Is it too much to ask for a week — one week — in which Masha Gessen’s rules for surviving an autocracy don’t seem like the most valuable piece of political insight in the last year? One week in which no one has to revive the phrase “Gish Gallop?” One week in which the creators of The Handmaid’s Tale series don’t seem to have the most grotesquely fortuitous timing in the history of television? Apparently, it is. Because this week — and stop me if you’ve been living under a rock, on the moon — Donald Trump fired FBI director James Comey.
Trump didn’t like the FBI director. Hey, join the club. I didn’t like him either. That’s why I called for Comey to be fired in November.
When James Comey decided to issue his extraordinary letter to Congress just eleven days before the election, his baseless intrusion was unprecedented and immeasurable. It was not just a violation of rules for both the FBI and the Justice Department, but a direct F-U to Hillary Clinton, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, President Obama, and the democratic process.
It’s why I called for him to be fired in October.
With zero evidence of a connection, warned by Justice that his action was not only unwarranted, but in violation of standard practices, Comey went ahead and tossed his sh*t grenade. There may have been stupider, more self-centered, self-righteous actions taken by an official at some point in American history … but I’ll be damned if I can think of one.
From those little excerpts, you might get the impression that I didn’t care for James Comey. But the truth is that, if you read my full oeuvre on the subject, you’d see that I honestly detest James Comey.
From his ludicrous, finger-wagging press gaggle in announcing Clinton’s innocence, to his ham-fisted intrusion into the final act of the election, Comey has felt compelled to insert Jim Comey, straight-shooter, into every moment. As a result he’s caused serious harm to the FBI, to the election, and to the nation.
So, by golly, how hypocritical is it of me to complain that Trump finally acted on something I recommended over and over? Score that zero little wooden-boys. Why? Because asking for Barack Obama to put a muzzle on Dudley Done-wrong is way different than having him fired by Snidley Whiplash in mid-chase. Because dumping the top cop when you’re irritated that he keeps looking into things you’d like to stay buried is way over the borders of Tricky Dick Land. Because trying to extract a personal loyalty oath from officials as part of their requirements from staying on the rolls isn’t just wrong, it’s nauseating. And not slightly.
Because actions matter … but so do motivations. If you fire your assistant at work because he or she does a poor job, that’s one thing. If you do the same thing because she / he won’t put out … that’s something very different. What Trump did was … very different.
Donald Trump fired Comey because he would not bend the knee and look away when directed. In the process, he appropriate the Department of Justice to serve as his personal propaganda office and used every orifice of the White House—from the press office to the vice-president—to spread a completely fabricated story of how, when, and why Comey was fired.
In short, it’s perfectly possible to believe that James Comey is a self-righteous ass, and still recall that Donald Trump’s is a lot worse.
Now let’s go read some pundits.
Lawrence Tribe has been getting a lot of coverage. Here’s some more.
The time has come for Congress to launch an impeachment investigation of President Trump for obstruction of justice.
The remedy of impeachment was designed to create a last-resort mechanism for preserving our constitutional system. It operates by removing executive-branch officials who have so abused power through what the framers called “high crimes and misdemeanors” that they cannot be trusted to continue in office.
It’s probably way too soon to expect any motion from the Congress. Despite everything that’s happened, John McCain seems in no mood to emulate his fellow Arizonian, Barry Goldwater, and take a hike over to the White House.
Ample reasons existed to worry about this president, and to ponder the extraordinary remedy of impeachment, even before he fired FBI Director James B. Comey and shockingly admitted on national television that the action was provoked by the FBI’s intensifying investigation into his campaign’s ties with Russia.
Even without getting to the bottom of what Trump dismissed as “this Russia thing,” impeachable offenses could theoretically have been charged from the outset of this presidency. One important example is Trump’s brazen defiance of the foreign emoluments clause, which is designed to prevent foreign powers from pressuring U.S. officials to stray from undivided loyalty to the United States. Political reality made impeachment and removal on that and other grounds seem premature.
The way in which Trump handled Comey alone rises to a potential impeachable offense. But Republicans are still thinking they’ll get their tax plan. So they’re okay with that.
Steven Thrasher on the other major threat to democracy this week.
It’s been a terrible week for American voting rights. On Thursday, Donald Trump announced that Kansas secretary of state Kris Kobach will work with the vice-president, Mike Pence, to lead a commission on voter fraud and suppression. Let’s be clear about what this is: a white power grab as naked and frightening as last summer’s nude statues of Trump himself.
If Kris Kobach was heading a commission to hand out candy and ice cream, you can bet he’s still find a way to make it awful. Kobach is the guy really pulling a lot of GOP strings — including some of Trump’s.
After the election, Trump said 3-5 million people voted “illegally” (they didn’t – that’s a lie). This, too, was race baiting. As was the egregious comment during his campaign in which he called Mexicans “rapists”. Trump has repeatedly tried to scare white people into fearing “the other”. This voting commission continues that effort by suggesting black and brown folk are voting improperly – and it will work. …
Trump asking Kobach to help him restore integrity in voting is like Hitler asking Goebbels to help put out the Reichstag fire. Kobach has whipped up hysteria about nonexistent voter fraud in Kansas and, in making people prove they are citizens in order to be able to vote, has effectively disenfranchised many legal voters.
How about we just declare Godwin’s Law suspended for the duration of the current emergency. Thank you.
Colbert King makes that other popular historical comparison this week.
President Richard Nixon had ordered special prosecutor Archibald Cox fired for refusing to back off his pursuit of the White House Watergate tapes. The same evening, Nixon had accepted the resignations of Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William D. Ruckelshaus, both of whom refused to discharge Cox. Nixon directed Solicitor General Robert H. Bork, as the newly installed acting attorney general, to carry out the order, which he did.
