Trump considered 'firing Comey since day he was elected'
President Donald Trump has "been considering letting director Comey go since the day he was elected," a White House spokesperson has said.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders said over the last several months Trump had "lost confidence in director Comey, the Department of Justice lost confidence in director Comey, bi-partisan members of Congress made it clear they had lost confidence in director Comey and most importantly the rank and file of the FBI had lost confidence in their director."
James Comey had been in charge of the investigation into the US President's campaign alleged links to Russia's meddling in the 2016 election when he was abruptly fired on Tuesday.
He also recently gave evidence over his handling of a separate investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails, before being fired by Mr Trump on Tuesday.
Earlier on Wednesday President Trump had tweeted to say Mr Comey had "lost the confidence of almost everyone in Washington".
Ms Sanders said President Trump had acted on the recommendations of Rod Rosenstein the Deputy Attorney General, to remove Comey, after Mr Rosenstein and Jeff Sessions the Attorney General, came to him on Monday and voiced their concerns over Mr Comey.
She continued that before the news broke the Republican had informed some members of Congress.
Ms Sanders said that one of the final straws came when Mr Comey held a press conference without speaking to Mr Sessions or his deputy and without letting them know what he was going to say.
Prior to this, Mr Comey had shown a "lot of missteps and mistakes" over the last year.
Ms Sanders continued that many Democrats also felt Mr Comey was not fit to be the director of the FBI, adding: "I think it's startling that Democrats aren't celebrating this since they've been calling for this for so long."
President Trump is to meet with Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe on Wednesday in the aftermath of his former boss' dismissal.
In a statement the White House said President Trump wants the FBI to continue its Russia probe, adding that there is no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign team and Russia.