing what he did. I don’t think there are a lot of people who would have acted differently in his shoes at the time.”
She continued, “But, if you’re asking for my personal opinion, I don’t think he is to blame for what happened, because, like I said, I believe there are very few people who would have acted differently in that situation. This is by no means the official position of the White House; that said, I think Hillary Clinton is the one to blame for what Comey endured, because she’s the one that put him in a position where he was literally between a rock and a hard place. As a matter of fact, the only thing former Director Comey is guilty of is doing his job. He opened and closed several investigations on Hillary Clinton’s email servers; what was happening in terms of operational procedures is, I think, an internal matter of the FBI, and as such, will not be disclosed.”
“But, ultimately, we all saw that he did his job to the best of his abilities. He followed procedure, acted within his authority and made decisions. What he did beyond the call of duty is his own, personal matter and the atrocities he committed were, I think, under duress. In other words, if Hillary Clinton had confessed any and all wrongdoings regarding the email servers, Comey would not have had to do all that. And yet, like I said – I’m puzzled by the fact that the Democrats aren’t celebrating him getting removed from position because that’s what they wanted. In my mind, it’s just another proof of how much everything that’s happened was a result of Hillary Clinton’s lack of moral and scruples in her pursuit for the presidency. She made him do it, there’s really no other way to put it. Luckily, Americans voted for the right candidate after all, but doing the wrong thing for the right reasons doesn’t change the fact that it’s wrong,” she concluded.
