--- title: Bernie Sanders: James Comey Stepping Down 'Would Not' Be Bad description: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders called FBI Director James Comey's handling of Hillary Clinton's emails during the 2016 "outrageous" canonical: https://time.com/4635505/bernie-sanders-james-comey-fbi/ author: Mahita Gajanan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-15T16:55:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:13.926Z article:section: Politics og:title: Bernie Sanders: James Comey's Resignation 'Would Not Be a Bad Thing' og:description: He called the FBI director's actions during the election "outrageous" og:url: https://time.com/4635505/bernie-sanders-james-comey-fbi/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdb134583a467bdc0/6988b5a08e06013651468d22/bernie-sanders-james-comey.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: bernie-sanders-james-comey og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Bernie Sanders: James Comey's Resignation 'Would Not Be a Bad Thing' twitter:description: He called the FBI director's actions during the election "outrageous" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdb134583a467bdc0/6988b5a08e06013651468d22/bernie-sanders-james-comey.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Bernie Sanders: FBI Director James Comey's Resignation 'Would Not Be a Bad Thing' > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Jan 15, 2017 4:55 PM UTC  U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks during an event at the headquarters of American Federation of Teachers December 14, 2016 in Washington, DC. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks during an event at the headquarters of American Federation of Teachers December 14, 2016 in Washington, DC. Alex Wong—2016 Getty Images by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Jan 15, 2017 4:55 PM UTC Vermont Sen. [Bernie Sanders](http://time.com/4623724/bernie-sanders-poster-memes/) called FBI Director James Comey’s handling of Hillary Clinton’s emails during the 2016 “outrageous” and said “it would not be a bad thing for the American people if he did step down,” during an interview on [ABC’s _This Week_](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/sunday-week-reince-priebus-sen-bernie-sanders-rep/story?id=44768696&cid=clicksource%5F903%5Fnull%5Fdp%5Fhed). “I think that Comey acted in an outrageous way during the campaign,” he said. “No one can say that this was the decisive and this was what elected \[Donald\] Trump, but clearly his behavior during the campaign in terms of what he said in the week or two before the election was unacceptable.” Sanders did not explicitly call for [Comey’s resignation](http://time.com/4634197/james-comey-fbi-probe-clinton-emails/), but said the FBI director should consider it. His comment comes as a growing number of Democrats have expressed anger over Comey’s [handling of Russian cyberattacks](http://time.com/4634613/comey-fbi-investigation/) and Clinton’s email investigation. Comey now faces an [internal investigation](http://time.com/4634197/james-comey-fbi-probe-clinton-emails/) from the Justice Department’s inspector general over whether he and the Justice Department followed established protocol in the email server case. “I think he should take a hard look at what he has done,” Sanders said. “And I think it would not be a bad thing for the American people if he did step down.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4635505/bernie-sanders-james-comey-fbi/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4635505/bernie-sanders-james-comey-fbi/"},"headline":"Bernie Sanders: FBI Director James Comey's Resignation 'Would Not Be a Bad Thing'","datePublished":"2017-01-15T16:55:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:13.926Z","description":"He called Comey's actions during the election \"outrageous\"","url":"https://time.com/4635505/bernie-sanders-james-comey-fbi/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdb134583a467bdc0/6988b5a08e06013651468d22/bernie-sanders-james-comey.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mahita Gajanan","jobTitle":"Gajanan is an editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdb134583a467bdc0/6988b5a08e06013651468d22/bernie-sanders-james-comey.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"bernie-sanders-james-comey","caption":"WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 14: U.S. Sen. 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