Listen, if you don’t smell a rat in Donald Trump’s move to sack the FBI Director who was investigating the administration’s ties to the Kremlin, you are either willfully ignorant or else just hopeless.
This is so outrageous that the punditry (both liberal and conservative) is having an exceedingly difficult time coming to grips with it.
Even if you think Comey deserved to be dismissed, the notion that the White House relieved him of his duties out of concern for whether Hillary Clinton was treated fairly by the (former) Director is bizarre in the extreme.
You’re reminded that the decision to fire Comey came down just hours after the FBI admitted that Comey had in fact grossly exaggerated the extent to which Clinton mishandled classified information.
Again, last night you witnessed Donald Trump essentially telling you that because Comey might have mishandled the Clinton probe, he needed to be fired.
That’s how stupid this administration thinks you are.
They think you’re going to believe that.
And they think you’ll see no connection whatsoever to the fact that Comey was investigating Russian meddling in America’s democracy.
In short, you’re supposed to believe that Donald Trump became a Hillary Clinton sympathizer on Tuesday evening.
It was just a happy coincidence that sympathizing with Hillary Clinton gave the President an excuse to fire the man who was investigating his administration.
It. Is. Fucking. Laughable.
Here’s The New Yorker:
Are we seriously being asked to countenance the idea that Trump fired Comey because he didn’t treat Hillary Clinton fairly? The same Trump who seized upon Comey’s press conference last July and used it to buttress his claims that Clinton should be jailed. The same Trump who, on October 31st, said, “It took guts for Director Comey to make the move that he made in light of the kind of opposition he had.”
Until the White House comes up with a less ludicrous rationalization for its actions, we can only assume that Trump fired Comey because the Russia investigation is closing in on him and his associates, and he knew that he didn’t have much sway over the F.B.I. director. That is the simplest theory that fits the facts. And it is a cause for great alarm.
On the bright side, Trump has just materially increased his chances of getting impeached and although he may have managed to stymie yet another investigation (as Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein becomes the new Devin Nunes) into Kremlin ties, this only makes the situation worse.
Trump just crossed the Rubicon. Or jumped the shark. Take your pick.
It. is. fucking. insulting. too.