Donald Trump is headed over to the FBI National Academy on Friday where he’ll speak at a graduation ceremony scheduled for at 10 a.m. ET.
The irony of this isn’t lost on anyone. Trump has spent the last six months hurling all manner of accusations at the Bureau via Twitter. The FBI, he insists, is in “tatters.” Recall this tweet from a couple of weeks ago:
After years of Comey, with the phony and dishonest Clinton investigation (and more), running the FBI, its reputation is in Tatters – worst in History! But fear not, we will bring it back to greatness.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2017
Obviously, it is beyond egregious for the President to use social media to bully the nation’s law enforcement apparatus. And this ongoing attempt to stymie Robert Mueller by digging up evidence of bias is patently absurd for a laundry list of reasons, not the least of which is that everyone seems to be ignoring the fact that the whole point of the investigation is to uncover evidence of wrongdoing, so yes, they are going to be “biased” against the people who are suspected of committing treason. That’s how an investigation works. No, you do not want law enforcement to goal-seek their conclusions, but on the other hand, if there weren’t good reasons to be suspicious of the Trump team then they wouldn’t be conducting the investigation in the first place. And please spare us the “deep state” bullshit, because trust us, scholars of countries where there actually is a “deep state” want to vomit in their mouths every time someone applies that concept to the U.S. and Trump.
I mean you can’t blame the President for trying, because after all, Trump and his cheerleaders on Capitol Hill have to “DO SOMETHING” to put the brakes on Mueller as he closes in on Trump’s inner circle and because firing the special counsel would invariably trigger a constitutional crisis and probably start the impeachment ball rolling in earnest, other “options” have to be explored. Citing Hillary Clinton and uranium hasn’t worked because that has nothing to do with anything, so now they’re trying a different route. Again, you can’t blame them for trying, but let’s not pretend like this isn’t what it is: a ridiculously transparent effort to undermine Mueller before he indicts someone else and by “someone” we’re looking at you, Jared Kushner.
Anyway, you’d think that one thing you wouldn’t do before showing up at Quantico is lambast the FBI further on national television, but this is Donald Trump we’re talking about and so…
The English language is not a sufficient tool to describe how stupid that is, so we’ll just note the obvious: this is the target of an FBI investigation saying that “what we’re witnessing at the FBI is very sad.”
And he’s right. It is “very sad.” For him.
Oh, and incidentally, he’s not ruling out a Flynn pardon…
Q: Would you consider a pardon for Micahel Flynn?
President Trump: “I don’t want to talk about pardons for Michael Flynn yet. We'll see what happens.” pic.twitter.com/jSf9mtp50f
— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 15, 2017
Of course the FBI should have an adversarial view of Trump when the evidence indicates a crime on his part. But the current spin is that he first became a target for political reasons, and tying his campaign to the probable Russian interference was done to promote that agenda. While this may not be the case, it is an effective way to muddy the waters, and gives cover to the Republicans in Congress who would be part of any impeachment and trial procedures.
To quote H, “The English language is not a sufficient tool to describe how…” much I despise this “fucking moron” (to quote Tillerson too!).
Heard him make his walking comments and then heard him give his bullshit “I’ve got your back” speech to the FBI agents! Every word out of his mouth was a disgrace. I am so outraged and hate him so much and watch him every day do something else, say something else, to disgrace this country and strut around like he is the all-knowing smartest man on the planet. His use of the word ‘everybody’ and ‘everyone’ constantly as if to implicate he is merely delivering a message of judgement and then to declare that he will make it better than it has ever been — I don’t know how much more I can take of the insanity that allows this prick to stay in the oval office!! I can tell you this for sure – we need better methods to remove something like this from the most honorable position in government of the United States of America!
And just to pile on a bit more — after hearing other things yesterday, a few of which are everyone avoids giving him news that will upset him; not mentioning Russia problems because he will become enraged; not speaking certain things to him and instead putting those things in print that they know he will not read but by doing that, they have done their job to tell the president; tolerating his ranting screaming attacks if he is upset with you about anything; watching television 8 hours a day; and so much more — BUT the most disgusting, disrespectful, distasteful, detestable and just plain ass vile, vulgar and yucky is finding out that he will be in a meeting with a large group of aides/staff and walk away from the table and into the bathroom, leaving door open and telling them to continue the conversation a bit louder, while he sits on the toilet.
Seriously? We should not have to tolerate this pathetic excuse of a man as our President!
“….seeing what’s going on with the FBI and Justice Dept, people are very angry…”
Indeed
Could sure read that a couple ways!
I’m not an HC or a fan of the Clintons at all. I did vote for her simply because the other choice was even more absurd.
