Saunders: Trump firing brings independence of FBI into question

Sanders said that if Clinton had won in November, “she would have fired Comey immediately — and the very Democrats that are criticizing the president today would be dancing in the streets celebrating.”

Sanders has a point. Earlier this month, Clinton told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, “I was on the way to winning until the combination of Jim Comey’s letter on Oct. 28 (to Congress announcing the reopening of the investigation).”

In December, then Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Comey cost Clinton the election and should resign. In November, now Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told said he had lost confidence in Comey and that he found the Oct. 28 letter “appalling.”

Comey also angered the right. The Wall Street Journal editorial page was appalled in July when Comey talked to the media about why the FBI would not charge Clinton.

Comey didn’t help himself last week when he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that former Clinton aide Huma Abedin “forwarded hundreds and thousands” of Clinton emails to the laptop of her husband, former Rep. Anthony Weiner. Comey got it wrong. On Tuesday, the FBI sent a letter to Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to correct the record and stipulate that Abedin had forwarded or backed up 12 classified emails.

That error provided a solid opening for Trump to call out Comey — maybe even look him in the eye and fire him. Instead the president sent a nasty message across the country to the Los Angeles FBI office where Comey was about to speak.

Hypocrisy abounds

Schumer and company do look like hypocrites for lamenting Trump’s firing of their former target. Perhaps the hypocrisy label would stick better to others if Trump had not praised Comey when it helped his campaign.

Worst of all, in firing the man in charge of the investigation into allegations that Trump campaign associates colluded with Russians, Trump brought into question the independence of federal law enforcement. In one impulsive act, the president gave credence to Democrats who have been calling for a special prosecutor.

The Comey dismissal, after all, followed Trump’s sacking of former acting Attorney General Sally Yates, who opposed his travel ban, and former New York U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who also was in a position to investigate Trump. Three is rarely a good number in politics.

A person can believe that the Russian collusion story is unsubstantiated and that Comey deserved to be fired — and still wonder just what Trump was thinking.