BREAKING: Trump Fires Comey

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

A couple thoughts.

First, this isn't "out of the blue". It's being reported that Comey lied to Congress when he testified about the basis for his pre-election attack on Clinton.

Second, Comey absolutely deserved to be fired. He should have been fired by Obama when he decided to make the unprecedented move to intervene in the election. (Pick whichever time you want.) He should have been fired by Trump as part of his zealous housecleaning. That he wasn't fired back in January, and there wasn't a time set for his departure was horrible optics. Of course, the reason he probably hasn't been fired is that firing him would *also* be horrible optics.

And speaking of horrible optics, yes, this look really, really bad. Sure, there's the perjury story. But the facts are that Trump fired the head of the FBI the day after high-profile testimony into Trump's own campaign's ties to Russia. And he did so in the most draconian and flashy way possible. And explicitly for talking about ongoing investigations. Maybe Trump really wanted to say "you're fired". Or maybe he thought this was the best chance he'd get to (deservedly) fire Comey.

It was probably impossible for this so-called President to fire the Director of the FBI without a stink, but once again Trump demonstrates that at anything but conning marks, he's awful, with all the political instincts of a megalomaniacal lemming.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

One more thing and I mean this. It would be nice if we stopped looking at this as a partisan football. We should hope Trump is innocent. And let's be honest I hate that man but if he's guilty the republic will take a serious hit. I'd rather he lost in 2020 on the merits not that we had a second impeachment in 50 years. This isn't intended as a bronz post or moderate hero garbage.

Democrats should remember what caused the fall of Rome and other republics. It's the loss of faith in public institutions. And the Trump supporters should honestly welcome a full and independent probe. If Trump's guilty your policy aims are better achieved with Pence (who would win my vote if he's innocent). A Donald Trump dogged by Russian allegations is a Donald Trump who is all that much weaker and can't accomplish all you hope for.

Russia is just the tip of the iceberg. The real problem is Trump and his gang of crazed billionaires and deplorable lackeys. 

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-fires-fbi-director-james-comey-n757101

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Really, "crown jewel of law enforcement"?? I can't tell whether this is just more Trump  treating everything as trying to sell ice futures to Eskimos, or if he's asking to leave office twelve inches shorter than he was when he went took office.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

How can they be so stupid?

Trump's Razor. "Ascertain the stupidest possible scenario that can be reconciled with the available facts and that answer is likely correct."

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Trump has the unpopularity/malaise of Jimmy Carter and the paranoia/corruption/controversy of Nixon

He shares Carter's skill at navigating politics in the capital, too.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

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When you elect a reality-TV star as president, you get this.

So in other words, they fired him for publicly commenting on an investigation (to their benefit) because he wouldn't publicly comment on an investigation to their benefit, again.

And now after getting to say "You're fired!" (not that he had the guts to do it in person), Trump gets to host The Apprentice: FBI Director.


If it turns out this is true, and the recommendation letters from Sessions and Rosenstein were written at the urging of the White House, this becomes a pretty open and shut case of obstruction of justice. Guilty of conspiring with Russia or not, Trump may have just hung himself.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

The confirmation hearings for the new Director will be gripping, that's for sure.

More gripping or less gripping than Trump's p--sy grip?

Judging by his ranty little twitter spam this morning, it would appear that the so-called President is losing his grip. (Which was pretty tenuous to begin with.)

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

I was so tied up yesterday handling my duties in my little burg, that this is the first moment I became aware that Comey had bit the dust.

How analogous is this to a redux of the Nixon mass firing?  Was Comey getting to close too some smoking gun somewhere?  Just asking. I don't mean to be a drama queen. But as I say, I know nothing about this other then the firing itself.

I would say it's far more likely that Trump thought Comey was close to a smoking gun than that Comey was actually pursuing anything along those lines. Flynn is probably going to end up on trial, and maybe some other associates of the campaign. But proving enough collusion with Russia to take Trump down was going to be difficult. (While I do think Trump is likely guilty, I don't think Russia was going to hurt him as much as some people do. On the other hand, what functions are his conscience seems to be awfully twitchy over it, so maybe I'm wrong.)

Or maybe his refusal to publicly squash the whole investigation was getting on Trump's nerves. Maybe he just wanted to fire someone and felt compelled to play another round of The Apprentice: FBI Director.