That said, I have to laugh at the Trump strategy and Trump supporters’ claims of Comey’s bias toward Hillary over Trump. We are all subject to a classic slight-of-hand regarding how Donald Trump was elected. The Russians and their countless social media troll farms undoubtedly had an effect on the overall election, but it was the distraction to the real meddling in the illegal Trump election.
It is a historical fact that Comey unquestionably crashed the HC margins 11 days before the election by making a public statement that he would investigate additional emails for wrong doings from her – which proved to be of no consequence. HC’s six point lead evaporated over night. This was a deliberate and negotiated strategy between Trump and Comey – or you have to believe that Comey is the most legally and politically naive person on the planet. Which considering Comey’s his past political competition for the Directorship of the FBI – automatically and logically rules out. Then Trump firing Comey (Comey’s retirement already assured by his contribution to Trump’s win) – strategically ended additional investigation of the real reason (to produce a Trump win) why Comey found it necessary to release a speculative notice of further investigation with absolutely zero indication that such further investigation might turn up any wrong doing.
When has an FBI investigator ever revealed information about an ongoing investigation to the public when the facts of the information revealed were unknown – without a strategic motivation? It simply does not happen – is illogical and self-defeating to any investigation. What James Comey did was far more effective than the Russian meddling in the election. It was a bold strategic and rewarding move by Comey for Trump undeniably and directly benefiting the Trump campaign. That this obvious domestic collusion to influence the 2016 Presidential election – has not been assigned a non-FBI investigation – speaks volumes to the absence of the survival of any true democratic election process or Federal justice system oversight in the US.
Comey’s public notice of additional speculative investigation of even more HC emails was a transparent and deliberate effort on Comey’s part to harm HC and to benefit Trump. There is simply no precedent or legal justification for any other interpretation. Determining that it was a deliberate Comey effort to help Trump is ruled obvious by the subsequent outcome of the election.
I suggest we all watch James Comey carefully until he dies of old age – to see how this deliberate move to throw the election to Trump – rewards him in the future.
Regarding the on going investigation into Russia meddling to benefit Trump – its a continuing distraction to what the former Director of the FBI did, to avoid the total loss of confidence in the Agency’s future and to a lesser degree to develop safeguards against foreign meddling in the future. Additionally, to distract from the obvious further discrediting the FBI and other federal investigative and intelligence agencies from not preventing the Russians from meddling from the start. Foreign influence of elections in the US and around the world have been growing exponentially with the digital resource capabilities to do so – this is no secret, even if Joe Public was unaware of it.
Again, from this “cause and effect” perspective – the myth of US democracy and any semblance of a democratic and fair election process – is painfully obvious non-existent and just as painfully – dead.
Hey Dugger, I line up with your opening sentence, also voted for HC as the lesser of two evils, while I actually liked Bernie but it was clear a vote for Bernie was a waste and could end up benefiting trump and I wanted no part of that! So I cast my vote for HC.
I also followed your “conspiracy” theory with Comey and Trump being in cahoots and fully understand why and how you have reasoned it as ‘most likely’ true — but I am not all in on that one. His explanation way back when he made the stupid move seems just as probable; I assume we all recall his explanation and it did make sense that he kinda faced a no-win decision either way, right?
I blame the Electoral College for making an asinine decision — she had more than a 3 million vote lead and they tossed it to him. The Electoral College no longer serves the purpose intended a couple hundred years ago — that needs to be fixed. Not to mention the people who were the body of the Electoral College were also witnesses to the entire campaign, the outrageous behavior and racist remarks and outright lies and prior business record and volume of lawsuits and all that shit and they awarded the win to him? Ridiculous. And Comey certainly did not help, especially with trump’s cult followers!
He will always be a stain on America’s presidential history and if we do not take it as a lesson and change certain future behavior, it could happen again! Tune in next time for my rant about the antiquated two party system! haha!
Any candidate (especially one with HC’s negative baggage) that could maintain a 6 point + lead up to election day – would have never fallen victim to the Electoral College. HC had that 6 point lead prior and until to Comey’s letter to a Republican dominated Congress was made public. The poles were not wrong – just behind the ball after the Comey letter.
I’m not the only person who thinks this way – perhaps the only one to put in writing that Comey is too smart to accidentally do what he did – and not do it for personal gain. He’s an f’ing lawyer after all. HC lost the election because she lost her 6 point lead and that triggered the Electoral College based decision – primarily because the letter written by James Comey. (Note the graphs in these articles: (http://election.princeton.edu/2016/12/10/the-comey-effect/)
– (https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-comey-letter-probably-cost-clinton-the-election/)
– (https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/1/11/14215930/comey-email-election-clinton-campaign)
Comey was a Senior Research Scholar and Hertog Fellow on National Security Law at Columbia Law School and then U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of N.Y. before becoming the 7th Director of the FBI. These are neither the credentials nor the political street creds – of a stupid man.
