After the White House contradicted its own narrative regarding his motivation for firing FBI Director James Comey, President Trump sought to explain the conflicting stories in tweets Friday morning. “As a very active President with lots of things happening,” he wrote, “it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!”
Trump continued: “Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future ‘press briefings’ and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy???”
In the immediate aftermath of Comey’s firing, Trump surrogates from Sarah Sanders to Sean Spicer to Kellyanne Conway pinned the decision on a memorandum sent by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Though they repeatedly referred to the memo as a “recommendation” that Trump fire Comey, it stopped short of actually making that suggestion.
Then, on Thursday, both Trump and Sanders reversed course and said the president was prepared to fire Comey anyway, regardless of Rosenstein’s memo.
But despite the implication of Trump’s tweet on Friday morning, if Sanders (or any of his other surrogates) had not taken the podium at Wednesday’s White House press briefing and instead delivered a written statement to reporters, it’s unlikely that would have made much of a difference.
Why? Because the president himself provided a written explanation of his decision to Comey, which was also sent to reporters, as the news broke on Tuesday. And that written explanation pointed directly to Rosenstein’s memorandum.
Here’s what Trump said to Comey:
Dear Director Comey:
I have received the attached letters from the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General of the United States recommending your dismissal as the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I have accepted their recommendation and you are hereby terminated and removed from office, effective immediately.
And here’s the statement from press secretary Sean Spicer that accompanied Trump’s note to Comey:
Today, President Donald J. Trump informed FBI Director James Comey that he has been terminated and removed from office. President Trump acted based on the clear recommendations of both Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions …
Trump’s tweet suggests the flurry of activity in the White House is responsible for misstatements made in the press briefing. That may be fair enough when it comes to minor details, but Sanders was echoing the basic explanation expressed clearly by both the president and Spicer in written documents.
If the White House had canceled Wednesday’s briefing, it’s more than reasonable to assume any written statement would have parroted the same line. It’s possible Trump’s press shop was operating under the mistaken impression that his decision was motivated entirely by Rosenstein’s memo, but unlikely given the fact that Trump’s initial notice of dismissal sent to Comey pointed directly at it.
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
