WaPo Columnist: Strange To See Democrats Who Wanted Comey Fired Frothing At The Mouth…About His Firing

Matt Vespa | May 11, 2017 6:45 PM

If you’re still sort of confused about the Democrats’ reaction to James Comey being removed from the FBI, you’re not alone. After the 2016 election, a sizable number of Democrats wanted Mr. Comey gone from the FBI. Hillary Clinton blamed his letter to Congress 11 days before the election informing them that the FBI would be reviewing more emails to be one of the factors that led to he defeat. That’s dubious, but that’s for another time. So, now that President Trump has fired Mr. Comey, the Democratic response has been that of outrage, allegations of a cover up, and rehashing their favorite subject: Russian connections to Trump.

The Washington Post’s David Ignatius went on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, where he noted his “peculiar” reaction from Democrats Wednesday (via RCP)[emphasis mine]:

JOE SCARBOROUGH: [President Donald Trump], David Ignatius, will blow himself up and his White House and the Constitution of the United States because he's a day trader who doesn't like bad headlines. That's my opinion, not your opinion --
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: That's mine too.

SCARBOROUGH: But it's pretty shocking. I ask you to go back in all your years covering the government to find a decision anymore shocking than this.

DAVID IGNATIUS: This is one we'll remember where we were when we heard it. It had that kind of impact. The truth is, Joe, I don't know why they did this. It was done in a rush, clearly. It was all put together in a rush yesterday. Comey wasn't even in town. He was surprised by the announcement.

I'm told in talking to my FBI sources that back during the transition, there was discussion among the Trump transition team about getting rid of Comey. They didn't like Comey, they mistrusted him. And so there was talk then, and the decision was this is more trouble than we need.

The peculiar thing is that as angry as Democrats were at Comey after the way he handled the Hillary Clinton e-mail issue -- Hillary Clinton clearly blames Comey for her defeat, he had come to be a symbol of putting trust and integrity back in the FBI through the Russia investigation. It's strange that the Democrats who were so angry at him are now furious at his firing.