--- title: Trump: James Comey 'Best Thing' That Happened to Clinton description: President Donald Trump tweeted that FBI Director James Comey was “the best thing that ever happened to Hillary Clinton" canonical: https://time.com/4764639/donald-trump-james-comey-hillary-clinton/ author: Feliz Solomon article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-03T07:54:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T04:43:15.220Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Says James Comey 'Best Thing' That Happened to Clinton og:description: The President tweeted the remarks after Clinton claimed Comey led to her defeat og:url: https://time.com/4764639/donald-trump-james-comey-hillary-clinton/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc26a8923724bd769/6988cbc4cf40a89c67c47860/gettyimages-676088166.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5568 og:image:height: 3132 og:image:alt: US-TRUMP-AIRFORCE-TROPHY og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Says James Comey 'Best Thing' That Happened to Clinton twitter:description: The President tweeted the remarks after Clinton claimed Comey led to her defeat twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc26a8923724bd769/6988cbc4cf40a89c67c47860/gettyimages-676088166.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Says James Comey Was 'Best Thing That Ever Happened' to Hillary Clinton > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### 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 [Feliz Solomon](https://time.com/author/feliz-solomon/) ## Feliz Solomon May 3, 2017 7:54 AM UTC  US President Donald Trump speaks at the presentation ceremony for the Commander-in-Chief trophy to the US Air Force Academy in the Rose Garden of the White House on May 2, 2017 in Washington, DC. US President Donald Trump speaks at the presentation ceremony for the Commander-in-Chief trophy to the US Air Force Academy in the Rose Garden of the White House on May 2, 2017 in Washington, DC. Mandel Ngan—AFP/Getty Images by [Feliz Solomon](https://time.com/author/feliz-solomon/) ## Feliz Solomon May 3, 2017 7:54 AM UTC President Donald Trump took to Twitter late Tuesday to share his unconventional view that FBI Director James Comey was “the best thing that ever happened to Hillary Clinton,” shortly after Clinton said during an interview that Comey[ may have cost her the presidency](http://motto.time.com/4763690/hillary-clinton-misogyny-campaign-loss-donald-trump-james-comey/) in last year’s bitter race. “FBI Director Comey was the best thing that ever happened to Hillary Clinton in that he gave her a free pass for many bad deeds!” Trump tweeted, claiming that the Democratic party has tried to justify its election loss by drawing attention to [alleged ties between Trump’s associates](http://time.com/4754803/donald-trump-russia-investigation-momentum/) and the Russian government. [Speaking](http://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/02/politics/hillary-clinton-planned-parenthood-women-for-women/index.html) to CNN, Clinton said that while she takes responsibility for her crushing upset on Nov. 8, she ultimately blames Comey and Russian interference for swaying voters against her. Comey, who led the investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server while serving as Secretary of State, revealed less than two weeks before the election that the probe would be re-opened. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/859601184285491201) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/859604996236742656) “If the election had been on Oct. 27, I would be your President,” Clinton said, referring to the day before Comey’s bruising decision in the form of a letter to Congress. The incident became known as Clinton’s “October Surprise,” throwing a spanner in works of a campaign that was widely projected to win by a large margin and elevate her to being the first woman in the Oval Office. “I was on the way to winning,” Clinton told CNN, “until the combination of Jim Comey’s letter on Oct. 28 and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me, but got scared off.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4764639/donald-trump-james-comey-hillary-clinton/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4764639/donald-trump-james-comey-hillary-clinton/"},"headline":"Trump Says James Comey Was 'Best Thing That Ever Happened' to Hillary Clinton","datePublished":"2017-05-03T07:54:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T04:43:15.220Z","description":"Clinton said in a recent interview that a combination of the \"Comey letter\" and Russian hacking led to her devastating loss","url":"https://time.com/4764639/donald-trump-james-comey-hillary-clinton/","keywords":["Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc26a8923724bd769/6988cbc4cf40a89c67c47860/gettyimages-676088166.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Feliz Solomon","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/feliz-solomon/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc26a8923724bd769/6988cbc4cf40a89c67c47860/gettyimages-676088166.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-TRUMP-AIRFORCE-TROPHY","caption":"US-TRUMP-AIRFORCE-TROPHY","creditText":"Mandel Ngan—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4764639/donald-trump-james-comey-hillary-clinton/","name":"Trump Says James Comey Was 'Best Thing That Ever Happened' to Hillary Clinton"}}]}] ```