So… the executive can fire whoever he likes. Comey mishandling the Clinton investigation is one of the few things the Reps and Dems agree on. It seems odd for Trump to fire Comey for actions that helped put Trump in the White House. But those are just the stated reasons.
It’s nothing if not interesting. Good fodder to Keep him on the front page.
Interesting comments from attorneys general about Comey’s miss steps:
There’s no flattering reason to fire someone a year after they committed nearly a year ago and after a change in administration, when Trump’s team evaluated all major heads of departments to decide their fate - so, either the “he screwed up the Hillary investigation” isn’t the real reason and it’s just a pretext, or you’re incompetent in terms of evaluating and staffing during transition.
While I’m not enamored with the competence of this administration, I’m going with the first option - it’s just a convenient pretext designed for political cover.
Agreed. But who’s left to investigate Russian meddling? Congress?
Does the next FBI director go after Clinton too?
If there’s substance to the Russia allegations firing Comey won’t stop anything. There will be a reconing.
I think the administration almost has to appoint a special prosecutor at this point.
McCabe is now the Acting Director. Trump will need to appoint a new director that, if it’s anyone other than a straight-shooting non-partisan, he’ll likely get push back from his own party in the Senate.
As for Clinton, that case is closed as far as I know, but I suppose the new director could reopen it…although the optics of that would be pretty bad (but then again, here we are).
Independent investigation by special counsel, and Trump’s political miscalculation has all but assured that it will happen. [quote=“Basement_Gainz, post:3, topic:229515”]
Does the next FBI director go after Clinton too?
[/quote]
I think that ship has sailed, most likely.
Agreed, and this poorly handled termination is only going to intensify the scrutiny, the exact opposite of what Trump wants.
Also, regardless of outcome, certain themes stick with presidents based on choices made or moment in time - unfairly so in some cases, but it’s true. How does Trump ever recover from the growing theme that he is a self-serving, Nixonian crook?
That’s going to be Rosenstein’s call. It will very interesting to see the WH reaction if he goes that route.
I’m in agreement with most of the points above. And I would add that this epically ill-considered decision on Trump’s part highlights the fact that he has surrounded himself with yes-men (and women). That is, his admin is missing an absolutely crucial component–a person (it’s usually the Chief of Staff) who has the gravitas (and stones) to say to the POTUS ‘No, that’s a bad idea, and I don’t think we should do that.’
It’s going to be really interesting if he and Mad Dog Mattis ever disagree on something.
Yup. He’s already on Mattis’ list for referring to him (Mattis) as a “soldier.”
Ouch. It would had been better if he called Mattis a Jar Head.
I think all non-veteran presidents should take a “commander and chief” class.
Like when Obama referred to an award recipient as a “corpse-man”. Cringe man.
Ya, us crayon eating Devil’s don’t like being called soldiers.
“Vladimir, that Donald is craaazy. And quick. We have to double his bonus”
Reporter: Does the Comey firing cast a shadow over your talks?
— CNN (@CNN) May 10, 2017
Lavrov: "Was he fired? You're kidding." https://t.co/EA1e2llZNx
Hah! That was gold.
How insane are Trump and his team? Trump fired the FBI director just hours before meeting Sergey Lavrov.
It’s like Trump was really trying to impress his boss.
Unbelievably, he also met with the Russian ambassador Kislyak–yes, that Russian ambassador Kislyak:
Mind you, Trump barred the US press corps from the Oval Office for this meeting, but not the Russian press. So this pic is courtesy of TASS.
“Mr. Kislyak, Mr. Kislyak, please, please just one picture of us together?”
“Ummm…Ok, sure. But just one”
Trump looks exceedingly happy and excited to shake hands with an individual who actively conspired against the US government.
Trump has well and truly mastered the art of 4D Chess.
Oh, c’mon, that’s bullshit. Despite convoluted explanations by his stooges explaining the alleged political genius of the man, the fact remains that he’s in power until now only because of the pliant Congress republicans and the failure of the US political system’s checks and balances.
There are dozens of mini-Trumps in power in countries around the world with the exact same behavior and the exact same rhetoric, it’s just that they’re not in the headlines because they run unimportant countries and therefore can be safely ignored. Vucic ad Duterte being two examples. No 4-d chess there.
To paraphrase Garry Kasparov, this is not “uncharted territory” as some analysis allege. It’s a well trodden path that many dictators took and wannabe dictators and authoritarians attempted to take.
It’s just that it never happened in the US.
Everything a intelligible politician does could be interpreted as playing 4D chess.
Most leaders do some of it to some degree yet Trump has managed to go from a joke runner to President of the USA. What an incredulous feat.
He has become the Master.