It’s getting difficult to keep up these days. There was a lot to keep track of before, but, once Comey was fired, it was like the flood gates were thrown wide open. I know it’s probably not good to get my hopes up, but it seems like things are finally beginning to move toward some kind of resolution. Yes, that resolution could entail the forces of authoritarianism winning out over the forces of truth and justice, but I’m hopeful that, in the end, democracy will prevail. But, either way, my sense is that the showdown is fast approaching.
Late last night, news broke that federal investigators had requested the bank records of Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort. And, not too long before that, press reports started emerging from Maryland that the offices of a GOP consulting firm had been raided by the FBI. All of this, of course, could turn out to be absolutely meaningless, but I’m hopeful that it signals that an end to the Trump administration may finally be in sight, and that former FBI special agent Clint Watts might have been onto something when he said on television yesterday that the firing of James Comey had “galvanized the FBI in a way that probably hasn’t happened in any time in recent history.”
That’s right… apparently members of the administration were lying when they said yesterday that Comey had been fired, at least in part, because he’d lost the support of his agents. [Keeping true to the party line, Trump’s terrorism advisor Sebastian “I can’t get a security clearance due to gun charges” Gorka, in an interview with Breitbart News, said that Comey had “lost the confidence not only of the president but of the agents that serve under him.”] Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, pretty much confirmed that was bullshit, though, in his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday, when he said that “Comey enjoyed broad support within the FBI, and still does to this day.” He then went on to add, in what was the best quote of the day, “You cannot stop the men and women of the FBI from doing the right thing, protecting the American people and upholding the Constitution.” And, it wasn’t long after that the offices of Strategic Campaign Group in Maryland were being raided. Make of the what you will.
If you should happen to have any doubt as to what the feeling at the FBI might be right now concerning Trump, just check out this headline from NBC News that ran yesterday: “The White House has abandoned the idea of President Trump visiting FBI headquarters after being told he would not be greeted warmly, administration officials told NBC News.” Yes, Trump was apparently planning to go to FBI headquarters for a staged event, like the one he did a CIA headquarters a few months ago, but we was warned to stay away… So much for the theory that Comey had lost the support of those working for him.
It would seem, from everything I’m reading, that Trump really thought the Russia probe would fade away with the firing of FBI Directory Comey. It would appear, however, he’s only intensified the resolve of those within the agency to see the truth come out.
And, early yesterday morning, facing all of this, Trump took to Twitter to lash out, both maintaining his innocence, and threatening Comey, suggesting that, if he didn’t keep his mouth shut, surreptitiously recorded conversations between the two could be released… Yes, the very same President who, with absolutely no evidence to back it up, suggested a few weeks ago that Barack Obama had tapped his phone lines, essentially just insinuated that he was guilty of having done the same exact thing. And, yes, according to legal scholars, this threat to come after Comey with tapes does qualify as witness intimidation… For what it’s worth, however, it doesn’t sound as though Comey is all that intimidated. In fact, CNN just reported that Comey’s not worried by the prospect of tapes… Here, if you missed it, is the Trump threat.
James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017
Personally, I think the prospect of there being tapes is awesome, as I’d love to hear the exchange between Trump and Comey, which, according to those familiar with the discussion, included Trump requesting that Comey swear his loyalty, something which the former FBI Director was unwilling to do. [Democrative Representatives Cummings and Conyers have requested “copies of all recordings in possession of the White House”.]
If it’s true that the President demanded loyalty from the Director of the FBI, and fired him when he refused to stop pursuing the investigation into Russian involvement in the last election, this goes way beyond just obstruction of justice. But, really, it’s not all that surprising, given the way Trump operates, pushing out all but the most dedicated sycophants, with no consideration of legality or appearance. As Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway said yesterday when asked why Comey was fired, Trump expects people in his administration to “be loyal to the administration“… In Tump’s world, there are no checks and balances. There is no separation of power… He’s attempting to run the country like a family business. And it’s simply not working. Try as the administration might, the government is just too damned big, and Trump can’t drive out everyone who hasn’t sworn allegiance.
Oh, and that tweet at Comey wasn’t the President’s only one yesterday morning. He also said, “When James Clapper himself, and virtually everyone else with knowledge of the witch hunt, says there is no collusion, when does it end?” The only problem is, Clapper, our former Director of National Intelligence, never said any such thing. In fact, when asked today if there was evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia, Clapper reiterated “I don’t know if there was collusion.”
And, to make matters worse for the President, his story as to why Comey was fired didn’t even hold up for a single news cycle. No sooner had the White House said that Comey had been let go based on the findings of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who had been looking into Comey’s handling of the investigations into Hilary Clinton’s emails, then other stories began to emerge. And, by the end of the day, Trump himself was telling reporters that he’d made his mind up to fire Comey a while ago, and that it had nothing to do with Rosenstein’s letter. And, as it stands right now, I don’t think there’s any question that Trump fired Comey to stop the Russia probe, even among people on the far right. Even Gorka went on the record with Breitbart News yesterday saying that it had everything to do with Comey’s testimony, during which he confirmed that there were active investigations involving Trump. “The recent testimony of the director added that last straw to the camel’s back and proved that he’s unfit to serve,” said Gorka. And, for what it’s worth, Trump himself seemed to confirm that in his interview yesterday with Lester Holt.
So, as talk of impeachment intensifies, and all 17 House Judiciary Democrats have come together to request a hearing on James Comey’s firing, Trump, it would seem, has begun to withdraw. He’s cancelling events and suggesting that the press be kept from the White House. And it certainly feels to me as though this is the beginning of the end. I know I could be wrong, but I think that a confrontation may be eminent, and I suspect that it will happen within the next four weeks…
But enough of my rambling. I think that’s all you need to know to appreciate tonight’s episode of Saturday Night Live, which is really all that matters, right?
update: As I mentioned all of these recent developments in the context of prepping you to better appreciate this most recent episode of Saturday Night Live, here are two skits that drew heavily from the material I referenced above.
