I know I said I’d stay closer to economics in my commentary and not so much pure politics, but today became so surreal, I couldn’t resist. I couldn’t make stuff up this rich if I were drinking electric Kool-Aid while mainlining acid here in the whacky world of President Donard Trixon and the Republicrats.
First, the basic situation: President Trump fires FBI Director James Comey who is hated by Democrats for the bungling manner in which he handled the scandalous Clinton emails that were allegedly obtained and made public by Russia in collusion with Donald Trump. During the campaign, Candidate Trump praised Comey’s breach of every known protocol on how the FBI handles sensitive information, especially politically charged information, and his move outside the chain of command. (Deciding not to prosecute Clinton was never properly Comey’s decision or announcement to make, but rests fully in the attorney general.)
Comey’s behavior, seen as bizarre by both Republicans and Democrats, single-handedly gave the presidency to Donald Trump. I think that’s fair to state because of the undeniable fact that Clinton immediately lost about 8% in her approval ratings and never fully regained that loss, while Trump’s margin of victory in many of the states that he carried was less than 2%.
Candidate Trump loved James Comey, but that relationship soured when Comey became the man in charge of investigating Trump. So, now, the same Trump who praised Comey’s actions fires him, stating those exact same actions during the Clinton scandal as the reason for termination.
The capital clowns are bouncing left and right today
As Trump flips, the Democrats all flop. The same Democrats who wanted Comey fired and criticized Trump for keeping Comey on as head of the FBI and who recently scoffed at Comey for saying he was only mildly nauseous over the possibility that his actions might have changed the election, now rebuke Trump for firing Comey for the very reasons Democrats all originally wanted him fired.
Then Trump, who stated recently in an interview that he “has confidence in him” (James Comey), railed indignantly against Democrat leader Chuck Schumer today by saying, “Cryin’ Chuck Schumer stated recently, “I do not have confidence in him (James Comey). Then acts so indignant.” So, the president had full confidence in Comey then fired him but is annoyed that the leader of the Democrats had no confidence in Comey but is now indignant that he was fired.”
Tricky Dick smiles as Trump scowls.
The Democrats, of course, state Trump has different reasons, alleging a Nixonian coverup. Comey, they claim, was on to Trump, so Trump needed to get rid of him. They claim that Trump has just taken the final step necessary to make the Trump-Putin electioneering scandal a near-perfect copy of Nixon’s Watergate scandal. They compare the surprise termination of James Comey to the Saturday Night Massacre when Nixon surprisingly fired independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who was investigating Nixon’s role in the Watergate scandal, wherein the Watergate Hotel was bugged for campaign reasons at the president’s orders, just as Trump has alleged President Obama ordered the bugging of Trump Tower for campaign reasons.
Nixon’s firing of Cox led to the resignations of the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General. In the present case, however, the firing of Comey came specifically and solely at the request of the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General.
As I keep drinking the Kool-Aid, things gets more surreal than I ever thought they could
This very next morning, as Trump is struggling (and reportedly raging) to distance himself from the accusations of firing Comey to cover up Trump’s own Russian collusion scandal, Trump announces and holds a surprise closed-door meeting with Russia’s Foreign Secretary (counterpart to Secretary of State), Sergey Lavrov, and with Russia’s Ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, and with Putin’s official American friend, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
Doubling down on that strategy as he seeks to also distance himself from the Democrats’ Nixonian comparisons, Trump invites the press spontaneously into the oval office at which they are surprised to find Trump proudly sitting beside Nixon’s infamous Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, whom some regard as a war criminal during the Watergate-Vietnam-war era.
Trump boasts that he and Kissinger have been friends for years and that they were just meeting with Russia to discuss the Syrian war, where Trump is also accused by some of intensifying the conflict in order to change the public conversation in the press away from his supposed collusion with Russia. Just a coincidental meeting between old Watergate-era buddies and new Russian friends.
The world is wobbling on its axis today, my friends.