Wow, America.
How much more evidence do you need before you wake up to the fact that the country is being run by a would-be autocrat.
On Wednesday, The New York Times is out reporting that Jeff Sessions is expected to fire Andrew McCabe just days before his scheduled retirement.
In case you need a refresher here, the Times reminds you that McCabe “is ensnared in an internal review that includes an examination of his decision in 2016 to allow F.B.I. officials to speak with reporters about an investigation into the Clinton Foundation.”
The DoJ’s inspector general determined that McCabe was in fact not forthcoming during that review and that, in turn, set in motion the disciplinary process that recommended his termination.
That means his fate is ultimately in Sessions’ hands – those hands have been prone to trembling when their owner is “beleaguered” thanks to a President who has commandeered the nation’s law enforcement apparatus.
As the Times goes on to note, “lack of candor is a fireable offense,” but there’s an orange elephant in the room. To wit:
FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is racing the clock to retire with full benefits. 90 days to go?!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2017
.@FoxNews-FBI’s Andrew McCabe, “in addition to his wife getting all of this money from M (Clinton Puppet), he was using, allegedly, his FBI Official Email Account to promote her campaign. You obviously cannot do this. These were the people who were investigating Hillary Clinton.”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 24, 2017
Of course you already know the history here and if you don’t, you can check out the archive. Suffice to say Trump is going to compel Sessions to fire McCabe before he retires in order to strip him of his pension. Here’s the Times again:
Now, Mr. Sessions is the final arbiter of Mr. McCabe’s dismissal, shortly before his retirement takes effect Sunday. Though no decision has been made, people inside the Justice Department expect him to be fired before Friday, a decision that would jeopardize his pension as a 21-year F.B.I. veteran.
Although the administration will ultimately claim Trump had nothing to do with this decision, no one will believe it. The tweets speak for themselves as does the backstory which, you’re encouraged to remember, includes this:
In meetings with Mr. McCabe, the president questioned how he had voted and needled him about his wife, calling her a “loser,” according to people familiar with the conversations.
So yeah. This is coming from Trump and it will be seen as such by lawmakers and the public alike – or at least lawmakers and voters who have managed to retain some semblance of sanity over the past 14 months.
This will also be seen as a test for Sessions, who has recently suggested that he may be close to his breaking point with a President who reportedly calls him “Mr. Magoo” behind his back.
Just another day in paradise.
*********
Trump’s got the red ass about the election result in Pennsylvania and woke up grumpy this morning.
Mr. Magoo (racist a-hole ) is trying to return to the good graces of the most vile human on our planet.
It’s hard to discern whether this is a case of “a pox on both their houses.” If McCabe, in fact, sought to tube Clinton’s run for president at a time when McCabe believed Trump was a better option, only to later realize he screwed the pooch big time on that score, and then turn his sights on Trump a bit too late.
If so, perhaps McCabe deserves to be fired, even if Destrcuto is the moving force, along the lines of Buddhist karma, where McCabe’s present is shaped by prior and present action, and present actions shape not only the future but also the present. So, if he’s responsible, he should come clean as to whatever he did in relation to Clinton, so he can have a better future. Well, that’s my advice. Let him come clean. He’ll feel better.
The only thing I am NOT in favor of is making a move to purposefully destroy his retirement package. Being fired or removed from position is one thing – to do that with the goal being to destroy his retirement is beyond what’s acceptable — a case of over-kill, the punishment exceeds the crime — which of course is exactly how trump likes to “get even” and even brags about it.