Revealed: The real reason why Trump fired Comey

President Trump reversed himself, again, on exactly why he fired former FBI Director James Comey. In a joint news conference with Colombian President Juan Manual Santos on Thursday, Mr. Trump said:

"Director Comey was very unpopular with most people."

"I actually thought when I made that decision -- and I also got a very, very strong recommendation, as you know, from the Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein."

But actually, exactly a week ago, Trump sat down with NBC's Lester Holt and said:

"I was going to fire Comey – my decision. There is no good time to do it, by the way. I was going to fire regardless of recommendation."

 

This is contrary to the arguments made last week by Vice President Mike Pence, White House press secretary Sean Spicer and White House counselor Kellyanne Conway. They suggested that President Trump made the move after receiving the Rosenstein memo presenting the case for why Comey should be fired.

Now, an interesting twist – During a closed briefing for Senators on Thursday, several Democrats including Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Dick Durbin of Illinois, revealed that Rosenstein said he knew Trump was getting rid of Comey even before he wrote the memo.

This whole scenario can be described as a rare political feat: The flip, flop, re-flip and, possible, re-flop.

And what’s the reason behind this political acrobatics? 

Neither Trump nor the White House want to say – or think it is politically correct to utter – the real reason why Trump fired Comey: Because he disliked him.

It could have been Comey's unwavering thrust to get to the bottom of how Russia attempted to poke its nose in the 2016 election and whether any member of Trump campaign connived with them.

It could have been the reported loyalty pledge Trump wanted from Comey in a late January dinner, but Comey refused.

It could have been that Trump was really disappointed at Comey because he failed to bring an indictment against Hillary Clinton despite the fact that many Republicans believed there was enough evidence to do so.

It could have been that Trump always hated Comey's aptitude for the theatric. (In the Holt interview, Trump referred to the fired FBI director as a "showboat.”)

It could have been that Comey was picked by Obama and not Trump.

It could have been all of those things, a combination of some of them or none of them.

But, the point is still the same. Donald Trump hated James Comey.