That very night, Nixon also abolished the special prosecutor’s office and had the FBI seal the Justice Department offices of Richardson and Ruckelshaus, as well as Cox’s office on K Street NW.
And the match up …
Both Nixon and Trump moved to quash a federal investigation into activities associated with their presidential campaigns by firing the top officials overseeing the probe.
It didn’t work then. Will it work now?
Dana Milbank has some advice for the guy who finds himself at the center of this mess.
For years, the man who just became the No. 2 official in the Justice Department painstakingly built a reputation as a gifted prosecutor and an above-the-fray lawman, serving Democratic and Republican administrations alike.
Now, just over two weeks into his new job, he has become a national joke.
Even officials inside Trump’s White House have supposedly turned the name ‘Rosenstein’ into a blanket excuse for all issues.
He has destroyed his credibility by giving cover and legitimacy to Trump’s decision to fire FBI Director James B. Comey, the man overseeing the agency’s probe of the Trump campaign’s possible collusion with Russia in tilting the 2016 election Trump’s way. …
But the most surreal happening this week was none of the above. It was the Wall Street Journal’s report that Rosenstein “pressed White House counsel Don McGahn to correct what he felt was an inaccurate White House depiction of the events surrounding FBI Director James Comey’s firing.” The Journal reported that “Rosenstein left the impression that he couldn’t work in an environment where facts weren’t accurately reported.”
Rosenstein is in the wrong job for the wrong boss.
Frank Bruni on the first of two unique reasons why Comey was fired.
You heard it here first: James Comey was fired because during his White House dinner with Donald Trump, when dessert arrived, he noticed that the president had two scoops of ice cream to his one, and dared to remark on it.
No. Not really. Only … maybe.
Two days after Comey’s ouster, Time magazine published a cover story that revolved around a recent evening that a few of its journalists spent with Trump at the White House.
Dinner was served. Trump got a different, more colorful salad dressing than theirs. His chicken had extra sauce on the side. With his pie came a double helping of vanilla. With theirs, a single. By the magazine’s account, there was no explanation. None was needed. He’s the president and you’re not.
Kathleen Parker on the mysteries of the Trumpian language.
Trump’s daily scrimmages with the English language make Bushisms seem like “Bartlett’s Best.” When not syntactically challenged, they’re jaw-droppingly mystifying. What possibly could Trump have intended when he suggested to NBC’s Lester Holt that he doesn’t know for sure if there’s an FBI investigation into “this Russia thing”? So the president doesn’t believe what every intelligence agency has said and what he has personally been told in briefings?
Choosing one’s truth is the essence of Trumpian logic. But the emanations from the White House can no longer be dismissed as mere incompetence. Something is very wrong at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Inside the Oval Office’s golden walls, where even flies dare not land, democracy rocks perilously between the forces of light and darkness.
Fool me once, shame on me. Fool the country to vote for Trump … argh. choke. whimper.
Michael Gerson fits Trump’s actions to Gessen’s rules.
This was always the main question: Would President Trump go beyond mere Twitter abuse and move against institutions that limit his power?
By any reasonable standard, we now have an answer.
As a reminder: Institutions won’t save you.
All of this is consistent with — even mandated by — Trump’s contempt for institutions. He has called the FBI investigation process “rigged.” If the system is dirty, only a fool would not play by the same rules. This is the logic of conspiratorial disdain for government. An independent, nonpolitical FBI? What a joke. It is all political. And politics is power. And power is making people do what you want, or destroying those who get in your way. The gospel according to Nixon.
On the autocrat scale, Trump is moving pretty quickly to consolidate power and limit the ability of the normal hurdles from getting in the way of his personal country.
Nicholas Kristof on whether Trump’s action vs. Comey are in themselves a crime.
Trump is focusing on chimerical fraud by noncitizen voters, even as he impinges on an investigation into what could be a monumental electoral fraud by Vladimir Putin. He favors tough law and order for the little guy.
Comey took the investigation into possible collusion between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign seriously enough that for his last three weeks leading the F.B.I. he was getting daily updates, according to The Wall Street Journal. The new acting director of the F.B.I. confirms that the inquiry is “highly significant.”
Donald Trump has never met a law he believes applies to Donald Trump.
For months, as I’ve reported on the multiple investigations into Trump-Russia connections, I’ve heard that the F.B.I. investigation is by far the most important one, incomparably ahead of the congressional inquiries. I then usually asked: So will Trump fire Comey? And the response would be: Hard to imagine. The uproar would be staggering. Even Republicans would never stand for that.
Of course they would. These Republicans are outstanding in the field of standing for anything.
Charles Sykes on the Trump-ification of the GOP.
If there was one principle that used to unite conservatives, it was respect for the rule of law. Not long ago, conservatives would have been horrified at wholesale violations of the norms and traditions of our political system, and would have been appalled by a president who showed overt contempt for the separation of powers.
Really? Is there evidence of that? Because I remember some pretty unique actions by the Bush administration.
But this week, as if on cue, most of the conservative media fell into line, celebrating President Trump’s abrupt dismissal of the F.B.I. director, James Comey, and dismissing the fact that Mr. Comey was leading an investigation into the Trump campaign and its ties to Russia. “Dems in Meltdown Over Comey Firing,” declared a headline on Fox News, as Tucker Carlson gleefully replayed clips of Democrats denouncing the move. “It’s just insane actually,” he said, referring to their reactions. On Fox and talk radio, the message was the same, with only a few conservatives willing to sound a discordant or even cautious note.
is there evidence that Republicans have ever been willing to stand up to a Republican president?