People are comparing to Trump's firing of FBI director Comey to the Saturday Night Massacre of 1973 when Nixon fired special prosecutor Cox. I do not agree. I think this is worse for the country. For one thing, Watergate was about a failed attempt to influence a presidential election by Americans. This investigation is about a successful attempt by a foreign government to influence a presidential election. This has far more potential disaster for our democracy than Watergate.
The second thing that makes this worse is that when Nixon decided to fire Cox, his attorney general and deputy resigned instead of taking part in the firing. Those two Republicans put the nation ahead of their party. Jeff Session, on the other hand, signed on to the firing even though he has supposedly recused himself from the investigation. Also so far, other than John McCain, no other prominent Republicans has come out and say this is outrageously wrong.
The third thing is, as I have said before, Trump is a bully. Beyond that now, I think Trump is acting like a dictator. Why do you think he sings the praises of Kim, Duterte, Sisi and Putin. Just like them, if you are against him, he is going to try to get rid of you. At least so far he has not had anyone killed yet like those dictators. But with his firing of Comey, I am afraid that we are going down that slippy slope taking us away from our democracy. Think about it: the president is being investigated for colluding with the Russians and he fires the man in charge of investigating him. His party, which runs the government refuses to acknowledge that this firing is undemocratic. The president's best foreign friends are dictators. So yes, I think the situation is worse for the country than Watergate.
Tuesday, May 09, 2017
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I don't understand what he is doing with the firing of Comey. It's just a bad look no matter how you spin it. The timing is just wrong, when you should be trying to defend yourself and your team from the Russian probe. I was going to say that it's like he wants to get fired, but I think it's more like he just doesn't care. In a way, he's never been held accountable for his actions and even when he's failed, he doesn't acknowledge it was his fault.
ReplyDeleteIt'll be interesting to see if Comey will come out with any statements with what he knows. I'm sure he's bound to some secrecy, but you've got to figure he knows more than the general public.
-LBOAYM
Conservative pundits are all saying that the firing of Comey is justified. They point to his comments about Clinton where he acted not only as investigator but as judge and jury. That is interesting considering Trump had numerous times said that he did a great job with the Clinton case. The Democrats were the ones calling for his head in 2016. But if Obama and AG Lynch had fired Comey while investigating Clinton then all these conservatives would have been calling for Obama's head and calling him a dictator! I think the fact that Obama did not fired Comey but Trump did shows that who is more loyal to the checks and balances of our government.
ReplyDeleteIf Trump had done nothing wrong, then he should have let Comey finished the investigation. If Comey did an unfair job then it can be shown that he is biased. But to fire him now, it shows that Trump either is a bully or he is guilty of something with the Russians.
The question is now who will actually run the investigation. There has to be a nonpartisan special prosecutor in charge. Otherwise our democracy will be at risk. Interestingly, McConnell is already come out against a special prosecutor. This show what a partisan person he is. As I said last night, I have not seen any prominent Republican, except McCain, come out and say this is outrageous. Where are the GOP patriots? If Trump appoints someone like Guiliani or Christie to run the FBI or investigate this case, nobody will believe its kosher.
It has also been reported that Flynn's records are being subpoenaed by a Grand Jury and a senate investigation committee. Also it was revealed that Comey was asking for more resources from the Justice Dept. for this investigation before he was fired. All coincidences?
So today Trump meets with the foreign minister of Russia! He also met with Kissinger, the right hand man of Nixon. Trump is either more arrogant than I thought or he is totally tone deaf.
I agree with you on many if not all your points. Have you seen that Spicer has not been doing a lot of the briefings lately? I thought he was on vacation, but it looks like he's just doing less (or maybe not doing some of the ones that can get heated). Then I wondered who this woman they're sending out instead. She seems pretty comfortable, but has a tendency to make faces and act like she's in college. Turns out she's Mike Huccabee's daughter. Apparently, she's been in politics for a while helping her dad run his campaign among others.
ReplyDelete-LBOAYM
You can't make this stuff up! It was reported that Spicer was hiding in the bushes after the firing. The paper corrected its own report that Spicer was actually "among" the bushes, not in the the bushes. Apparently things were so confusing in the WH that the staff had to make up talking points in the yard before facing the press. But whatever they said would then be contradicted by Trump the next day. Spicer is supposedly on vacation? I wonder if the vacation request was put in AFTER he already started the "vacation"? If Huckabee's daughter do a good job, I am sure Spicer will be out soon. This maybe a trial period for the new woman. I think the next SNL will have Spicer doing something in the bushes!
ReplyDeleteAnother example of Trump's love for Russia. He meets with the Russian foreign minister right after the firing. Not only that, the Russian ambassador to the U.S., Kislyak, was also there. The same Kislyak that had controversial meetings with Flynn, Sessoions etc. Not only that, the meeting was off limit to the American press but the Russian agency TASS was in it! I know that Trump thinks the American press is the perpetrator of fake news but is TASS the true news now? It almost looks like he tries to show that he is in Putin's pocket!
Another possible SNL skit is Trump's dinner with Comey where he supposedly asked Comey if he was being investigated and Comey said no. This line of questioning is totally unethical and if there is any mention of Comey's job, that would make it illegal. But I can see SNL making fun of that and maybe Putin crashing the dinner!