President Trump said Saturday that he is prepared to quickly decide a pick for a new FBI director, as the administration looked to move beyond the Washington hysteria over the firing of James B. Comey.
“We can make a fast decision,” Mr. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
He said the decision could come before he leaves Friday for Saudi Arabia on his first foreign trip as president.
“Even that is possible. I think the process is going to go quickly,” he said. “Almost all [the candidates] are very well known. They’ve been vetted over their lifetime, essentially.”
The president said all the candidates were “highly respected, really talented people. And that’s what we want for the FBI.”
Mr. Trump spoke with reporters as he headed to Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, to deliver a commencement address.
Justice Department officials Saturday were interviewing candidates for a permanent FBI director.
The four candidates being interviewed are Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe; Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, Texas Republican; New York Court of Appeals Judge Michael Garcia; and D.C. lawyer Alice Fisher, a former assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s criminal division.
Mr. Trump abruptly fired Mr. Comey on Tuesday, creating an uproar among Capitol Hill Democrats and the Washington news media.
Democrats accused him of interfering with the FBI’s probe into Trump campaign links to Russia campaign interference, doubling down on calls for a special counsel to investigate.
The news media criticized the White House for the evolving description of the decision-making process that preceded Mr. Trump’s decision to fire Mr. Comey. The criticism prompted Mr. Trump to threaten to end the traditional daily White House press briefings.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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