Republicans say former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony is obvious vindication for an embattled President Donald Trump. Democrats see new evidence of a president looking to obstruct justice.
Comey will appear Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee for a highly anticipated hearing, and senators Wednesday offered predictably partisan takes from his prepared remarks.
Their reactions mirrored, and probably heightened, a partisan split that congressional investigators have sought to avoid as they look into potential collusion between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. And it signals that any hope for bipartisan cooperation in the ongoing probe of any Trump-Russia connection will remain elusive.
Comey will tell the panel that in a series of meetings and phone calls, Trump demanded his loyalty and asked him to back off investigating an aide's reported ties to Russia, tactics that Democrats say point to obstruction.
Congressional Republicans seized on Comey's remarks that he three times told Trump he personally wasn't under investigation. That fits with what Trump has asserted.
“It would have been quite another matter to fire (Comey) if (Comey) had said, ‘Yes, you are under investigation,’ “ said Rep. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., a member of the Senate Republican leadership team. “If you’re under investigation, it raises questions. But if there’s no investigation, then clearly his firing was based on other issues.”
The Republican National Committee made the same point in an email.
"President Trump was right," said RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who Trump chose to head the GOP. “"Director Comey’s statement reconfirmed what the president has been saying all along – he was never under investigation."