Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) on Thursday responded to the prepared testimony by former FBI Director James Comey, calling it “disturbing.” He added, according to a press release, “This is not how a president of the United States behaves.” Comey wrote in his prepared statement that President Trump blatantly asked for his loyalty and for the FBI director to “lift the cloud” of a the investigation into Russian meddling in the U.S. election. Warner’s planned statement, also released early, says, “We began this entire process with the president and his staff first denying that the Russians were ever involved, and then falsely claiming that no one from his team was ever in touch with any Russians. We now know that this is not true.” Warner called Comey a “straight shooter” who has been “willing to speak truth to power, even at the risk of your career.” He said that this made “the way in which you were fired by the president utterly shocking.” He added, “Regardless of the outcome of our investigation into those Russia links, Director Comey’s firing and his testimony raise separate and troubling questions that we must get to the bottom of.”