(CNSNews.com) – “Mr. Comey, do you believe you would have been fired if Hillary Clinton had become president?” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) asked the former FBI director at Thursday’s hearing.
“That’s a great question. I don’t know,” Comey responded.
“Do you have any thoughts about it?” Manchin pressed.
“I don’t know,” Comey said. “Look, I’ve said before, that was an extraordinarily difficult and painful time. I think I did what I had to do. I knew it was going to be very bad for me personally, and the consequence of that might have been, if Hillary Clinton was elected, I might have been terminated. I don’t know.”
A few minutes earlier, Manchin had asked Comey: “Do you believe there were any tapes or recordings of your conversations with the president?”
“It never occurred to me until the president’s tweet,” Comey said. “I’m not being facetious, I hope there are, and I’ll consent to the release.”
Manchin told Comey, “So you both (Comey and Trump) hope there’s tapes and recordings.”
“Well, all I can do is hope,” Comey said. “The president surely knows whether he taped me, and if he did, my feelings aren’t hurt. Release the entire – release all the tapes. I’m good with it.”
In a May 12 tweet, Trump wrote: "James Comey better hope that there are no 'tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!"