GOP chairman: Trump’s Comey tweet ‘inappropriate’

Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee leading the probe into Russia’s meddling in the presidential election, said Friday that President Trump’s tweet about FBI Director James Comey was “inappropriate.”

“But to say more would be a mistake,” Burr added, according to WRAL.

Burr was referring to Trump’s Friday morning tweet in which the president threatened the former FBI chief.

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“James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

But Burr, who earlier this week said the timing and reasoning behind Comey’s firing “troubled” him, also noted on Friday that the president has the authority to fire the FBI director.

“Make no mistake: The president has every right in his job to pick the head of the FBI and to trust the head of the FBI. Clearly, the president lost trust in James Comey. Why? That’s a question the president will have to answer,” Burr said, according to the Winston- Salem Journal. 

Trump fired Comey on Tuesday in a signed letter that called for “a new beginning” at the FBI. 

Four candidates were being interviewed Saturday as potential permanent replacements for the FBI chief.