BREAKING: Trump Fires Comey

[Beet]

Guys, not liking Comey and being freaked out by Trump's firing of him are not mutually exclusive positions.

I shed no tears for Comey, but this isn't about him, this is much much bigger.

Exactly. One can both think Comey unfit for the position and doubt that Trump all of a sudden thinks the Comey Letter was a mistake. Just a couple days ago he tweeted that Comey was "the best thing that happened" to Hillary, now all of a sudden he's adopting the polar opposite position? Regardless there must be an independent investigation over the Russian wikileaks situation.

[Beet]

Whatever Trump's dubious reasons and timing for this, Comey certainly deserved the can. To sum:

(1) Comey's first mistake was taking an absurdly long time to finish the Clinton e-mail investigation. As Comey himself said, it was not a close call. He said he'd rather "do it well" than do it fast, but he brushed off the compelling public interest in voters knowing whether a candidate who is running for president is in fact in serious legal jeopardy or not. The fact that Clinton went through the whole primaries with a cloud over her head was a disservice to the voters, and to her. The FBI waited until after April to even contact the principals involved for interviews, when they were willing to cooperate the whole time. The investigation should have been completed more quickly. As later proven, the extra time they took didn't prevent them from "re-opening" the investigation later.

(2) Holding a public press conference to give his personal opinion on Clinton's behavior and characterization of the case, when that is not the FBI's job. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is there to investigate, not cast judgement, especially not on those it has decided not to file charges against. Comey's words were later used in ads against Clinton, so he was literally making ads for the GOP. This was an egregious violation of the Hatch Act. I live in DC and while most of us (contrary to myth) have no political power, I do know plenty of people who work for the government in some low-level capacity, and most of them won't even come to a phone bank for fear of the Hatch Act. As the 25-year veteran who retired as head of the NY branch of the FBI recently said, Comey's "press conference" should have been two sentences: We have completed the investigation. We have forwarded our charging recommendation on to Justice. The end.

(3) The Comey Letter. Comey's first excuse is that he had to send the letter because he's previously told Congress that he'd notify them if anything came up. He should never have made this promise in the first place, since as he knows, the FBI does not comment on ongoing investigations. There is good reason for this, as investigation does not equal guilt. His second excuse is that he wanted to avoid 'concealment.' But his reason for not making public the Russia investigation was that the FBI does not comment when investigations are newly opened. So why does it comment when an investigation is reopened? It should not have. If he wanted to maintain the principle of non-concealment, he should have revealed both investigations, and then kept the public up with daily updates as to their details. To only reveal one and not the other is yet another violation of the Hatch Act. Comey did a good job getting his associates to defend himself in the press as a bumbling idiot, but the fact that he donated to both McCain and Romney, and his long-standing feud with the Clintons, speaks otherwise.

[Beet]

Just watched Sarah Huckabee Sanders give rambling non-answers to questions of "Ummm, wasnt Trump praising Comey's actions in late October?" The best they've been able to come up with is "Well, he was a candidate then and now he's president."

Can any Trump drones here do better?

Soooo... no takers?

I've seen a lot of posters on here doing the sarcastic "Gee, I thought democrats wanted him fired" shtick, but I don't know that I've seen any blue avatars actually defend or explain Trump's (supposed) flip-flop on this. Nobody wants to try?

Easy. He lied. It's like 'defending or explaining' him calling 'Lyin Ted' a great guy or that he might consider 'Little Marco' to be his VP.

It just doesn't mean much.

And right now it seems like he's trolling. And those pictures with Lavrov and Kislyak!! If it is not trolling, what is?

So why did he fire Comey then, if he lied about his reasons for doing so? And it doesn't bother you that the president would lie about firing the FBI director?

[Beet]

Fox & Friends: James Comey a Big Story ‘If You Watch The Mainstream Media’
http://www.mediaite.com/online/fox-friends-james-comey-a-big-story-if-you-watch-the-mainstream-media/

For Trump Supporters, the Real Outrage Is the Left’s Uproar Over Comey
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/11/us/politics/for-trump-supporters-the-real-outrage-is-the-lefts-uproar-over-comey.html

The problem is the mainstream media has lost all credibility by showing its obvious liberal bias. This has been long known, but never more visible than with Trump. Therefore, conservatives feel it falls on them to defend 'their man'. There's no question that some of the coverage has been hyperbolic. I agree with Howard Kurtz at Fox News. He stipulates that it's true Trump's rationale that Comey was fired over the Clinton e-mails is hard to believe, but still that comparisons of Trump to Nixon or suggestions that Pence will soon take over go too far, and are hysterical. This is quite right. Besides, such suggestions will only lead to false hope among liberals when they fail to materialize (as is likely). This Kurtz is a reasonable fellow, he should be given his own show if Hannity leaves.

[Beet]

The Democrats would not impeach Trump and it would be suicidal to talk about it. Even talking about it would result in a civil war in the party that causes a number of us to switch to the GOP.