Former FBI Director James Comey needs to reveal why he did not act on any concerns about obstruction of justice over his memo that President Donald Trump asked him to let the Russia investigation go, Sen. Joe Manchin said.
"We want to find out what Comey was thinking at that time, if he thought it had risen to that level of obstruction, and if it had, why hadn't something been done, why didn't he act on it while he was still FBI director," Manchin, D-West Virginia, said Monday on "CBS This Morning."
"He will not go above an open source, basically what's been reported to the public," Manchin said, when asked whether Comey would be restricted in what he is allowed to say in the testimony.
"He's not going, as I understand it, into classified intel," Manchin said in the interview, and noted that for classified information to be discussed, a separate meeting is sometimes held.
The senator said he believed Trump would be wrong to invoke executive privilege to block Comey's testimony, but said during the CBS interview that he had not heard that the president might take that action.
Manchin praised the Senate Intelligence Committee.
"Our intelligence committee is made up of 17, I think, truly Americans, not Democrats or Republicans, Americans. They are going to make decisions based on the intel. We have been told and we always believe that the intel takes you to the facts, the facts will take you to the truth. Then you make your decision.
"I don't think any one person, whether it's a homeless person or a person at the highest level of government, such as the president is going to be spared if something is wrong. That's the rule of law," Manchin told CBS.
"Russians are not our ally. They're not in this to make a better America," Manchin noted in the CBS interview. "The intel is very pointed and direct that they have gotten more involved."
The former FBI director's testimony is set to begin Thursday.