The White House had initially stated the former FBI director was fired in May 2017 because of his handling of the investigation into rival candidate Hillary Clinton’s emails during her time as Secretary of State.
But two days later, the President gave an interview to NBC stating it was on his mind when he made the decision.
“In fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story,’” he said.
Why backpedal now? Special counsel Robert Mueller is currently investigating the Comey firing as part of his investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election.
Trump isn’t backing down completely though, labelling Comey an “untruthful slimeball” in a recent tweet – and causing searches for ‘slimeball’ to jump 60,000 per cent according to dictionary site Merriam-Webster.
Who’s the real slimeball?