Ex-FBI Director James Comey on Wednesday defended Sen.-elect Mitt Romney, R-Utah, after the former 2012 GOP presidential nominee slammed President Trump for not rising “to the mantle of the office.”
“Looks like the Republican tent is too small to fit integrity,” Comey tweeted. “Today, Republicans attacked a Senator for truthfully calling out the President for his lack of character, while staying mute as he proved it by lying about Jim Mattis and approving the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.”
Looks like the Republican tent is too small to fit integrity. Today, Republicans attacked a Senator for truthfully calling out the President for his lack of character, while staying mute as he proved it by lying about Jim Mattis and approving the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
— James Comey (@Comey) January 3, 2019
Comey, an outspoken Trump critic, has previously used the president’s management style as a counterpoint to model behavior in his 2018 book, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership. Trump fired Comey in May 2017, an act that in part prompted special counsel Robert Mueller’s federal Russia investigation.
Romney wrote a scathing opinion piece in the Washington Post Tuesday in which he described the Trump administration’s “deep descent.”
“The departures of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, the appointment of senior persons of lesser experience, the abandonment of allies who fight beside us, and the president’s thoughtless claim that America has long been a ‘sucker’ in world affairs all defined his presidency down,” the former Massachusetts governor wrote.
Trump responded to the piece on Wednesday, suggesting in a tweet that Romney should support his own party.
“Here we go with Mitt Romney, but so fast! Question will be, is he a Flake? I hope not,” he wrote, referring to retiring Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., another of Trump’s critics within his own party “Would much prefer that Mitt focus on Border Security and so many other things where he can be helpful. I won big, and he didn’t. He should be happy for all Republicans. Be a TEAM player & WIN!”
Here we go with Mitt Romney, but so fast! Question will be, is he a Flake? I hope not. Would much prefer that Mitt focus on Border Security and so many other things where he can be helpful. I won big, and he didn’t. He should be happy for all Republicans. Be a TEAM player & WIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2019
Trump then, during a Cabinet meeting held later Wednesday, said he “essentially” dismissed Mattis when the four-star Marine general resigned over the president’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops in Syria and Afghanistan. He also said it was “right” for the Soviet Union to invade Afghanistan in 1979.
