Huckabee Sanders on Trump Shifting Opinion of Comey: He Was a Candidate, Now He’s the President

Sarah Huckabee Sanders filled in for Sean Spicer at today’s White House Press Briefing, and she faced a barrage of questions about why President Trump fired James Comey despite his old positive comments about the FBI director.

Sanders said that Trump had been losing faith in Comey since the day he was elected, and that the White House acted off of the performance review they got from deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein. As Sanders took questions on the matter, NBC’s Hallie Jackson asked Sanders about why Spicer said just one week ago that the president had “full confidence” in the FBI director.

Sanders said that Comey’s news conferences about Hillary Clinton‘s email investigation upset the Department of Justice chain of command, and firing him was a recommended corrective measure submitted to Trump. Sanders faced a multitude of questions about why Trump lost faith in Comey when he praised him before and after the election concluded.

“I think the president’s position, one: he was a candidate for president, not the president. Those are two very different things,” Sanders said. “Once you take over leading the Department of Justice, that’s very different from being a candidate in a campaign. as you guys all know, there’s a very clear distinction between those two things.”

Sanders went on to characterize Comey’s actions as “atrocities” over how he circumvented the chain of command. She kept insisting that Trump had been thinking about relieving Comey for some time.

Watch above, via CNN.

[Image via screengrab]

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