Christie: Trump may have 'been right' to fire Comey

<p>Christie said, &quot;What he's proving in that interview is the president may in fact have been right to have fired him. Maybe he didn't do it in the right way, maybe he didn't do it at the right time.&quot;</p>

News 12 Staff

Apr 15, 2018, 10:10 PM

Updated 2,337 days ago

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Former Gov. Chris Christie, friend to President Donald Trump and himself a former prosecutor, weighed in on James Comey's tenure as FBI director this weekend.
Christie had previously praised Comey, but ahead of the release of the ousted FBI chief's book and a highly anticipated TV interview about it, Christie had some criticism for Comey.
"I think it's unfortunate that Jim - who is a good guy, a good family man, and a good person and was a very good prosecutor -- but he began to believe his own press clippings," Christie said on ABC's "This Week." "And it's the biggest danger in public life. And the hubris that he shows in that interview is extraordinary to me and not the guy I worked with or worked for. And it's sad."
Christie and the president both seized upon Comey saying that polls showing Hillary Clinton in the lead over Trump were a factor in his decision to reopen the investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server 11 days before Election Day 2016.
Christie, who was U.S. attorney when Comey was deputy attorney general, tweeted Sunday afternoon, "We're not supposed to care about politics as prosecutors. But what we find out from his interview is that he did. That Jim Comey did care about politics. It is so depressing as somebody who spent seven years in the Justice Department trying to make sure it worked the right way."
Christie said, "What he's proving in that interview is the president may in fact have been right to have fired him. Maybe he didn't do it in the right way, maybe he didn't do it at the right time."
Following Christie's remarks, some have observed that Christie as U.S. attorney did what he accused Comey of -- when his office sent a letter of exoneration to now-Essex County Executive Joe Divencenzo in the last days of a primary campaign in 2002.