U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to visit FBI headquarters in the next few days, a White House spokeswoman said on Thursday, days after Trump’s firing of the agency’s director ignited a political firestorm.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders, in an interview on CBS News, said Trump would “very likely” make the trip to talk to agents.
Trump dismissed then-director James Comey on Tuesday.
The New York Times, citing an unnamed official, earlier reported Trump was considering visiting the FBI’s Washington headquarters on Friday but was not expected to discuss the investigation over possible collusion between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia in the 2016 U.S. election.
NAN reports that Trump on Wednesday vowed to hire “someone who will do a far better job” after firing James Comey as head of the FBI, defending the decision on Twitter as his critics cried foul.
“James Comey will be replaced by someone who will do a far better job, bringing back the spirit and prestige of the FBI,” Trump wrote.
“Comey lost the confidence of almost everyone in Washington, Republican and Democrat alike. When things calm down, they will be thanking me!” he added.
An earlier tweet claimed that “Democrats have said some of the worst things” about the top intelligence official, but that now the opposition was playing “so sad.”
Tuesday’s shock announcement that Comey had been dismissed comes amid an ongoing investigation that he had been leading into potential collusion between the US president’s campaign team and Russia.
The move sparked immediate accusations of political interference, with Republicans as well as Democrats expressing dismay.
The Trump administration blamed multiple mistakes Comey made in his handling of the investigation into former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s emails for the sacking.
On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Trump’s decision was an “independent decision, which has nothing to do and should have nothing to do with Russia,” in comments carried by state news agency TASS.
Peskov said he hoped the matter would not affect US-Russian relations.
