When Sen. John McCain was asked about the former FBI Director James Comey's firing this week, he appeared to agree that it was the right thing to do and that it needed to be done.
As the Senator said in the video, he has always believed that there should be an independent investigation into President Trump's connections with Russia, over their interference in the 2016 presidential election. McCain would later say that he's expecting more shoes to drop, but he's also one of the very few Republicans who are willing to go past party lines to say that President Trump should be investigated, while most Republicans seem to still be supportive of the President's decision.
As Blasting News reported, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made a statement after James Comey was fired giving "marching orders" to his party which would force them to fall in line behind their president, to defend him against his critics.
FBI's Clinton investigation
The firing took place on Tuesday, soon after the FBI had apparently sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee which attempted to downplay statements Comey made during a hearing with the same committee last week, about the number of emails Hillary Clinton had forwarded to her deputy assistant Huma Adebin. Last year, Blasting News wrote about when Comey sent another letter to the leadership for all congressional committees telling them that the FBI might be re-opening their investigation on Clinton.
The investigation was fueled by GOP partisans who wanted to criminalize Clinton for having sensitive information on a private email server, an investigation Comey closed, concluding that they would not bring charges against her. During last week's hearing, Comey stated that some of those emails had classified information. But he also said that of the 49,000 emails the bureau felt was potentially relevant, that hundreds of thousands had been forwarded.
In the FBI's letter sent to Congress, they attempted to correct that statement saying that only a "small number" had actually been forwarded.
James Comey a bipartisan anger magnet
During his testimony last week, most of the headlines centered around the anger generated towards Comey from both Republicans and Democrats. For Democrats, they generally blamed Comey for swaying the election to Donald Trump when he sent the mentioned letter last year to the heads of the all congressional committees saying that the FBI had made a connection between an investigation they were conducting on Anthony Weiner with the one on Hillary Clinton they had already closed.
At the same time, Democrats praised him for coming to the conclusion that former Secretary Hillary Clinton should not be indicted for using a personal email server. This only infuriated Republicans, many asking for his resignation. James Comey's FBI then started their investigation on Donald Trump after it was discovered that Russian's had hacked into the Democratic National Committee's servers to steal a trove of emails which were published by Wikileaks last year. Comey had been called into committee hearings over the past several months to provide frequent updates and was scheduled for another hearing on Thursday before he was abruptly fired by the Trump administration.
Comey letter downplays Clinton 'crimes'
The view from those who have been following reports on the investigation saw the firing as a cover up by the administration to stop it. The administration made it clear this week that they want the investigation to end. Deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has said during a press briefing that firing James Comey was, in fact, the administration helping the FBI close their investigation. President Trump even said during his interview with Lester Holt on NBC News, that the allegations that he has connections to Russia were created by Democrats because they lost the election. It is in that statement that he made it clear that he's dismissive of the agency and other bodies who are also investigating.
There have been reports that President Trump was furious over James Comey's recent hearing, as well as reports that the FBI director declined to give his loyalty when President Trump asked for it during a dinner early in the year and of the President's statement that he was already thinking about firing Comey for a long time. This, despite conflicting statements that the firing was actually triggered by a recommendation from the Department of Justice.
For those who side with President Trump on firing the FBI director, they saw Comey's recent letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee as another attempt for him to downplay what they feel is the severity of Hillary Clinton's "criminal acts." Originally, Comey said during the hearing -- and more specifically -- that Abedin had made it a "regular practice" to forward "hundreds of thousands" of emails from Hillary Clinton to her then-husband Anthony Weiner who was at the center of an FBI probe for sex crimes.
More demands for independent investigation
Some of the fallout from the firing had also centered on yet another letter that the President sent to James Comey when he fired him. In the President's letter, many believe it was odd for him to refer to the three times Comey had told him that he was not being investigated. But the President had initially stated that the former director's decisions on not investigating Clinton were the reasons for why he was dismissed. But given the details revealed from his letter, many have wondered why he didn't use that reason rather than say he didn't have confidence in him carrying out his duties at the bureau.
Republicans have continued to lean heavily on the view that Trump's firing of Comey was legitimate, citing the Hillary Clinton investigation while Democrats have pointed to the firing being a blatant cover-up to stop the FBI from investigating him.
Democrats are the only ones who have increased their calls for a special prosecutor. Along with Mitch McConnell saying that there was no need for one, Rod Rosenstein, the same deputy attorney general who was involved with handing Comey his pink slip -- according to a DOJ official -- has also rejected the notion. In the meantime, Comey has reportedly been invited to return for another hearing next week.
