Sarah Huckabee Sanders claims James Comey committed 'basic atrocities'

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer is at the Pentagon for the rest of the week for Navy reserve duty, so his deputy, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, was given the unpleasant task of handling the press the day after President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey. From the get-go, Sanders firmly defended Trump's motive for firing Comey, claiming that "it's been an erosion of confidence. Director Comey has shown a lot of missteps and mistakes."

Sanders also attempted to distinguish between Trump the candidate and Trump the president, saying "those are two very different things." "Once you take over leading the Department of Justice, that's very different than being a candidate in a campaign," she went on.

As for Comey, Sanders claimed the former director had committed "basic atrocities" while serving as the director of the bureau. "Having a letter like the one he received, and having that conversation that outlined the basic atrocities in circumventing the chain of command and the Department of Justice," she said. "Any person of legal mind and authority knows what a big deal that is."

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Her language raised more than a few eyebrows:

As recently as January, Trump had some pretty nice things to say about Comey.