Bob Woodward on Comey firing: My reaction was ‘wow’

Veteran journalist Bob Woodward says he was first shocked by President Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey.

“My first reaction was, ‘wow,’ and my second reaction was, ‘but of course!’” he told The Washington Post Wednesday. “There’s a certain logic to it.”

“It’s clearly a legitimate investigation, and Trump doesn’t like it,” added Woodward, whose reporting helped expose the Watergate scandal in the 1970s.

{mosads}“Some people think it’s a coverup already. Others [think] there’s no evidence, and let’s see. Let’s see what the evidence is.”

Woodward added that comparing political scandals to Watergate is “in the political culture now.”

“It’s going to be Trumpgate, it’s going to be Comeygate, it’s going to be FBI-gate, it’s going to be something-gate,” he said.

The White House announced Tuesday that Trump had fired Comey on the recommendation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his deputy, Rod Rosenstein.

Trump’s decision stunned Washington, with many questioning the timing of the dismissal.

Senate Democrats slammed Trump on Tuesday over the sacking, comparing him with former President Richard Nixon.

“This is nothing less than Nixonian,” Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said in a statement.

Comey announced in March that the FBI was probing Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election, including possible ties between Moscow and Trump’s campaign.

Critics have since argued that Trump’s firing of Comey is an attempt at stalling the probe’s progress.

Nixon resigned in 1974 while facing the possibility of impeachment by the House of Representatives following the Watergate scandal.