FBI Director James Comey is now Former FBI Director James Comey after he was surprisingly fired by President Trump. It's a decision that has a) simultaneously sidetracked from and refocused the media on Russia-Trump investigations and b) shown itself to be the right move from the absolute wrong person to do it. I'll also explain why I'm so disheartened and depressed by the move.
Tracking the Reasoning
It's hard to keep track of the reasonings behind Comey's firing, because they seem to change by the hour. At first, the White House claimed that Comey's dismissal was at the recommendation of AG Jeff Sessions and deputy AG Rod Rosenstein, including their memos in the original release. Those memos claimed Comey was fired for the way he handled the Clinton email investigation.
Let's start with the reasoning behind the move, from a public standpoint. Officially, Trump's letter and others from the Department of Justice (AG Jeff Sessions and deputy AG Rod Rosenstein) said that Comey's dismissal was because of the way Comey had handled the Clinton email investigation. Specifically, Rosenstein said the biggest complaint is that Comey overstepped his authority by a) declaring there would be no prosecution without sending it to then Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who should be making that decision b) revealing the results of the investigation in a public press conference. Further, Rosenstein blames Comey for c) the Oct. 28, 2016, letter to Congress that informed about new evidence arising in the Clinton case — the Huma Abedin emails. Trump praised that letter in public in the days following, particularly on the campaign trail, so c) rings particularly hollow. He has also said in a new interview that he'd already decided to fire Comey regardless of Rosenstein's memo. So it seems, based on Trump's own words, that these were justifications after the fact and not the reasoning behind the act.
Yet looking at the on-the-surface reasons for firing Comey, those ARE legitimate claims coming from anyone but Trump. Many independent observers, like myself, would note that Lynch was out of the picture because she had already recused herself from the Clinton investigation (because the GOP had raised a stink about her meeting with former President Bill Clinton on an airplane for 10 minutes). She had publicly said that she was deferring to the FBI's judgment, so a) is a rather silly reason to fire Comey. However, b) is a VERY good reason to fire Comey. The c) Oct. 28 letter is an even better reason to fire Comey. There is evidence — good, compelling, mathematical evidence — that the Comey letter swung the election. Even if it only had a 1 percent effect, that's enough to swing Michigan/Wisconsin/Pennsylvania, which swung the election. Yet as late-night hosts have pointed out, Trump's claims are essentially: I'm firing Comey for how badly he treated Hillary Clinton. When boiled down like that, it's ridiculous on its face.
There's an even better, unstated reason to fire Comey — the seeming admission that his testimony before Congress last week was inaccurate. Specifically, he'd told Congress that Abedin had forwarded "hundreds and thousands" of emails to the computer she'd shared with her husband, Anthony Weiner. Comey said it was a "regular practice" — an implication of active participation and ongoing wrongdoing. But it turns out that Abedin's computer was simply making an automatic backup for most of those emails. She had forwarded emails to be printed out, but none were marked classified at the time (a few were designated classified after the fact, but she was legally within her bounds at the time). So that's an inaccurate testimony before Congress — problematic. Yet this is not the stated reason for Comey's firing.
Trump has said publicly that Comey was "not doing a very good job," but has given little reasoning behind that and, honestly, hasn't been pressed by the media too much as to what he means by that.
Comey had few friends on Capitol Hill — partly because of the Oct. 28 letter that Democrats (probably rightly) believe swung the election, and partly because the Trump-Russia investigation is... inconvenient at best and potentially damaging at worst for Republicans.
Trump-Russia Investigation
So yes, Comey probably should be fired. Yes, Democrats who openly dislike how Comey handled the Clinton investigation are also now upset that Comey is out. But that's because there's another side to this: Comey was the only investigator left in the chain without ties to Trump. The Trump-Russia investigation appears to have some legs to it. Days before his firing, Comey had asked — of all people — Rosenstein for more money/resources to investigate the Trump-Russia connections. Former CIA Director James Clapper tweaked his previous statements about Trump-Russia ties during testimony this week, when he effectively said that he hadn't known about the FBI investigation. He also implied, in an exchange with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) that there was an investigation of some sort into Trump's business ties with Russia. Trump has even hired a law firm to defend himself against claims he had business ties with Russia. Former Acting AG Sally Yates was asked by Congress if she knew of any evidence of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. She said she couldn't answer that, because it was classified (!!!). The FBI had recently issued grand jury subpoenas to associates of Flynn for business records. Heck, on Wednesday (after the Comey firing and disastrous Yates testimony on Flynn), Trump met with the very same Russian diplomat Flynn had been accused of lying about meeting/speaking.
