Ever since James Comey's written testimony came out on Wednesday, the only thing Donald Trump has repeatedly zeroed in on is feeling "vindicated" about Comey confirming that he personally wasn't under investigation. From the statement his lawyer first released in response to Comey's testimony to Trump's Friday morning tweet claiming his vindication was "total and complete," it follows an obsessional pattern in which Trump has repeatedly fixated on separating himself from the conduct of his campaign staff.
On the Russia investigation, Comey said Trump privately mentioned "satellite" associates who may have been bad actors. Meanwhile, publicly Trump said he could only speak for himself on “collusion,” not his campaign, and he told Lester Holt that he "personally" wasn't under scrutiny. "I'm not talking about campaigns," Trump added.
When Comey explained to the pr*sident that the FBI had briefed lawmakers on who was under investigation, he had indeed told Trump that he wasn’t a focus of the inquiry. As Comey wrote:
[Trump] repeatedly told me, “We need to get that fact out.”
“That fact” was so important to Trump that his letter firing Comey weirdly noted the "three separate occasions" on which Comey had told him he wasn't being investigated.
But you know what Trump has demonstrated no interest in whatsoever? The meddling itself. In the nine one-on-one conversations Trump had with Comey, he was somehow never concerned with Russia's interference in the election or what effect those "satellite" bad actors might have had on our elections or might still be having on our democracy. Comey noted Thursday that the only time he recalled discussing Russia’s influence on the election with Trump was when intelligence officials briefed the incoming president on it in January. Other than that, Comey said:
I don't remember any conversation with the president about the Russia election interference.
It's jaw dropping. Trump is supposedly our commander in chief—his chief priority above all else should be protecting the homeland from foreign attacks. And in this case, we're talking about an incursion targeted straight at the foundation of our democracy: The integrity of our elections. It doesn't get much more fundamental or dangerous than that.
On the campaign trail, Trump took to talking up a "rigged" election when it looked all but certain that he would lose. But since taking office, he has shown a singular interest in investigating voter fraud, which he claims accounts for his stunning popular vote loss of 3 million people. That's what Trump wants to get to the bottom of.
So on the one hand, Trump has devoted an inordinate amount of energy to trying to publicly exonerate himself by distinguishing between his actions and the actions of his campaign. On the other, he hasn't shown a lick of interest in the fact that a hostile foreign power attempted to subvert our democracy (and still is).
It's both unconscionably egocentric and criminal for a public servant who’s taken a solemn oath to “preserve, protect and defend” our country to be singularly focused on defending himself.