President Trump Fires FBI Director Comey

noirdood said:

I am a "decline to state" AKA "a pox on both political parties." I have predicted that the GOP will finally get sick of little Donnie and throw him out within three years. Remember that the current VP is their kind of guy....

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Yeah, the GOP may want to do it before the 2018 election when they stand to lose the House and the Senate.

blacbird said:

Comey deserved to be fired. I'm surprised it took this long. So, yeah, no angst for that.

Now we get the entertainment of another Trump appointment. I'm guessing either Joe Arpaio, who is out of work, or somebody utterly inexperienced in the field of law enforcement, which would be in keeping with many other Trump appointments.

caw

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I agree about Comey - he was an embarrassment.

But not Arpaio. How about Sheriff Clarke from Milwaukee? He's got some problems with his department right now but is a big Trump supporter - and many think he has ambitions for higher office.

From what I've heard, there have been 3 grand juries convened. The most recent is FISA-related.

Gregg said:

I agree about Comey - he was an embarrassment.

But not Arpaio. How about Sheriff Clarke from Milwaukee? He's got some problems with his department right now but is a big Trump supporter - and many think he has ambitions for higher office.

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ohgawd I hope this is subtle humor.

Gregg said:

I agree about Comey - he was an embarrassment.

But not Arpaio. How about Sheriff Clarke from Milwaukee? He's got some problems with his department right now but is a big Trump supporter - and many think he has ambitions for higher office.

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I think the replacement will be Trey Gowdy. Then he can turn off the Russian investigation and start a new one on Benghazi.

Why now? Timing says it all. someone is getting too close to something that smells bad for Trump.

Tonight it seems like the White House was blindsided by the backlash. Have they never heard of Archibald Cox?

Why would Trump fire Comey because he was a meany to Clinton over e-mails but in the letter firing Comey, make the point that Comey had said that there was no reason to investigate the Russian ties? When in fact Comey said no such thing. This strikes me as comically contrived. The meanie to Hilary slant is so obviously designed to appeal to the Democrats that it makes me question his intelligence. No one but Trump could have come up with something so stupidly, arrogantly wacko. My high school students could come up with a better rationalization for a misguided action.

And does Trump really believe that firing the investigator will halt the investigation? It will only fire it up. Leakers and Trump malcontents will reveal more dir,t straight to the news outlets, than any legal investigation would allow them to reveal publicly.

As long as I am questioning, does it strike anyone else as extremely timely that CNN is promoting a new program featuring protest music? Nothing like fiery musical memories of protests past to catch the younger viewers attention. If you ask me, pissing off the news guys was Trump's biggest mistake. --s6

shakeysix said:

... This strikes me as comically contrived. ...

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It strikes me as so pathologically narcissistic Trump has no clue he can't get away with it.

There's a little nagging voice inside me saying, that's what you said about Trump winning the election. But I refuse to believe American society has become that depraved.

And now, it seems that Trump (Not SOS Tillerson) is meeting with the "architect" of the Russian interference tomorrow. Someone's running to daddy crying "I did everything you told me! Why isn't it working?" ?

I see that Trump removed the desperate 'I am not a crook' tweet from his header. He did, however, add a longer version to the letter of dismissal.

rugcat said:

You think he can't? He's gotten away with everything else. As long as Republicans have his back, which they do, he'll get away with this too.

As for the new FBI head, I don't think sheriff Clarke is confirmable. He is so obviously not qualified to take the helm of the FBI that even Republicans might have second thoughts. My guess is Rudy Giuliani. An outside possibility – Chris Christie, though that does seem unlikely.

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You did see this part of my post, right?

There's a little nagging voice inside me saying, that's what you said about Trump winning the election.

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I still think the scandal is going to snowball down the cliff with a life of it's own.

Well, we may not even be the ones that bring Trump down. Just as likely, I think, is that something's going to stir the smoke, and Trump's going to panic and do/say something that cannot be ignored*. I don't think any investigation or news scoop is going to be enough right now with the way America seems to be divided.

*This may be flat-out admitting his collusion with Russia, blatant war crimes which may include bombing civilian centers and/or allied countries, etc. etc.

I'm listening to Morning Joe and CNN. I am late tuning in, I had stuff to do outside, but I heard Joe Scarborough ask if there are any tweets from Trump this morning. Someone answered that there are many but not any that are not worth reading on the air. No Trump tweets featured on CNN at all. They usually have a few.