Trump has already replaced the Attorney General and the Acting Attorney General with an ally (Sessions) and Rosenstein, who apparently directed the Comey dismissal. He's also fired all the Obama-era U.S. Attorneys and prosecutors. The CIA Director is now a Trump appointee. The only "independent" group investigating the national security issue of collusion between the sitting president and a foreign power will now be headed by a Trump appointee. Trump fired the last threat to his presidency. It's also highly disingenuous of Trump to claim that the Clinton investigation was the reason he fired Comey, while Trump not only benefitted from those actions, but praised them at the time. Heck, he even described Comey last week on Twitter as "the best thing that ever happened to Hillary Clinton" for giving her a "free pass" which would imply that he was mad at Comey not for how he handled not prosecuting Clinton as he said, but for not prosecuting her hard enough. He also praised Comey for his "guts" in investigating Clinton and declared that what Comey did in his letter was "the right thing" in the days afterward. Further, nearly half a year later after Comey's biggest supposed missteps and four months after being sworn in as President, suddenly Trump has a problem with Comey right when the Trump-Russia investigation was gaining steam. He's right that Democrats didn't like Comey. But they liked him a heck of a lot more than Trump because of the Trump-Russia investigation, and Comey was at least a reasonably independent actor. Democrats are right to want to pursue that, because it's a national security issue and it's a "this guy is just as corrupt as we said he is" issue. The Democrats are not wrong. (Follow-up: The Senate Intelligence committee has subpoenaed Gen. Flynn for documents related to his Russia connections. This is the first time they've used that power since the 9/11 Commission, and the first time for documents since the 1970s.)
GOP Reaction
But remember: Democrats have no power right now. They don't have the Senate, and probably won't until 2020 at least. They don't have the House, and would have to get a little lucky to flip it in 2018 (though that is plausible). So it's Trump's fellow Republicans who have the power to decide if the Trump-Russia investigation continues or goes independent. And their response has been mixed and confusing. Sen. McCain is calling for an independent investigation, but Sens. Graham and Cruz have supported Comey's firing and been pretty quiet re: Trump-Russia. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C. and the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee (investigating Trump-Russia) said he was "troubled by the timing and reasoning" behind Comey's firing. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said he was "having trouble" with the Comey firing. Conservative Sens. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.) expressed their frustration, too. Finally, Sen. Bob Corker threw his ire to the pile. If you add in the Democrats, Burr, Flake, Sasse, Lankford and McCain, that's a majority of senators upset with how this was handled. But the most powerful man in the Senate is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who rejected calls for a special prosecutor. Reminder: His wife is Trump's Secretary of Transportation. Republicans are showing they care more about their party than about the country. If they cared about the country, they'd be calling for an independent investigation to restore faith in the process.
Nixonian?
Finally, it's not gone unnoticed that President Trump has been acting like Richard Nixon. Let's go over the connections. Trump's speech at the RNC was lifted, admittedly, from the 1968 RNC speech of Richard Nixon. Trump met literally the day after firing Comey with Nixon Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. According to CNN, longtime Trump ally Roger Stone asked for Comey to be fired (though Trump refutes this and Stone has been... let's go with dodgy on his involvement, but he's super happy about it). Stone was a self-described "dirty trickster" for Nixon and has a Nixon tattoo on his back. He tweeted about Comey's firing that "Somewhere Dick Nixon is smiling." Why? Because Nixon fired the special prosecutor in charge of the Watergate investigation. It was called the Saturday Night Massacre. Long history short, Nixon ordered his AG to fire the special prosecutor in charge of Watergate. The AG refused, and resigned in protest. Nixon then ordered his Deputy AG to fire the special prosecutor. He refused, too, and resigned in protest. Finally, the Solicitor General (Robert Bork) was brought in to fire the special prosecutor. Nine months later, Nixon was impeached on obstruction of justice charges. He resigned two weeks later.
One important distinction: Congress had turned on Nixon, but it was also already the opposition party. Trump's party still controls Washington. VP Mike Pence and McConnell have now publicly defended Trump's actions. The House is Republican. The Senate is Republican. If Trump is to go down over this, it'll take Republicans turning on him — and I don't think they have the courage to do so. They've shown no desire for that so far, and I know why: If you're going to take on someone from your own party in a public way, it better be for a GREAT, inarguable reason. It's just not worth the battle for most Republicans right now.
Conclusion
The original reasons for Comey's firing are, to some extent, good reasons coming from anyone but Trump. But coming from Trump, who has praised the exact same actions — and benefitted from them — it does not seem genuine. So it seems this is either a fairly naked reaction to the Russia-Trump investigation or at least that Comey was a threat to Trump. But the people with the power to do anything about it seem so disinterested in stopping it. So that's why I'm disheartened: It's going to take Republican leadership and Republican effort to continue the Trump-Russia investigation. I don't think McConnell will ever do anything against Trump because of his wife's position in Trump's Cabinet. Paul Ryan is too intertwined in Trump policy to sever ties, either. In this instance, the GOP has nothing to gain from an investigation and everything to lose. So call me cynical, but I think this spells the end for major revelations from the Trump-Russia investigation.
Summary Judgments
Take a guess at the only one country has ever given up its nuclear weapons willingly. Give up? It's South Africa. • • • More from Foxtrot Alpha on President Trump attempting to set back a state-of-the-art aircraft carrier's launch technology. • • • The President believes he invented the phrase "priming the pump." He is wrong, and here's proof. • • • I was real sick last week, so I didn't run. I never got around to running this week, so I'll get back on that horse next week. My next race is June 10, so I have plenty of time, but I'd like to run a 4-mile practice to make up for missing the 4-miler Trolley Run because I was sick. • • • Yesterday, Alyson took the kids to day care, which means they leave after I do. When I came home from work, I found a blanket on our bed, and a whole bunch of stuffed animals there, too. I forgot about it, and then later when we went to bed, Alyson asked why there were stuffed animals on our bed. After jogging her memory, Alyson told me Evie had asked "Do you want to play with my friends?" after I'd left in the morning. Alyson hadn't paid much attention to Evie since she was getting ready for work herself, but that's how our bed ended up with Evie's animals.
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