Merged Trump Fires Comey....

[quadraginta]

What kind of hands-on role do you think any FBI director has in any investigation?

As much as they feel like they want to. Who's going to gainsay them.

You must not be very familiar with J. Edgar Hoover's career.

Or maybe you are just playing silly semantic games with the term "hands-on".

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Some of the conservatives on the forum are feigning shock that the Democrats are upset about Comey's firing. After all, weren't many Democrats angry about Comey's letter that many say cost the the election?

But everyone knows that Trump wasn't angry about Comey's actions during the election. So what was Trump so angry with Comey about that he felt the need to fire him before his term was complete? Could it be that Comey wouldn't be his stooge?

And we are not defending Comey when we accuse Trump of being a liar.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

...

Can you really delude yourself to that degree?

It would appear that more than a few people can, yes.

 

[quadraginta]

I doubt the Republicans would have cared that much at that point.

Do you believe that they would need some legitimate concern to scream their outrage from the rooftops?

You haven't been paying much attention to their track record.

 

[Aridas]

(Fixed link.)

...Thank you. My apologies for not catching that myself. Probably should have been in bed at that point.

Like I said, a gigantic hypocrite. But Democrats who were once calling for Comey to resign shouldn't forget that either.

To actually state my position on the matter... If there was sufficient cause for firing Comey, it's not a surprise that he was fired whenever and I have no problem with him being fired. To say it a little differently, it's not something that I'd hold against Trump. Now, if Trump were to replace him with a person who's specifically loyal to Trump or the Republican Party and not the American people, that would be something to hold against Trump. Trump lying about the reasons for the firing is also something to hold against Trump, too, but rather blends into the huge mass of other lies to hold against Trump.

 

[TheRealnz]

Oh the irony. Comey interferes in the election against all previous standards and ends up fired.

Trump praises Comey who helped Trump win the election and Comey comes back to bite Trump in the ass as Comey's effort to redeem his conscience plays out.

Even more irony: a majority of Democrats call for Comey's head 5 months ago, but cry crocodile tears when it actually happens. Pathetic *****.

Also, sacking Comey doesn't stop any alleged investigation the FBI are carrying out. The liberal media knows this. So instead they spin it as "interfering" with the investigation. More ********.

They'll spin any narrative into an anti-Trump narrative. They are now left with no credibility.

 

[quadraginta]

<snip>

Trump lying about the reasons for the firing is also something to hold against Trump, too, but rather blends into the huge mass of other lies to hold against Trump.

Why does it seem like this attitude that "It's just another Trump lie." seem to be used as a justification for ignoring and dismissing the lie?

How come the increasing volume of outrageous lies never amounts to anything worse than before? Shouldn't the ever-growing accumulation be an ever-growing problem?

 

[Tony Stark]

Even more irony: a majority of Democrats call for Comey's head 5 months ago, but cry crocodile tears when it actually happens. Pathetic *****.

Also, sacking Comey doesn't stop any alleged investigation the FBI are carrying out. The liberal media knows this. So instead they spin it as "interfering" with the investigation. More ********.

They'll spin any narrative into an anti-Trump narrative. They are now left with no credibility.

Democrats are angry because Comey was fired because he refused to be your Fuhrer's lapdog. And now Dear Leader will try to appoint someone who will be his lapdog to be to be in charge of the FBI.

 

[TheRealnz]

On Wednesday, Democratic senators Dianne Feinstein and Richard Durbin told US media that Mr Comey had asked the deputy attorney general for more resources - mainly staff - for the FBI investigation.

Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores called those reports "totally false".

So, there goes that narrative.


Either way, Republicans and Democrats vowed the House and Senate Intelligence Committees' investigations into the Russia claims would continue.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said if Mr Trump believed replacing Mr Comey would halt the inquiries "he made a big mistake".


Come at me guys, theres another narrative destroyed.

 

[Tony Stark]

On Wednesday, Democratic senators Dianne Feinstein and Richard Durbin told US media that Mr Comey had asked the deputy attorney general for more resources - mainly staff - for the FBI investigation.

Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores called those reports "totally false".

So, there goes that narrative.

Because the Trump Justice Department would never lie.

Either way, Republicans and Democrats vowed the House and Senate Intelligence Committees' investigations into the Russia claims would continue.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said if Mr Trump believed replacing Mr Comey would halt the inquiries "he made a big mistake".


Come at guys, theres another narrative destroyed.

We already know that your precious leader is an incompetent moron. And either way Lindsey Graham was talking about the Senate investigation.

 

[Aridas]

Why does it seem like this attitude that "It's just another Trump lie." seem to be used as a justification for ignoring and dismissing the lie?

How come the increasing volume of outrageous lies never amounts to anything worse than before? Shouldn't the ever-growing accumulation be an ever-growing problem?

It's not exactly ignoring or dismissing it, but there certainly is a question of burnout or diminishing returns that happens when there's already so many very serious lies on the field. It's even a bit worse when one considers that this has been going on since long, long before the election. It is increasing the evidence that the problems are there, yes, but confirming what was already quite apparent and has been quite apparent to anyone who cared to actually look does lose much of its appeal after a little while.

 

[KoihimeNakamura]

Because the Trump Justice Department would never lie.

There's a way for it not to be a lie: Comey may just not have asked his superiors yet, and was thinking about it when he briefed Congress..

 

[The Don]

Guliani is an unlikely choice for FBI director, because he would have to take the fifth on any questions about the Clinton email stuff, or implicate himself in a conspiracy to influence the election. Both would compromise the White House's stated reason for Comey's firing: to restore confidence in the FBI director's objectivity.

