Trump's choice would need 51 votes and Republicans control 52 seats, so there is little margin for error.
"The timing of this and the reasoning for it doesn't make sense to me", said Sen. "About the only time he could have done it without, I think, an enormous reaction would have been the day after he was sworn in". Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia.
"I hope to do it in a bipartisan way, but the investigation will run its course", he said.
Responding to media reports that Comey had asked Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein last week for a significant boost in resources for the agency's probe, Justice Department spokesman Ian Prior said in an email, "Totally false".
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said dismissing the person overseeing the Russian investigation requires an independent prosecutor.
Eleven days before the election, Trump publicly praised Comey for his decision to further review Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. Rep Adam Schiff of California, top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said the White House was "brazenly interfering" in the probe. 'We know Director Comey was leading an investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians.
Other senior Republicans are casting doubt on the decision to fire Comey, including Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Sen.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., stood firmly behind Trump. Some have then wondered aloud if the president is instead trying to punish Comey for investigating ties between his campaign and Russian Federation.
Mormon church severs some of its ties to the Boy Scouts
An 11-year-old boy looks over a Boy Scout-themed Norman Rockwell exhibition at the Church History Museum in Salt Lake City. . Officials said the church's decision to move away from the teen Scout programs came before it learned of that possibility.
Mr Sessions said the department of justice was "committed to a high level of discipline, integrity, and the rule of law", and "a fresh start is needed".
Republican Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, dismissed the notion Trump fired Comey to impede the FBI's Russian Federation probe, calling it a "phony narrative". The FBI investigation, with Mr Comey at its helm, was accelerating prior to his dismissal. And he's close to Vice President Mike Pence.
A law related to the appointment of a special prosecutor lapsed in the 1990s but department regulations provide that the attorney general can appoint a special counsel from outside the federal government.
"The truth is that McCabe's wife was approached by Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Virginia Democrats to run for the state Senate".
Democrats then convened a special caucus meeting and indicated they would attempt to delay committee hearings or in other ways slow down the business of the Senate to highlight their demands. However, Sanders said, Mr. Trump spoke Monday with Rosenstein, who had come to express his "concerns" about Comey. It raised a number of questions: When did this happen? "And the few times he has done sit down interviews. many if not most have reduced clarity".
"I encourage the president to select the most qualified professional available who will serve our nation's interests".
"Several" candidates are under consideration to replace Comey, she said, without naming them. Was it a general sense that Comey was never going to be a Trump guy, just frankly, like he wasn't really an Obama guy, that he was - for a president who puts a real premium on loyalty, was Jim Comey just too much of a - you know, an independent wild card for this administration?
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