White House counselor Kellyanne Conway Wednesday morning defended President Donald Trump's decision to fire FBI Director James Comey because he wanted an "impartial" director who is "not politicized," while sparring with CNN "New Day" host Chris Cuomo in a heated interview.
"The president took the advice of the deputy attorney general [Rod Rosenstein], who oversees the director of the FBI, brought those concerns to the attorney general [Jeff Sessions], who brought them to the president, and they made a decision to remove him," Conway told Cuomo.
"The president has made clear it will act like a leader, he will make decisive resolute actions when he's faced with evidence," she continued. "And in this case Jim Comey had lost the confidence of the people on the FBI, on both sides of the partisan aisles."
Comey had lost confidence on both sides of the aisle, said Conway, pointing out that Democrats such as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi had spoken out against him, but "now they want him to be a martyr."
"On your network you always want to talk about Russia, Russia, Russia," she told Cuomo."The idea that the FBI has one thing going on and it's the Russian investigation...it is really irresponsible to not report to your viewers that many people are involved in all of these investigations."
"You want, as the president says, for this to be a hoax. I get it," Cuomo later told her. "That's why Comey being ousted just when that is heating up, not back when he started his tenure, he didn't need anybody to tell him that Comey had been divisive within the agency. He knew all of that."
"Do you want me to ask the questions, because you're giving all the answers? Conway retorted.
"Kellyanne, I've got to check what you're saying," said Cuomo. "You're creating an image that doesn't reveal itself in fact."
Democrats, Conway further said, are "saying they don't see any evidence of Russian collusion."
"It's not a talking point," she said. "It's a seven month distraction."
"That's what you want it to be," said Cuomo. "I get that...what I want is the truth. That's all we should all want here."