Clinton campaign team denounces Comey ouster

Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign team was quick to denounce President Trump’s Tuesday firing of FBI Director James Comey.

Campaign manager Robby Mook said the move “terrifies” him.

Twilight zone. I was as disappointed and frustrated as anyone at how the email investigation was handled. But this terrifies me.

— Robby Mook (@RobbyMook) May 9, 2017

The White House said Comey was fired at the recommendation of the Justice Department, but Brian Fallon, who was the Clinton campaign’s press secretary last year, said Trump’s decision “smells like a coverup on Russia” coming amid the FBI’s probe of Russian election interference and any possible ties between Trump’s campaign and Moscow.

This is appropriate sentiment but DOJ shd have awaited IG probe on Comey. Now it just smells like coverup on Russiahttps://t.co/Z0u8vgF9cr

— Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) May 9, 2017

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Clinton’s running mate, echoed those sentiments.

Trump firing Comey shows how frightened the Admin is over Russia investigation

— Senator Tim Kaine (@timkaine) May 9, 2017

The White House said the hunt for a new permanent FBI director would “begin immediately.”

“The president has accepted the recommendation of the attorney general and the deputy attorney general regarding the dismissal of the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters in the briefing room.

{mosads}

“The FBI is one of our Nation’s most cherished and respected institutions and today will mark a new beginning for our crown jewel of law enforcement,” Trump said in a statement released by the White House.

The White House said that Trump “acted based on the clear recommendations of both Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.”

Comey infuriated both parties during last year’s campaign: first Republicans for announcing that the FBI would not recommend charges against Clinton for her use of a private email server while secretary of State, and later Democrats with his letter to lawmakers that the agency’s probe was not in fact complete.

Clinton last week partially blamed her election loss to Trump on that letter.

“I was on the way to winning until the combination of Jim Comey’s letter on Oct. 28 and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me, but got scared off,” she said.