What I don’t understand is, if Trump really said those things to Comey and asked him to “drop” the Flynn investigation back in February, why did Comy not resign on the spot? That would be clearly political interference into a judicial investigation. Why would Comey allow these information to come out only now? It just doesn’t add up. (Again I’m being contrarian here.)
I can’t really take those second hand information very seriously, until Comey comes out and say Trump said such things.
Because it would allow Trump to appoint some lackey. Staying head of the FBI was the best way for Comey to control the investigation.
Speaking of speedrunning Watergate, Trump seems to have jumped straight to the Final Days part by hunkering down and cutting off contact.
The Trump White House has done essentially no damage control in the aftermath of reports that ousted FBI Director James Comey wrote a memo alleging that Trump tried to kill a probe into former national security adviser Michael Flynn. No talking points have been distributed, and few reassurances have been given to Republicans, leaving frazzled and exhausted lawmakers to freelance their own response.
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), whose job in leadership is to help Republicans formulate a message and conceivably defend a president of their own party, had received no outreach from the White House as of Wednesday afternoon.
Maybe the reason Trump had Kissinger over last week was so he could pray with Trump while he chatted to the White House portraits.
(Who thought we’d ever get to use those references again? Ah, makes me feel young.)
You mean like right now? When everyone will just cheer on whoever Trump nominates, do the “you go girl” routine and click on the nonexistent like button? Come on, Comey resigning over political interference would be a bombshell that can bring Trump down. If the alleged political interference did happen it would be game over for Trump before he get used to the controls. Back in February.
Right now is all allegation. We have yet to see Comey say anything public.
I think Comey is basically a boy scout (see the 60 minutes interview they reran [here]
(http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/james-comey/)) with an admiral tendancy to jump on hand grenade. But you don’t survive decades in Washington while being naive or suicidal. How many times have you thought that your boss or co-workers were doing something unethical or illegal?. How many times have resigned or threatened to resign if they didn’t stop?
Comey loved being FBI head, if went Congressional oversight committee he has permanently damaged his relationship with Trump, man known to hold grudges. Also, I think many people Washington believe that Trump was coachable or trainable we now know they were mistaken. Maybe Comey was just giving Trump enough rope to hang himless.
Personally, I’m delighted a guy like Comey, who carefully followed all the rules is in position to take Trump a person who never followed any rules.
But then I’ve been Lawful Neutral for many years :D
I think by now Comey would have issued a refutation if there wasn’t some truth to the story. Hopefully we will find out next week.
But the part you are missing is that him resigning might cause waves, but it wouldn’t guarantee that the investigation would proceed correctly.
His staying in power as the FBI director meant he could make sure the investigation took place as he believed it should.
Does Russia even matter anymore? It seems clear from history that it’s never the original crime that causes a political individual’s downfall; it’s the cover up.[quote=“Ginger_Yellow, post:710, topic:129708, full:true”]
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.
[/quote]
Selling out the nation to Russia does in fact matter.
Maybe it won’t be what brings him down, but it does matter, a lot.
He’s more likely to go down for obstruction of justice though, and potentially various financial shennanigans. He’s dirty as hell.
Apparently will have subpoena power over tax returns.
His power is likely to be extremely broad. Given the fact it’s dealing with this russia stuff, it means all his financial stuff going back for YEARS is up for grabs… anything that could suggest any kind of link.
It’s gonna be a fishing expedition, and Trump’s got a lot of fish in his pond.
Well. There has to be an underlying crime to be in obstruction of. If nothing turns up on the Russia stuff, then the whole thing floats away, and the Dems and the media look pretty bad. Don’t think that there’s no peril involved for the opposition.
Resigning on the spot would be idiotic. I may disagree (even strongly) with Comey’s choices during the election, but if a President tries to influence the head of the FBI to drop an investigation into a disgraced NSA director, then reacting by rolling over (i.e. quitting) is in essence violating the oath taken to protect the Constitution. It’s a dumb and nonsensical argument that he should have quit. Comey made the right play - he recorded the interactions and Trump subsequently firing him proves that Comey made the right choice. Without that Trump gets away with (and he still might) a grotesque abuse of power.
Re: Comey. Someone elsewhere said last night that this wasn’t a good guy (Comey) vs. bad guy (Trump) situation, but more like Freddy vs. Jason. And that didn’t seem right either, so I tried to find a better pop culture analogue.
Then it hit me - Stannis Baratheon. Competent, effective, excellent organizer, utterly convinced he’s right (or, more accurately, that he is the right.) Also smug, complacent about his rectitude, blind to greater complexities, bad at politics, easily distracted by women (um, in different ways), and responsible for unforgivable acts. (Not that he’d ever admit to the last - after all he did them, so obviously they must be right.)
So, not a “good guy” really.
… But in a battle against Roose Bolton … yeah, you root for him to win.
(Though Roose is a bad analogue for Trump, since Trump is nowhere near that competent. Joffrey is the obvious choice, but then I thought maybe Cersei fit better. After all, Cersei screws up time and time again, but nonetheless stays in the game. Even when you think she’s completely and utterly defeated, she …
Oh my god, I thought. What if Trump is Cersei?
I did not sleep well last night.)
Shit, Trump is Ramsey, dude. Loony as a fruit bat.
Agreed, but I think Keith Olbermann made a valid point when he said that the story at this point has become about the cover-up.
Viserys Targaryen. He wants his goddamn crown of gold, STAT!
Definitely Viserys:
Arrogant…check
Entitled…check
Greedy…check
Narcissitic…check
Clueless…check
yes, which is a HUGE DANGER, because when DT is convinced to resign to save himself, the Russia investigation MUST continue, even if the primary parties are out and/or pardoned. Now, there is a separate special investigator who will carry this through whatever other distraction scandals come up, even if it takes 2 more years.