Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said in an interview set to air Sunday that Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey was not done “terribly well” and that there is a more “professional approach” that could have been taken.
Gates told CBS “Face the Nation” host John Dickerson that during his time serving under eight presidents, he learned there are key elements to replacing a top official and one of those is making sure you “have all your ducks in a row at the beginning.”
“I think the key, when you feel compelled to remove a senior official, is essentially to have all your ducks in a row at the beginning,” Gates told Dickerson. “To have the rationale, have everybody understand what the rationale was.”
Gates also said Trump should “if possible” announce who he was going to nominate to replace Comey.
