The abrupt firing raised questions over whether Mr. Trump was trying to influence the Russia investigation. But he said he was following recommendations from the Justice Department, which criticized how Mr. Comey concluded the investigation into Mrs. Clinton.
[...]
Mr. Comey broke with longstanding tradition and policies by publicly discussing the Clinton case last July and chastising her “careless” handling of classified information. Then, in the campaign’s final days, Mr. Comey announced that the F.B.I. was reopening the investigation, a move that earned him widespread criticism.
Yet many of the facts cited as evidence for Mr. Comey’s dismissal were well known when Mr. Trump kept him on the job. Mr. Comey was three years in to a 10-year term. And both Mr. Trump and his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, had praised Mr. Comey back then by calling his public announcement “gutsy.” On Tuesday, that action was at the heart of Mr. Comey’s firing.
They're buying it on Fox News, of course. Fox "liberal" Eboni Williams went the extra mile of cheerleading the move as restoring credibility to the FBI (while she nonetheless ignored how Trump might be trying to interfere, again, with the Russia investigation). However, conservative Charles Krauthammer did not drink the Kool Aid. He called Trump's excuse "implausible."
But it's hard to disagree with Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer when he came right out and said it smells like a cover up. From Shareblue (emphases theirs):
SCHUMER: The first question the administration has to answer is, “Why now?” If the administration had objections to the way Director Comey handled the Clinton investigation, they had those objections the minute the president got into office. But they didn’t fire him then. Why did it happen today?
We know the House is investigating Russian interference in our elections that benefited the Trump campaign. We know the Senate is investigating. We know the FBI has been looking into whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians, a very serious offense.
Were these investigations getting too close to home for the president?
[...]
This is part of a deeply troubling pattern from the Trump administration: They fired Sally Yates, they fired Preet Bharara, and now they fired Director Comey, the very man leading the investigation. This does not seem to be a coincidence.
Schumer and others are now demanding an independent prosecutor investigate Russiagate and they are calling Trump's move "Nixonian."
