President Trump Blasts Fired FBI Director: ‘He’s A Grandstander!’

Donald Trump isn't sorry for creating a D.C. panic when he fired FBI Director James Comey — and is even taking full credit while mocking the ex-Fed as a "showboat" and "grandstander!"

Donald Trump isn't sorry for creating a D.C. panic when he fired FBI Director James Comey — and is even taking full credit while mocking the ex-Fed as a "showboat" and "grandstander!"

Video from an upcoming NBC News interview with Lester Holt reveals Trump is making it clear that the buck stopped with the President when it came time to terminate the Obama administration holdover. "My decision," declared Trump, after Holt suggested that deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein was behind the shocking decision. "I was going to fire Comey. Oh, I was going to fire regardless of recommendation!"

Trump also didn't hold back on why he was ready to get rid of Comey — who had just embarrassed the FBI by backpedaling after previously swearing to Congress that Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin had sent "hundreds and thousands" of government emails to her husband Anthony Weiner. "He's a showboat," scoffed Trump. "He's a grandstander. The FBI has been in turmoil!"

Vice President Mike Pence, however, had assured reporters that Comey was fired at the request of Rosenstein. "The deputy attorney general was confirmed just a few short weeks ago by the United States Senate," said the Veep, "when he brought the recommendation to the president that the director of the FBI should be removed." Trump, meanwhile, told the CBS newsman that Comey had initially remained the head of the FBI after a private dinner.

"He wanted to stay on as the FBI head," said Trump. The president's interview with Holt will be airing on Thursday's broadcast of "NBC Nightly News"at 6 pm ET — with more excerpts from the bombshell interview airing the next morning on the network's "Today Show."