Comey Fired Because He ‘Could Bring Down A President’

The New York Times’ edi­to­r­i­al board blast­ed President Donald Trump for fir­ing James Comey on Tuesday, accus­ing the pres­i­dent of dis­miss­ing the FBI direc­tor for hav­ing infor­ma­tion with “poten­tial­ly ruinous consequences.”

In an edi­to­r­i­al pub­lished Tuesday evening, the board said the need for a spe­cial pros­e­cu­tor to inves­ti­gate Russian inter­fer­ence with the 2016 elec­tion and the Trump admin­is­tra­tion’s ties to the Kremlin “is plain­er than ever.”

The board wrote:

Mr. Comey was fired because he was lead­ing an active inves­ti­ga­tion that could bring down a pres­i­dent. Though com­pro­mised by his own poor judg­ment, Mr. Comey’s agency has been pur­su­ing ties between the Russian gov­ern­ment and Mr. Trump and his asso­ciates, with poten­tial­ly ruinous con­se­quences for the administration.

The Times added that this is “a tense and uncer­tain time in the nation’s his­to­ry,” and it drew com­par­isons between Trump and President Richard Nixon’s infa­mous 1973 Saturday Night Massacre. Though Nixon’s pres­i­den­tial library would like to remind every­one that not even the 36^th pres­i­dent fired his FBI director.

In addi­tion to the edi­to­r­i­al that will run in the paper Wednesday, the Times will pub­lish the dis­missal let­ter Trump sent Comey on its front page.