Trump: I Should Have Fired Comey ‘the Day I Won the Primaries’

In an interview with Hill.TV on Tuesday, President Donald Trump said he should have fired former FBI director James Comey before getting to the White House. “If I did one mistake with Comey, I should have fired him before I got here. I should have fired him the day I won the primaries,” Trump said. “I should have fired him right after the convention, say I don’t want that guy. Or at least fired him the first day on the job... I would have been better off firing him or putting out a statement that I don’t want him there when I get there.” The statement seems to counter Trump’s previous claims that Comey was fired due to a recommendation from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and because of the Russia investigation. Trump also lamented the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court’s approval of surveillance on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, calling it one of the “great scandals in the history of our country.” “They used Carter Page as a foil in order to surveil a candidate for the presidency of the United States,” Trump said, adding that he thought the FISA judges were “misled.” The president recently called for the declassification of portions of the FISA application for Page and any interviews the FBI conducted related to the application.