Does this go here? I feel it does…
And here I thought we were going to make it through a whole day without a gigantic development. This really is Watergate on fast forward.
At this rate Trump will be out by Friday, have written his memoirs by Monday, and have successfully rehabilitated his image as a foreign policy sage by this time next week. (OK, maybe not.)
Special Prosecutor — Get!.
I think Trump will beat Nixon high score.
The Atlantic leans in.
[quote]
It is difficult to assess the relative danger of each of these stories, because in any normal administration any of them could consume weeks if not months of attention as the press and politicians ferreted out each loose end. In this case, each seems to be supplanted by a new self-inflicted casualty within hours. Nonetheless, the Comey memo revealed Tuesday might be the biggest.
For one thing, it ties together several of the Trump scandals. It takes in the questionable ties to Russia, Trump’s alleged tampering with investigations into his own aides and administration, and even his obsession with leaks—before he was blurting sensitive intelligence to Russian officials, he was reportedly telling Comey that reporters who received leaks from his government ought to be jailed.
For another, it might offer the most solid proof of clear wrongdoing on the part of the administration. Time and again, Trump’s errors have been dismissed—even, incredibly, by his own aides and defenders—as the work of a man who simply has no idea what he’s doing. He doesn’t understand the gravity of Flynn’s duplicity. He didn’t think firing James Comey would be a big deal. He didn’t intend to make a liar of his vice president; it just slipped out! Even in the case of the classified information, National-Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, while refusing to state that what Trump shared was classified, said the president wouldn’t have known its status either way. These repeated lapses, taken together, create a case that Trump is simply not up to the job of the presidency.[/quote]
[quote]
The president does not help his own case. While it is fashionable to compare Trump to Nixon—a comparison Trump recently seems to be courting, from his hobnobbing with Henry Kissinger to his “tapes” threat—Nixon was a far more careful, strategic operator. His lies took time, and secret tapes, to unspool. Trump, however, keeps confirming his critics’ suspicions to the entire world. When the White House insisted Trump had not fired Comey over the Russia probe, Trump said he had. When the White House rebutted the classified-info disclosure, Trump implicitly admitted it, tweeting that he had an “absolute right” to do so. Where Nixon insisted he was not a crook, Trump boasts of his crookedness 140 characters at a time.[/quote]
Mueller seems like a really good choice. Seriously.
Will have subpoena power and the ability to file charges if deemed necessary.
Rosenstein trying to rescue his reputation.
Crossposted from the other thread:
White House given only 30 minutes notice on Mueller’s appointment.
I’m still not convinced we’re ever going to find a real there there when it comes to Trump himself and Russia, beyond his handling of Manafort and Flynn and now Comey, but I am a fair bit more confident that something meaningful will happen about the election manipulation.We can’t afford to have all our subsequent elections to be at the mercy of hackers, state sponsored, candidate colluded, or otherwise. With all the frenzy over Trump, we were kind of losing sight of that.
That seems like rather a giant crack in the wall.
I expect Trump tweeting that Mueller is incompetent and should resign or be locked up within 48 hours…
Ha, well, well, well …
When initially asked to comment on the exchange, Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Ryan, said: “That never happened,” and Matt Sparks, a spokesman for McCarthy, said: “The idea that McCarthy would assert this is absurd and false.”
After being told that The Post would cite a recording of the exchange, Buck, speaking for the GOP House leadership, said: “This entire year-old exchange was clearly an attempt at humor. "
He forgot to put “locker room” in there.
It’s shit getting real?
Cause it seems like shit is getting real.
One interesting thing about the appointment was it said he could investigate anything that arose or will arise as a direct result of the investigation. So it sounds like he could end up looking at all sorts of things involving Trump.
Comey’s firing is really a challenge to the most fundamental Democratic norms we have about the rule of law. If he gets away with it there really is nothing he can’t do.
I wouldn’t get too excited.
I just keep thinking of Chris Christie and Bridgegate. Everyone knows what happened, bunch of convictions…and he’s still in office years later.
What’s the over-under on it turning into an investigation of Clinton? (I can’t fail to note the inclusion of the EMAILS! in the Senate’s request for Comey’s memos, etc.)
I don’t think any of this means anything so long as the GOP keeps closing ranks.
I know, I’ve kept saying not to get excited, but it still seems like something is going on.
Obama AG Eric Holder on the Mueller appointment:
If Trump fills up to many positions with more Sheriff Clarke’s… it’s too late. It’s now or never.