Joe Walsh: I Support Trump But Firing Comey Was Wrong

Former Illinois congressman Joe Walsh defended his criticism of President Donald Trump, saying that he was wrong to terminate FBI Director James Comey in a column for The Washington Post.

Walsh, a Republican who now hosts a conservative radio show, said although he is "a Donald Trump supporter" who voted for him in November and would again, he is not a "cheerleader."

"Trump was wrong to fire FBI Director James B. Comey. And we, his supporters, should be honest with ourselves about it. Not all my listeners agree. When news of Comey's firing broke Tuesday while I was on the air, I criticized the president and a lot of his supporters didn’t like it,” Walsh wrote.

Walsh noted Trump's claim Wednesday that he fired Comey because "he wasn’t doing a good job."

The same reasoning was used in a memo sent with the director’s termination letter from the Justice Department.

"But to believe that’s the real reason, you have to believe that Comey — the guy overseeing the investigation into possible ties between Russia and the Trump campaign — was let go for doing the same things Trump praised Comey for six months ago, when Trump said the FBI director had 'guts' and 'did the right thing,'" Walsh writes.

"There’s nothing normal about that. That's tin-pot dictator territory. It's an abuse of power. And not only that, if it was meant to put a lid on the Russia investigation, it backfired. Firing Comey just keeps Russia in the headlines."

• Rosenstein Threatened to Resign Over Comey
• CNN: Comey Fired Over Loyalty and Russia