If you ask me, dismissing Trump's tweets as not worth reading on air is going to make him go postal and send loonier and loonier tangled tweets. When they get him completely off the rails they will decide to flash the lunacy onscreen. Good old fashioned bear baiting political journalism, like in the textbooks. -- I'm a fan.

Ps--anyone else notice the way Kelly Anne and the other mouseketeers are being badgered with concrete questions and facts? Again, I am only a silver haired Grammy living in middle of windswept no-where (and a red red nowhere) but Trump is coming across as stupid. Arrogant, shifty, possibly crooked but ultimately so blindly stupid as to have his public spokespeople mocked on air.

Stupid is the thing that his core cannot handle. The one thing that kept them, the religious right, the fiscal conservatives, the main line republicans, the anti-everythings, with Trump, is the fact that they believed he was sharp, intelligent, crafty in a deal. "So he grabs women by the pussy and advocates that approach verbally? So he stiffs his contractors? So he pulls money out of thin air like Rumpelstiltskin and will not reveal how he found that money? This guy is brilliant, Ah say BRIILIANT! He's the one man who does not have to follow the rules because he is so far above us intellectually that he is RICH!"

Only now those people are beginning to see that he is a giant, poorly informed, under educated, selfish baby. This stupidity is what is going to peel away what support he has left. --s6

rugcat said:

As for the new FBI head, I don't think sheriff Clarke is confirmable. He is so obviously not qualified to take the helm of the FBI that even Republicans might have second thoughts. My guess is Rudy Giuliani. An outside possibility – Chris Christie, though that does seem unlikely.

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my sugestion of Clarke was only half serious. He's too toxic, not really qualified - Guiliani is more likely but, apparently, he's not interested.

Gregg said:

Guiliani is more likely but, apparently, he's not interested.

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Giuliani's disinterest is comforting, assuming that really true.

An aside here, but if I were Hilary Clinton, I might consider an, er, extended vacation right now. Trump is raging that he's taking criticism, and his immediate instinct is to deflect onto some poor patsy. He dropped the "lock her up" bit after he won, and had other things on his mind - he couldn't see how it would benefit him to dig in a dry well, so to speak. But it's clear that he's never accepted that the election is over. I suspect that he'll be looking for someone to hold up to the nation as "See? This is a despicable traitor. You can all spit and throw rotten vegetables at them. I'm the lordly representative of the nation, shocked - SHOCKED - to discover someone in government was acting against our interests."

Basically, he fired Comey on the grounds that Comey didn't find anything to prosecute Clinton for. I think he's going to replace him with someone who will at least try their hardest. Because who has time to look into Russian vote-influencing when there's someone out there who didn't practice good e-mail security techniques?

Vacation? Ha. Hilary will glory in being pilloried by this dimwit. --s6

McConnell confirms he does not care.

Please do call or write if you have opinions on whether White House-Russia contacts need an independent investigation; the GOP isn't going to allow it unless they feel they have to.

...Promise I'll stop hammering on about this now

Remember that giant rolling boulder on Indiana's heels as he fled the temple of doom? Trump is just now hearing the rumble, glancing over his shoulder nervously. That boulder is the free press--democracy in action. An official investigation is no longer necessary. We the people are getting in gear. There are going to be all kinds of investigations, some ugly, some unfair, most unofficial--deep throat, anyone? Indiana had the common good sense to run like hell. I am betting Trump will stand his ground and try to bluster the boulder down with tweets. --s6

He's going ballistic on Twitter.

"The Democrats have said some of the worst things about James Comey, including the fact that he should be fired, but now they play so sad!"

"James Comey will be replaced by someone who will do a far better job, bringing back the spirit and prestige of the FBI."

"Comey lost the confidence of almost everyone in Washington, Republican and Democrat alike. When things calm down, they will be thanking me!"

"Watching Senator Richard Blumenthal speak of Comey is a joke. "Richie" devised one of the greatest military frauds in U.S. history. For years, as a pol in Connecticut, Blumenthal would talk of his great bravery and conquests in Vietnam - except he was never there. When caught, he cried like a baby and begged for forgiveness...and now he is judge & jury. He should be the one who is investigated for his acts."

"The Roger Stone report on @CNN is false - Fake News. Have not spoken to Roger in a long time - had nothing to do with my decision."

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shakeysix said:

Remember that giant rolling boulder on Indiana's heels as he fled the temple of doom? Trump is just now hearing the rumble, glancing over his shoulder nervously. That boulder is the free press--democracy in action. An official investigation is no longer necessary. We the people are getting in gear.