Comey was not an FBI product. He was never an FBI agent – he was and again – an f’ing lawyer – appointed to head the FBI. Comey was a registered Republican until July 7, 2016 when he suddenly announced he was becoming an Independent. Prior to this date he was donor to both McCain’s and then Romney’s Republican Presidential campaigns. After Comey’s letter to Congress October 28, 2016 and subsequently made public, “CNN and Irish Central pointed out the similarities between Corey and J. Edgar Hoover in “influencing” elections.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Comey#Party_affiliation)
You may be aware that this wasn’t Comey’s first political intrigue rodeo. Comey took over the investigation of the Plame Affair from John Ashcroft (recused) – and appointed Patrick Fitzgerald to lead the Investigation. This controversy was where key Republicans leaked critical intelligence information as political payback – tied to the Iraq WMA (uranium) fiasco/Bush-Cheney’s and Valerie Plame Wilson’s (a CIA agent) husband’s (a diplomat) claim of the misrepresentation of his findings (that Iraq has sought uranium in Niger – to mfg. nuke weapons) under the Bush/ Cheney Ad. (Wilson published a July 2003 op-ed in The New York Times stating his doubts during the mission that any such (uranium) transaction with Iraq had taken place. – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plame_affair). Beyond Scooter Libby – who received a slap on the wrist that was commuted by then President G.W. Bush, no other Republicans were prosecuted. So, there is significant history of the Comey involved in Republican – less than logical Republican prosecutions and associated politics.
Comey’s explanation for his premature release of the respective email investigation was that the he felt the Congress/public had a right to know. It was totally illogical since Comey is a known anti-privacy advocate (“There is no such thing as absolute privacy in America; there is no place outside of judicial reach.” – https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/10/28/us/politics/fbi-letter.html)
and that there was nothing to known factually other than there were meta data indications that there were many emails to HC on Anthony Weiner’s computer.
Emails were from the start a Republican defined red herring Republican issue where the FBI had already found HC to be innocent of wrong doings – at least in the respective emails. Further, indication of Republican indications came from the fact that the respective emails received “Classified” status – after the investigation started. Again, I would never have chosen a scenario to see another Clinton President, but this entire election was so hinkey from the start, so full of strategic lies and deceptions – and I’m sure on both sides, but Comey’s actions were unconscionable and lead to no other conclusion than they were self-serving.
Comey’s Congress/public notification was so counter to all FBI investigative protocols – and his requirements to update Congress, especially that the notification came before the facts of what the emails might or might not reveal. Given James Comey – the political animal and his lawyer background, he had no rational or probable explanation at all, but perhaps the best excuse he might come up with on the spot.
In the context of how polarized and naive the American public was in this election, Comey’s actions completely favored a Trump victory and he surely is not so uneducated legally, naive politically, or historical inexperienced not to know the election impacts of his actions – or that he could probably get away with it.
Similarly, I expect the Mueller investigation to produce a few hand slaps with resulting commutations of sentences, but Mueller will not embarrass the FBI further, or provide any actionable information that would force Republican Congress – probably even a Democratic Congress – to remove Trump from office – or adequately investigate James Comey.
Considering the corruption we have seen at the Presidential level in all recent previous Presidential Administrations – the Comey letter/Trump victory is not at all unsuspected – even if unusually sloppy (or as turns out – clever) in execution.
The myth of US democracy though was again revealed in 2016. US democracy and political integrity is dead. At least to any open minded and informed observer.
Ok, WHO ARE YOU!?!? That was an incredible essay and somewhat scary also!
If you are correct (omg) then trump was completely involved in the entire plan and conceived in advance to fire Comey and blame the FBI for incompetence and failure to investigate HC. Something went wrong with that plan but absolutely agree Comey’s announcement devastated HC successful campaign, no one really argues that point. So does Comey owe trump or does trump owe Comey?
Perhaps something got hinky with all fingers pointed at trump and Russia and he did not expect Mueller to enter the picture and really dig into the Russia involvement — there is plenty of evidence Russia is heavily involved, i.e. Flynn and Manafort and Popadopoulos and Page, etc. So, how does all that connect to the Comey Conspiracy? Flynn is not confessing and facing jail for no reason and Manafort seems to be caught red handed laundering money — all wrapped around trump properties/trump managed properties and Panama’s Trump Tower sales.
Two different conspiracies going on? Trump is definitely connected to Russia; no one else will loan the bankruptcy/loser any money, except Duetsche Bank. Russia “owns” trump.
My brain’s going to explode! It almost did trying to spell Popadopouwhatever!