helped lead to president trump s ultimate decision to fire james comey. at this press conference, afterwards, i had a chance to ask richard burr and mark warner whether or not mr. rosenstein expressed any concern about the firing. here s what he said. any concerns, though, about the circumstances of mr. coylmes firing? we didn t get into details about his involvement. you ve got a copy of where what he wrote. this is an individual that comes with unbelievable background, certainly, he fills the role. but our purpose of meeting with the daj was to make assure that we had a way forward that the vice chair and i felt comfortable with. they said hay did not discuss the comey firing in this private, classified meeting, but they did discuss the issues to make sure their investigation does not conflict with the fbi s investigation on russia going
attorney general, who the director of the fbi reports to. again, it further solidified the decision that he had made. the only person that could fire comey was the president. he made that decision. it was clearly the right one, as evidenced by all of the comments, both by house and senate democrats, republicans, and many people within the fbi. i think, instead of getting so lost in the process, did this happen at 12:01 or 12:02, did he fire him because he wore a red tie or a blue tie? he fired him because he was not fit to do the job. it s that simple. this shouldn t be a complicated process. the president knew that director comey was not up to the task. he decided that he wasn t the right person in the job. he wanted somebody that could bring credibility back to the fbi. that had been lost over these last several months. the president made that decision. he made it, he moved forward, it was the right one.
every single one of those statements, so unless you want to trade places, i think it s my turn now. i think it s pretty simple. i hadn t had a chance to have the conversation directly with the president to say. i d had several conversations with him, but i didn t ask that question directly. had you already made that decision? i went off of the information i had when i answered your question. i ve since had the conversation with him, right before i walked on today. and he laid it out very clearly. he had already made that decision. he had been thinking about it for months, which i did say yesterday and have said many times since. and wednesday, i think, was the final straw that pushed him, and the recommendation that he got from the deputy attorney general just further solidified his decision. and again, i think reaffirmed that he made the right one. but was the vice president in the dark, too? nobody was in the dark, jonathan. you want to create this false narrative. if we want to
needs to be a timeline when the russian investigation ends. and yesterday, you said it should continue. which one is it? should it continue or end, as spicer said the president wanted it to end and you said it should continue? i ve said we want it to come to its completion. we want it to continue until it is finished, which we would like to happen soon, so we can focus on the things that we think most americans frankly care a whole lot more about. i think the people in this room are obsessed with this story a lot more than the people that we talk to and we hear from every day. we would like to be focused on the problems that they have. that s the point, we would love for this to be completed, but we want it to be completed with integrity. and i think that s one of the other reasons that the decision the president made was the right one, because i think it adds credibility and integrity back to the fbi, where a lot of people frankly were questioning it. we now know the president
quote every single time? in this process, i gave you the best information i had at the moment. i still don t think that it contradicts the president s decision. you guys want to get lost in the process. i don t believe asking a question and getting an answer is lost in the process, sarah, with all respect. and i m answering those questions. it s very simple. the president decided to fire director comey. nobody else gets to make that decision. and he made it, he stands by it, as do the rest of us. mike? yeah, two questions. following up on this, back in, you think, october of last year, the former president was highly criticized by members of the fbi and other folks outside of the fbi for making some comments on television that were suggestive that he had an opinion about how the hillary clinton e-mail case should go. and the charge was that he was interfering, that he was putting his thumb on the scale of an ongoing active investigation.