- The Washington Times - Sunday, May 14, 2017

Sen. Ben Sasse says President Trump’s firing of FBI Director James B. Comey will only contribute to the erosion of American institutions that has undermined public trust in government.

“I’ve been critical of that decision,” Mr. Sasse said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “I think it exacerbates the erosion of trust in our institutions, so I’m disappointed in the timing of the firing.”

He said there’s still “a lot that we need to understand better about how this happened.”

The Nebraska Republican also warned against the further “politicization” of the Justice Department that he said was accelerated under the Obama administration.

“There’s been a lot of politicization going on at the Department of Justice over the last five to eight to nine years as well,” he said. “We should want the Department of Justice to be very, very insulated from partisan politics.”

Mr. Sasse said these developments are part of a “civilization-warping crisis of public trust” in American institutions. He encouraged statesmen to rebuild that trust and work to create a shared sense of what it means to be an American.

“We’re going to need to have some institutions that we can rely on and believe are apolitical when the public has more and more doubt,” he said. “And right now Washington isn’t at all focused on the long-term challenge of rebuilding a shared narrative about America and institutional trust in our servants.”

• Bradford Richardson can be reached at brichardson@washingtontimes.com.

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