Yes. They want James Comey to testify, and if he’d rather do it publicly, all the better.

In fact, they’d like to talk to him publicly, privately, and as often as possible, it seems.

Let’s be frank.

I have no doubt that Trump was telling the truth when he told NBC’s Lester Holt that he fired Comey because of the Russia investigation.

And no, it’s not because of his casual cool that he wants everybody to just chill and let it go.

(Sorry. Trying to get ahead of some of the more colorful excuses from the raging Trumpikazi bombers.)

Firing James Comey so clumsily may come back to bite the president, yet.

Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and ranking member Mark Warner (D-Va.) on Wednesday said they sent a letter to Comey asking him to testify during a public hearing as well as meet with members in a closed-door briefing.

Warner said they hadn’t received a response to the letter, but signaled he was optimistic Comey would testify.

“I hope he’ll accept our invitation. I believe he will,” he told reporters.

I believe he will, as well.

James Comey should have been gone last year, after he reeled off a list of calamitous misdeeds by Hillary Clinton, then failed to recommend some sort of appropriate punishment.

We knew the Obama administration wouldn’t do it. It was Loretta Lynch and her Department of (in)Justice that urged Comey to let Clinton go. She was the heir apparent to the throne, after all.

He was between a rock and a hard place then, but barring anything else, Trump could have let him go in January.

He didn’t.

The Senate panel also sent a letter to Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe requesting “any notes or memorandum” prepared by Comey tied to talks he had with White House or Justice Department officials about the FBI’s investigation.

And while Trump’s mouthpieces mock the idea of memos kept by Comey, you have to believe they’re sweating, just a little bit.

If this past week has taught us nothing, it has shown us that Trump has no idea how to be discreet. There’s no telling what’s in those memos.