On the recordJanuary 25, 2018
Regardless of recommendation, I was going to fire Comey, knowing there was no good time to do it, and in fact when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story, it's an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won.
Source
transcripts.cnn.com
