Excerpts from former FBI Director James Comey's memoir – available to the public this coming Tuesday – are eliciting an angry response from the White House, Republican allies, and the president himself.
Trump lashed out on Twitter Friday morning:
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders echoed the president's sentiments during a short press briefing a few hours later:
Sanders also tweeted a GOP-created video showing clips of Democrats criticizing Comey for his handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server.
NYT:
... [T]he Republican National Committee orchestrated an all-hands effort to discredit Mr. Comey by distributing lengthy talking points to conservative pundits, sympathetic media hosts and Republican lawmakers.
The talking points describe Mr. Comey as a “disgraced former official” and a “consummate Washington insider who knows how to work the media to protect his flanks.” It says that Mr. Comey was “strongly criticized by members of both parties for his history of bizarre decisions, contradictory statements, and acting against Department of Justice and F.B.I. protocol.”
(...)
Republican allies of Mr. Trump’s have planned a counteroffensive and created a “Lyin’ Comey” website aimed at discrediting the former F.B.I. chief.
And Fox News, the president’s preferred TV news network, plans to air a special called “The Trial of James Comey” Sunday night.
(...)
Kellyanne Conway, one of Mr. Trump’s advisers, hit on the same theme [as the video Sarah Sanders tweeted].
“We find that Mr. Comey has a revisionist view of history and seems like a disgruntled ex-employee,” Ms. Conway said on Friday. “After all, he was fired.”
Trump Calls Comey ‘Untruthful Slime Ball’ as Book Details Released (NYT)