Questioning the timing of President Trump’s decision to dismiss James Comey from his position as the Director of the FBI, Conservative Senator Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) told CBS News that “we are in the midst of a civilization-warping crisis of public trust.”
“Face the Nation” host John Dickerson, in an interview on the show Sunday morning, asked Ben Sasse why, according to him, Comey had been dismissed.
“I’m not sure how this president makes a lot of decisions,” Sasse said. “So, I honestly don’t know. But I do know we are in the midst of a civilization-warping crisis of public trust. And we need to talk honestly about our institutions that need to be restored and need to have the ability for people in five and eight and 10 years to trust these institutions.”
The Senator further said that he was “disappointed in the timing” of Trump’s move.
“I’m disappointed in the timing of the firing,” Sasse said. “But I want to preserve room that there’s lots of reasonable reasons that people across the political spectrum can argue about the way the FBI leadership conducted its business in the 2016 cycle.”
Sasse believes that politicians in Washington D.C. have “their heads in the sand,” over the lack of trust the American public has in the institutions, including the FBI. According to Sassi, the way Comey was fired by Trump, further undermines that trust.
Sasse’s beliefs seem to be supported by strong rationale. A survey of registered voters by the Harvard-Harris Poll, released in March, discovered that only 17 percent of Americans had a positive view of Comey. 27 percent of Republicans viewed the former FBI Director as unfavorable; less than the 41 percent of Democrats who had a negative view of Comey.
A new poll released on Sunday morning by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal showed that 38 percent of American adults object to Trump’s decision to dismiss Comey, whereas 29 percent said they support it and 32 percent didn’t have no opinion over the matter.