Don’t get too comfortable
Trump has fired Comey. This could be the beginning of a coup.
FBI Director James B. Comey has been dismissed by the president, according to White House spokesman Sean Spicer – a startling move that officials said stemmed from a conclusion by Justice Department officials that he had mishandled the probe of Hillary Clinton’s emails.
Comey was fired as he is leading a counterintelligence investigation to determine whether associates of President Trump may have coordinated with Russia to meddle with the presidential election last year. That probe began quietly last July but has now become the subject of intense debate in Washington. It is unclear how Comey’s dismissal will affect that investigation.
Read that second paragraph ten or twenty times, in case it didn’t sink in.
Officials said Comey was fired because senior Justice Department officials concluded he had violated Justice Department principles and procedures by publicly discussing the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of private email.
WHAT???????
Is this a bad dream? Am I hallucinating it?
Officials released a Tuesday memo from the Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein, laying out the rationale behind Comey’s dismissal.
“The FBI’s reputation and credibility have suffered substantial damage, and it has affected the entire Department of Justice,’’ Rosenstein wrote…
In a letter to Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that he agreed.
“I have concluded that a fresh start is needed at the leadership of the FBI,’’ Sessions wrote. “I must recommend that you remove Director James B. Comey, Jr. and identify an experienced and qualified individual to lead the great men and women of the FBI.’’
Why would they want someone experienced and qualified at the FBI when they don’t want that in any of their own people?
Mr. Comey’s dismissal was a stunning development for a president that benefited from the F.B.I. investigation of the Democratic nominee during the 2016 campaign. Separately, the F.B.I. also is investigating whether members of the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to influence the election.
The abrupt firing raised questions over whether Mr. Trump was trying to influence the Russia investigation. But he said he was following recommendations from the Justice Department, which criticized how Mr. Comey concluded the investigation into Mrs. Clinton.
Well he wasn’t going to say he was doing it to sabotage the Russia investigation, was he.
Mr. Comey broke with longstanding tradition and policies by publicly discussing the Clinton case last July and chastising her “careless” handling of classified information. Then, in the campaign’s final days, Mr. Comey announced that the F.B.I. was reopening the investigation, a move that earned him widespread criticism.
Yet many of the facts cited as evidence for Mr. Comey’s dismissal were well known when Mr. Trump decided to keep him on the job. Mr. Comey was three years in to a 10-year term.
Plus Trump loved all that. Comey probably gave him the election.
I would love to think this is just more Trump craziness, but it looks much worse than that.
I’m conflicted.
On the one hand, Comey absolutely deserved to be fired. The “we’re not pressing charges, but here’s why Hillary Clinton is awful” press conference. The letter to Congress implying that they had new evidence when they in fact had squat. The contrast of him publicly throwing dirt on Hillary while keeping silent about the investigation into Trump’s Russian connections. His attempts to justify the letter to Congress as being not a public announcement, as if Jason Chaffetz or one of the other GOPers wasn’t 100% going to publish it. His apparently disinterest in doing anything about the fact that the NY field office was apparently leaking like a sieve to Rudy Guliani. Basically, Comey was either a partisan hack of the first order, or was so unconsciously biased that he somehow managed to always make the judgment call that favored Republicans. Either one would justify his termination. No way should Comey get to finish his term and retire with honor. Frankly, Obama should have fired the guy, but no doubt was worried that it would look like partisan retribution.
On the other hand, let’s be real. There’s no way Trump fired Comey for the reasons I just listed. He’s no doubt hoping to replace him with a more compliant FBI director who will play ball and close down the Russia investigation.
Short version: Trump probably did the right thing for the wrong reasons. Strap in, it’s going to be a wild ride.
BTW, already seeing reports that White House officials admitted that Trump decided to fire Comey a week ago, and ordered Sessions to come up with a reason.
Jesus. These people can’t even stand by their own cover story. The only thing that might save us from the malevolence of this administration is its incompetence.
Collusion at the highest level is looking as close to certain as it can without concrete evidence.
A very clear warning to all of those investigating the Russia link. Doesn’t do subtle, does he?
Recently there were a bunch of headlines announcing that Comey said he felt “slightly nauseous” when he considers that his actions might have caused Trump’s victory. I bet Trump read them. They would have angered him, wouldn’t they? Not only is the guy taking credit, but he’s saying Trump makes him sick. No loyalty. Big insult.
Could it be that simple?
Trump = simple. Guy says something bad about me, he’s gotta go. Wait, need reason to make it look like I’m not firing him out of spite? No probs…get loyal Jeff Sessions to cook up something so stupid and utterly unbelievable that everyone will know why he was fired.
I hope this is just Trump being his usual chaotically narcissistic self. But certainly someone at the top could have convinced him that firing the guy leading the investigation would reflect very, very, very badly on Trump. And I know the kind of people we’re dealing with here. Competency isn’t exactly their strong suit. Neither is logic, or considering consequences (or really any kind of trait you’d want to see in the leaders of your country). But, surely, one of them had to have least heard of Nixon before. Surely, someone would know how guilty this would make Trump and his inner circle look.
This certainly could have been Trump taking offense at Comey and finding any reasons he could to fire him in retaliation. That is very much a thing that Trump would do, because that is exactly the kind of stupid asshole Trump is. Either the people who are supposed to be advising Trump are as brainless and inept and impulsive as he is, or they can’t convince him against doing something that would damage even him.
Or Trump is trying to quash an investigation into collusion between his election campaign and Russian operatives trying to undermine democracy in the U.S.
Any of the above possibilities are terrifying. It’s terrifying that all of them are looking equally likely at this point.
So far, the evidence would suggest they are as brainless and inept and impulsive as he is—or else they are totally unable to stand up to him, and cave to his every whim.
Looking on this as an outsider, the first question that came to mind when I read this last night was “how is it that the president has the power to do something like this unilaterally?” It looks from here as if Trump is exposing the system of checks and balances as possibly being inadequate and that they’ve worked in the past because previous incumbents have mostly been pretty decent people (obvious exception aside).
Concentrating that much power in one person is susceptible to a coup attempt; wouldn’t it be better to limit the powers of president to a much more ceremonial role and vest the real power in congress where it can at least be spread out over many individuals?
The checks aren’t there because the Republican controlled Congress won’t do a damn thing… Where it’s breaking down is that we’ve got a “unified” government that’s abandoned playing by the rules.
#10 It’s a problem we’re having (and likely to get it much worse very soon). We keep being told that a first past the post system is best because it avoids coalition governments (which are apparently not a good thing, for… reasons). What they don’t say is that the converse — a massive majority on a minority of the vote — is as bad if not significantly worse.
Which would make the whole lot criminally inept, rather than ineptly criminal.
Not to mention all the corruption and conflicts of interest and general sleaze.
This is a fun game, isn’t it? It’s so much fun trying to figure out if the President and his cabinet are so hideously, horribly incompetent that they shouldn’t be in charge of watering a cactus, let alone leading a country; or if they’re in the pockets of a foreign power! Doesn’t make me despair for the future of this country (and the world! Donnie doesn’t like protecting the environment, but he sure is keen on the idea of increasing the nuclear stockpiles!) at all.