President Donald Trump firing FBI Director James Comey is sending shockwaves across the country.
"Certainly an unexpected, shocking move,” Professor Matt Grossmann said. “It really stands out historically and politically is quite different."
Grossmann says not only is it unusual for an FBI director to be fired in the middle of their term, but it's an uncommon, risky move in politics to get rid of people... Because it's going to raise a lot of questions.
"Those aren't the norms in political institutions,” Grossman said. “You tend to shy away from getting rid of people and the risk of political backlash or political impropriety."
He says it's important to keep in mind that Comey had made mistakes in the past and this wasn't completely random.
"There were reasons to be concerned about Director Comey's role, especially in the political process and there have been for a while. He made a couple unprecedented moves and he even made a misstatement in the recent hearing,” Grossman said.
Grossmann says the white house seemed to think democrats and republicans alike could unite against Comey. That's because the FBI director was involved in two of the biggest political stories of the year: Hillary Clinton's emails and the investigation into Russian ties to Trump's campaign.
"But it turned out in this case that logic didn't work, and people immediately thought 'well there must be something to the Russia investigation," Grossman said.
He doesn't believe the move implies anything about trump's role or knowledge about Russian interference. He says the next important step is to watch who Trump fills the position with.
"Of he appoints someone very close to him personally, then that'll make the conspiracy theories run even wilder," Grossman said. "If he promotes somebody who has already worked at the FBI and is being promoted, then it might damp down some of the concerns on Comey's firing."
He says to also watch the senate and see what their reaction to Comey's firing is.