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What does that mean, though?

Like, in practical terms, if we don't have an investigation, then the same thing happens all over again, doesn't it? Gerrymandering, foreign manipulation, electoral college BS, etc? We lose elections to these people, still; they still have control over the narrative to their base and they still win. So if we the people transcend the need for an investigation, how do we actually, yanno, effect change that matters? The free press doesn't convict people, or put them on trial...there needs to be legal proceeding, doesn't there?

This narrative about the president getting all nervous cos he knows the jig is up--it doesn't really matter if he controls the thing that puts up the jigs, eh? If Congress still backs him, which they are doing, he can do whatever he wants. He'll wriggle out of all the truth-nooses we can find, won't he?

Why would it be otherwise?

I mean I'm really asking out of ignorance, here I don't know what to do but appeal to Congress, as pointless as it sounds.

Elizabeth Warren pointed out that in January, Trump fired Sally Yates, allegedly for refusing to enforce his anti-immigration executive order, but also shortly after she reported to the WH that Flynn was compromised by his connections to Russia and his lies to the Vice President. In March Trump fired the US Attorney for NY, Preet Bahara, who had been involved in an assessment of the Russia/election tampering evidence, and was getting some buzz as perhaps an appropriate Special Prosecutor for an independent investigation, and now, in May, he has fired the FBI Director who was conducting an expanding investigation into the Russia/election tampering allegations.

There's a pattern here.

buzhidao said:

What does that mean, though?

Like, in practical terms, if we don't have an investigation, then the same thing happens all over again, doesn't it? Gerrymandering, foreign manipulation, electoral college BS, etc? We lose elections to these people, still; they still have control over the narrative to their base and they still win. So if we the people transcend the need for an investigation, how do we actually, yanno, effect change that matters? The free press doesn't convict people, or put them on trial...there needs to be legal proceeding, doesn't there?

This narrative about the president getting all nervous cos he knows the jig is up--it doesn't really matter if he controls the thing that puts up the jigs, eh? If Congress still backs him, which they are doing, he can do whatever he wants. He'll wriggle out of all the truth-nooses we can find, won't he?

Why would it be otherwise?

I mean I'm really asking out of ignorance, here I don't know what to do but appeal to Congress, as pointless as it sounds.

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+1

This is really pointing out how deep the rot runs - and how far above the law they've all placed themselves.

And I can't help thinking how many people in Turkey and other places are wondering the same things we are as they watch their governments mutate... and getting about as far in saving the countries they knew, or thought they knew.

Brightdreamer said:

And I can't help thinking how many people in Turkey and other places are wondering the same things we are as they watch their governments mutate... and getting about as far in saving the countries they knew, or thought they knew.

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That reminds me a little of this article from January:

America, You Look Like an Arab Country Right Now

Last time an FBI director was fired it was by Bill Clinton. I'm too young to remember that, does anyone remember what the circumstances of that was about?

Also I find it funny everyone thinks Trumps replacement for director will be inexperienced in law enforcement when Comeys previous job was being a banker, and a lawyer before that.

Fabio_of_Mullets said:

Last time an FBI director was fired it was by Bill Clinton. I'm too young to remember that, does anyone remember what the circumstances of that was about?

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There's Googling...

President Bill Clinton asked Sessions to resign multiple times after reports of ethics violations emerged from an internal watchdog unit at the Department of Justice.
Sessions was reported to have used FBI aircraft to take numerous free trips to visit friends and relatives. His firing was endorsed by then-Attorney General Janet Reno.
Clinton fired Sessions in July 1993.

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Also I find it funny everyone thinks Trumps replacement for director will be inexperienced in law enforcement when Comeys previous job was being a banker, and a lawyer before that.

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I mean, it's fine to say this, but it's really not the main point, I don't think.

The trouble isn't about Comey himself. The man fucked up. He probably deserved to be fired.

But he wasn't fired because he fucked up. That doesn't make sense with the timing, or the autocratically weird "see you guys I totally wasn't under investigation (even though it's been said multiple times I am)" paragraph in the firing letter.

He was fired because he was leading an investigation into the White House's ties to Russia, wherein the president, his team, his family, etc, are implicated. This isn't about Comey; this is about obstruction of justice and the expansion of corruptive powers.

That the president might replace him with someone inexperienced isn't an issue so much as the fact that he'll replace him with someone who will stop the investigation.