Kellyanne Conway, refuting Chuck Schumer, says Comey's firing is 'not a cover-up'

In the most unsurprising news to come out of the firing of former FBI Director James Comey, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and senior White House aide Kellyanne Conway are at odds over whether this is part of a larger cover-up.

In a news conference Tuesday evening, Schumer said that if Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein doesn't appoint a special prosecutor to take over the investigation into Russian meddling to benefit Trump during the 2016 presidential election, it will show that Comey's firing was "part of a cover-up," later adding, "Were these investigations getting too close to home for the president?" One of the reasons why Comey was fired, the White House claimed, was the way he mishandled the investigation last year into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server, causing Schumer to question the timing. "Why now?" he asked. "Why did it happen today?" He also voiced his concern that the next FBI director might be afraid of getting fired if they "run afoul of the administration."

Conway disagreed with all of this on CNN, telling Anderson Cooper the firing was "not a cover-up." In Trump's letter to Comey, the president claimed that the director "on three occasions" informed him he was "not under investigation," and Conway said that was proof there was nothing salacious going on. Cooper pressed her on those interactions, but Conway demurred, saying, "That's between the president of the United States and Director Comey." Catherine Garcia

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