14 Comments
I hope you are right … but so far, the more extreme the actions and revelations surrounding this president, the more our political culture seems to “normalize” all kinds of crazy, unethical, damaging behaviors. For example: This President spreads massive, self-serving lies on a mostly daily basis … yet increasingly, the American media, and much of the public seems to just shrug it off as “Donald being Donald.”
It would be great, of course, if our elected representatives displayed some integrity and stood up against all of this … but most of them seem to be much more interested in re-election than in defending what’s left of our democracy or the Constitution.
At this point, I’m afraid many Democrats may be hoping that the Trump administration will continue melting down … and are savoring the idea that this will result in substantial electoral victories for them in 2018.
Meanwhile, it seems pretty clear that most Republicans would continue defending Trump even if he began drooling and barking like a dog – as long as they thought they can leverage the chaos to pass big tax and spending cuts, and sweeping corporate deregulation.
If Trump was impeached, wouldn’t the vice pres take over? Don’t really see a “win” there.
Most of the Republicans, at least as far as I can tell, are trying to stay out of sight and away from the President. We need to get them on the record praising him. We can use it later.
Nothing is happening soon, regardless of whatever does happen. This will drag on and on.
In this case I wouldn’t even care if the conspiracy theorists who believe the intelligence community actually runs the government is true as long as they take out Trump.
The new story making the rounds is that Comey met with Chris Steele, the former MI6 agent who authored the infamous dossier, in Australia.
https://twitter.com/3L3V3NTH/status/863960077849571332
I blame Ann Arbor.
Comey did not pledge loyalty to Trump, but he pledged to honestly pursue the Russian investigation wherever it led him. Therefore, he was fired allowing Trump to hire someone “loyal” to him. This is obstruction of justice since Comey had an active investigation that would potentially involve Trump. Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions are reportedly interviewing candidates to serve as FBI director. This is a direct conflict of interest. Both Trump and Sessions are potential targets of the investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump administration. What’s more, Sessions is once again violating his pledge to completely recuse himself from the ongoing investigation of Russian interference after being caught lying under oath about his contacts with Russia. My prediction is there will be a politically motivated appointment and there will be no independent prosecutor and nothing more will come of this because Trump will do the usual deflection by firing a bunch of people, the press and public will move on to the next shiny object and all the GOP will talk about is Syria and Norrh Korea. Obfuscation complete. Meanwhile, people are getting worn out persisting and resisting and Democrats are already talking about compromise and Republican’s are encouraging and shaming the Democrats to do it. All this as they quietly strip protections for the environment, undo Dodd/Frank, and appoint people to our courts that will strip our rights and those of our children for years to come. Is this a crisis? Yes. Will people do anything but talk about it? Probably not. Will the press and the people move on because one of the Kardasians has a baby? Probably. I think if people feel inspired to do something, now is the time before there is no gas left in the tank. Got an idea to protest? Just do it.
From the New Republic:
Read more:
https://newrepublic.com/article/142700/russia-scandal-driving-trump-mad-might-undo-himand-republicans
Morning Joe says FBI close to exposing the president: ‘It’s a criminal issue — and Trump knows that’
Read more:
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/05/morning-joe-says-fbi-close-to-exposing-the-president-its-a-criminal-issue-and-trump-knows-that/
I love how you think but I don’t think anything will happen. Recall that about 38% of the people agree with this idiot, let’s presume at least that amount doesn’t give a shit. Are we going to take to the streets? Then what? Are we going to storm the White House? Is Congress going to do anything with the Republicans in charge? Are the Democrats going to seize power…somehow?
Seriously, what do you see happening? I’m not being facetious but I’ve given up on anyone in “power” doing anything. It’s lovely to see the people on Twitter posting things and all of the outrage on Facebook but that doesn’t do anything other than echo about in our chambers.
(Again, I’m not trying to shit all over your post even though that’s probably exactly what I am doing, sorry. What can be done? This isn’t Watergate when people actually gave a shit if the laws were followed.)
Pod Save America covered it pretty well about 20 minutes in to their podcast yesterday – there’s zero chance there’s votes in the House and Senate for impeachment with the GOP in power.
The President confirmed on Twitter today that he was lying when he suggested that he had audio tapes of his conversations with Comey.
Washington Post: “Trump’s bluff on White House tapes wasn’t just dishonest — it was also a failure”
Read more:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/06/22/gingrich-just-admitted-trump-was-being-dishonest-about-white-house-tapes-because-nothing-matters/
The FBI agents who raided Manafort were after documents on the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting http://bit.ly/2vGpQ5d
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[…] that obstruction of justice is something we’ve already seen from Donald Trump multiple times. Trump himself told Lester Holt on network television that he fired FBI Director Jim Comey because he…. And, the day after firing Comey, in a secret meeting that the press wasn’t made aware of, […]
[…] that obstruction of justice is something we’ve already seen from Donald Trump multiple times. Trump himself told Lester Holt on network television that he fired FBI Director Jim Comey because he…. And, the day after firing Comey, in a secret meeting that the press wasn’t made aware of, […]
[…] that obstruction of justice is something we’ve already seen from Donald Trump multiple times. Trump himself told Lester Holt on network television that he fired FBI Director Jim Comey because he…. And, the day after firing Comey, in a secret meeting that the press wasn’t made aware of, […]