Whatever the cause, the most Nixonian/Watergate aspect about the whole thing is that with the firing, Trump may have done more damage to himself than Comey or the Russia investigation ever could have. There are already reports alleging that the recommendations from Sessions and Rosenstein were written at Trump's request to give him cover for firing Comey, because Comey was refusing to stop the investigation. In my non-expert opinion, that looks an awful lot like prosecutable obstruction of justice. Constitutional crisis here we come?

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

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."

He is still a candidate, too.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

what the...i don't even....

Consider.

Comey didn't give Trump every single thing Trump wanted, exactly as he wanted it.

Given how he behaves in public, atrocity is probably a fair description of the tantrums Trump throws in private.

So from the POV of Trump's caregivers, Comey is responsible for atrocities.

Or maybe they're just talking about being responsible for having Trump as President. I could see it either way.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

What if there is only one valid side?

There's no evidence to be 100% sure the reason was the FBI investigation into Russia. Therefore I'd like to also see a different side, that it is in fact because of Clinton scandal. However CNN has immediately made up their minds (not only them, NBC is equally terrible if not worse). This is not about facts, this is about their political preferences.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/trump-praises-james-comey-230542

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So, you believe that Trump would have fired Comey for "doing the right thing"?

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

From Mark Salter, John McCain's speechwriter:

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https://twitter.com/MarkSalter55/status/862370152553349123

While Congress is vitally important, we also need more state legislatures OUT of Republican hands. They are perilously close to being able to implement their frequently floated fringe fantasy of calling a Constitutional Convention and re-writing the Constitution to do away with all the pesky bits they dislike: preventing the establishment of a state religion, freedom to criticize the President, etc.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

"We want this to come to its conclusion, we want it to come to its conclusion with integrity," said deputy press secretary Sarah Sanders, referring to the FBI's probe into Moscow's interference in last year's election. "And we think that we've actually, by removing Director Comey, taken steps to make that happen."
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/11/politics/comey-fbi-investigation-russia-sarah-huckabee-sanders/


some people are just not made for certain jobs.

I think she channels the horrific post-Orwellian abomination that is the Trump mis-administration perfectly.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

We have Trump's letter to Comey
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/05/09/text-trump-letter-to-comey.html

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This was confirmed by the White House,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/05/09/statement-press-secretary-1

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And by the Vice President,
http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/10/politics/mike-pence-james-comey/

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But then the reported story changed,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-trumps-anger-and-impatience-prompted-him-to-fire-the-fbi-director/2017/05/10/d9642334-359c-11e7-b373-418f6849a004_story.html

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And now, from the... horse's own mouth, we have a confirmation of the "new" story.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/11/us/politics/trump-comey-showboat-fbi.html

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The one thing we know is that Comey's firing was absolutely, completely, not about Russia.

Oh, wait.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/11/politics/comey-fbi-investigation-russia-sarah-huckabee-sanders/

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In spite of the above, I'm willing to believe this wasn't really a politically motivated firing, that Trump wasn't trying to spike the investigation. I think it's probably more likely that the big secret behind Comey's firing is the same as that of the whole Trump administration. Nothing. There's no there there. They're just a bunch of not-very-bright, incompetent, petty, greedy egotists tripping over themselves without a damned clue what they're doing. It would probably (will probably, assuming Western civilization survives them) make an absolutely hilarious farce.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Comey is a strong patriot who is well aware of the classified material around Trump relating to his businesses and his Russian ties. I would imagine Comey will not let that die down easily. Neither will his allies in the FBI who feel he was pushed out.

Yepp. So it (as I said initially) is a really good news. Trump's acting resulted in the 'Russia ties' will get even more scrutiny!


The way Trump fired Comey is also very interesting. It was really awful, almost as Trump wanted Comey to react/start to leak. I hope we'll get soon much more new information (if there is something )

And now Trump is dropping a massive hint that there are "tapes" of the conversations with Comey. I suspect that Trump has been leading his oh so predicable opponents into a massive elephant trap.

Just like he has that letter from the NFL

If there are any elephant traps here, Trump is standing at the bottom with his mouth open.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Can we please forget about the attempts to derail the thread from the fact that the President of the United States was mad at the the Director of the FBI for investigating the President's campaign's ties to a foreign power, so he threw a temper tantrum and fired him?

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Little Marco drops to his knees as expected:

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I really don't know which is more despicable - Rubio, or the voters in Florida who elected him.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

President Trump says he never asked Comey to drop the Russia investigation: "In fact, I want the investigation speeded up."
https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/862798960804720640

LOL @ "speeded up".

He probably wanted it over the next day. ("Produce a final report that clears me tomorrow and then put all your resources into investigating connections between Democratic politicians and Mexican drug cartels.")