Trump praised Comey in October, criticized him last week and now has fired him | McClatchy Washington Bureau

President Donald Trump tweeted four times about former FBI Director James Comey by name, including once last week when he called Comey the “best thing that ever happened to Hilary Clinton.”

Trump fired Comey on Tuesday evening, days after the FBI director testified before Congress. Comey was in charge of the FBI’s investigation into Trump’s campaign’s ties to Russia.

In his firing letter to Comey, Trump wrote “while I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau.”

Trump asked Comey to stay on as FBI director shortly after his inauguration, but clearly changed his mind.

But all of Trump’s tweets about Comey concerned his handling of the investigation into Clinton’s handling of emails on a personal server, including three before the election.

Comey announced on July 5, 2016, that the Clinton case should be closed without prosecution, leading Republicans and Trump to criticize his decision.

On Oct. 27, just days before the election, Comey announced that he was re-opening the investigation into Clinton’s emails after finding more emails on Anthony Weiner’s computer. Weiner’s wife Huma Abedin was one of Clinton’s top aides. Clinton has called Comey’s decision one of the reasons she lost the election.

Trump praised that decision on Oct. 31, saying it “took a lot of guts.”

“I have to give the FBI credit. That was so bad what happened originally. And it took guts for Director Comey to make the move he made in light of the kind of opposition he had where they’re trying to protect her from criminal prosecution. You know that. It took a lot of guts.”

He added: “I was not his fan, but I’ll tell you what: What he did, he brought back his reputation. He brought it back.”