WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump has fired FBI Director James Comey.

In a statement, Trump says Comey's firing "will mark a new beginning" for the FBI. The White House says the search for a new FBI director will begin immediately.

Statement from @WhiteHouse @PressSec on @FBI Director pic.twitter.com/EdBRntMim5

— Sean Spicer (@PressSec) May 9, 2017

Comey's firing comes days after he testified on Capitol Hill about the FBI's investigation into Russia's election meddling and possible connections between Russia and Trump's campaign.

Starting with Hillary Clinton herself, Democrats have blamed Comey for her loss to President Donald Trump. And yet when Trump fired the FBI director Tuesday, those same Democrats rushed to defend his job.

While Comey's pronouncements about his probe into Clinton's handling of emails infuriated them, he's also the man who'd been looking into whether Trump's campaign had colluded with Russians. That left many blasting the firing as an abuse of power, even if as they did not quibble with the reasons the White House put forward as cause.

Clinton campaign aides decried Trump's decision to fire Comey during the FBI's investigation, and top Democratic lawmakers renewed calls for an independent investigation while comparing the situation to the Nixon-era "Saturday night massacre."