Only if he cares about committing perjury and the consequences of doing so. The Attorney General has taken the lead on that count and demonstrated that you can lie your *** off under oath and suffer little or no adverse consequences.

Giuliani could just lie like a cheap rug and the GOP will approve his appointment even though a number know he's lying.

 

[The Don]

I have heard that he or Christie are his first choices but I don't believe it for a second. (Now watch me be wrong.)

Yes, the BBC were reporting that 24 hours ago. IMO neither would be a good choice but Trump simply does not care how good or bad they are or how bad the appointments look - he knows that the GOP will back him to the hilt regardless because the only thing that matters is that the Democratic Party must be seen to lose

 

[The Don]

Is he going to pardon him first?

That would be just about the worst choice Trump could make, and I don't think Arpaio'd have a snowballs chance in hell of being confirmed.

Probably just a right wing talk radio wet dream anyway.

I doubt anyone in the GOP has the stones to say no. They may mumble and grouse off the record but if and when the vote comes they will vote the party line. The incompetent numbskulls that Trump proposed for his cabinet all got appointed didn't they ?

If Trump nominates Arpaio, he'll get in.

 

[Puppycow]

Can't Stump The Trump!11!!

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/862460991451344896



(no wonder the 4chan trolls love him so much)

 

[The Don]

Thinking about this, regardless of whether the firing was justified or not, Trump has created a new problem for himself: A new FBI Director will have to be confirmed by the Senate, and while Republicans can probably push someone through like they did with DeVos, it's not totally clear that it will be that easy this time. Democrats may demand a special prosecutor as the price for confirming his pick. I think they can only afford to lose no more than 2 Republican senators. DeVos just barely squeaked through.

IMO the DeVos vote was carefully staged to give those two senators kudos at home. Had it actually mattered, they would have fallen back in line IMO.

Would somebody who looks like a Trump toady (Christie or Giuliani) be able to make it through?

In a heartbeat, if the alternative was that the Democratic Party would be given something that looks like a win.

The senate can really only do one thing at a time, so by firing Comey he is spending "political capital" because while the senate is debating whether to confirm the new pick, they aren't working on other things, like the tax reform/cut or Obamacare replacement. He cost himself some days at least, possibly weeks of delay for other things on his agenda.

Is there any urgency to appoint an FBI director ? Without one in place the funding for any investigations into Trump, his campaign and his administration can be put on hold and it's not like the whole FBI will come to a grinding halt.

Trump can make noises about making sure that they get the right candidate this time - as opposed to the incompetent idiot that Obama appointed (yes, this mess is all Obama's fault ) - and leave the post open for months or years.

If it's a self-inflicted wound to passing his own agenda (which I oppose) I'll take it. If his goal was to quash the Russia investigation or get it off the front pages, that too will fail.

Like as not, President Trump will do something in the next few days which will shift all of this off the front page and the public have such short attention spans that it'll be forgotten. Almost everyone simply doesn't care unless whatever it is is an outrage right now !

What the GOP and right wing press managed to do is focus on one or two things Benghazi and emails and keep the outrage going. Trump has realised that if you give people a hundred things to be outraged about, the outrage is diluted.

One other possibility I considered is that the Rosenstein memo was sincere, even if Trump himself was not and merely used it as a convenient pretext (until this point he was seen as an honest broker, confirmed with 94 votes in the Senate iirc).

Does Rosenstein serve at the pleasure of the President ? If so even if he's an honest broker, he needs to provide a service.

 

[Tony Stark]

Democrats’ nuclear option over Comey’s firing: shut down the Senate

Senate Democrats infuriated by President Donald Trump’s abrupt firing of FBI Director James Comey have begun weighing a “nuclear option” against Senate Republicans to try to force them to commit to an independent investigation of Trump’s ties to Russia — pulling a procedural move to halt all day-to-day activity in the Senate. In other words, going on a kind of strike.

Democrats are holding off on pulling the trigger — at least for now.

"I hope it doesn’t get there,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the number two ranking Democrat, said in an interview on Wednesday when asked if Senate Democrats would try to essentially shut down the upper chamber of Congress. “I’m hoping for a bipartisan approach to this. But let’s wait and see.”

Here’s how Senate Democrats’ “nuclear option” over Comey would work: Unlike the House of Representatives, the Senate operates under what are called “unanimous consent” agreements. If Senate Democrats withhold their consent, the routine functioning of the body — from committee hearings to routine floor votes — could grind to an immediate halt.

They should use this to force Senate Republicans to reject Trump's replacement for Comey assuming it is some lackey like Christie or Guiliani.

 

[Tony Stark]

Is there any urgency to appoint an FBI director ? Without one in place the funding for any investigations into Trump, his campaign and his administration can be put on hold and it's not like the whole FBI will come to a grinding halt.

Trump can make noises about making sure that they get the right candidate this time - as opposed to the incompetent idiot that Obama appointed (yes, this mess is all Obama's fault ) - and leave the post open for months or years.

The acting director is a Democrat. Presumably Trump will want to get someone who is loyal to him in place ASAP.

 

[a_unique_person]

It's still me, I've just been spending less time following every single bit of political news lately in an attempt to stay sane. More time in escapism. There's lots of great TV on Netflix these days. Or books. Or anything else to stay sane. Of course, I still do follow political news, I just try to do so in moderation.

I keep promising myself "less Trump", then some crazy **** like this happens and it sucks me back in again.