Trump Fires FBI Director Comey

[OJsDad]

^That's just what the country needs. More infighting. I'm gonna go see if I can get the FAA mad at the Library of Congress.

I work for the DoD.  Don't get us mad, or we'll take the infighting to a whole new level.  Maybe we'll send some Tomahawks to those upstarts at the Census Bureau.  They're always causing trouble.

Can you send some the way of the DoE, you know, spread the wealth. 

[Steelgrave]

The Acting Director of the FBI directly contradicted White House claims that Comey had lost the backing of the rank and file and that the investigation of Russian interference in the election was insignificant in scope:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/11/us/politics/live-briefing-james-comey-andrew-mccabe.html

There are also reports that Trump requested Comey pledge personal loyalty to him, something Comey declined to do:

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/333062-report-trump-demanded-comeys-loyalty-at-dinner-in-january

It seems to me the firing of Comey is one of two things, the most charitable being we are witnessing the missteps of a politically tone deaf, neophyte administration whose lack of political experience is showing before a national audience....or....where there is smoke there is fire and the situation with Russia may be as bad as some fear. A third factor is certainly the thin-skin of Trump and his obvious desire to surround himself with sycophants (a problem Obama shared), a club that Comey declined to join.

Whatever the truth, in his first quarter as President Trump has managed to turn both the US intelligence community and the strongly independent FBI against him. Couple that with a hostile press and Trump may soon have reason to regret firing Comey.

[mirth]

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/863007411132649473

[Steelgrave]

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/863007411132649473

Gee, that certainly won't draw any comparisons to a certain paranoid President ....coughNixoncough......

:hide: :hide: :hide:

[mirth]

yeah, that ought to settle things down  ::)

[Marty Ward]

This is the most bizarre Presidency in our history. I'm not sure Trump can do anything right, he may screw up taking a pee. At this point I will consider Trump a successful President if he doesn't start WWIII and doesn't run again.

[mirth]

It is surreal.

[airboy]

This was awesome!

[bayonetbrant]

A remarkably even-handed account of how even "just-the-facts" news can show an inherent bias

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/5/10/15615654/comey-firing-revealed-real-news-propaganda

[JasonPratt]

This is the most bizarre Presidency in our history. I'm not sure Trump can do anything right, he may screw up taking a pee. At this point I will consider Trump a successful President if he doesn't start WWIII and doesn't run again.

I do not disagree with any clause in this quote. 

[Toonces]

I'm switching back and forth between Fox and MSNBC with Chuck Todd.  I genuinely think what we're watching is the real time self-destruction of a presidency. 

As I watch and read today, there is a sense of unreality that this is actually going on. 

[bayonetbrant]

Without overly-derailing the thread, my personal belief is that Trump doesn't get the distinction between a private Enterprise where he can do whatever he wants, and a government where power is intentionally designed to be shared. He thinks he was elected King, not President, and doesn't really get the difference

[bbmike]

^I agree with that.

[Steelgrave]

Without overly-derailing the thread, my personal belief is that Trump doesn't get the distinction between a private Enterprise where he can do whatever he wants, and a government where power is intentionally designed to be shared. He thinks he was elected King, not President, and doesn't really get the difference

There was some speculation that Trump would have a difficult time making the adjustment from a CEO/Owner (with little accountability) to the Presidency. While the President is often referred to as being the most powerful man alive, he still has limitations on that power that aren't always evident to someone outside of politics. I think we are seeing that learning curve in action. The question remains if Trump can actually learn from it or will he keep repeating the same mistakes.

That being said, I don't think hyperbole adds to an argument in a productive way. It's easy to call Trump a King or a Fascist or a Nazi but it doesn't bolster anyone's argument. Personally, I believe Trump is a fundamentally dishonest man who has never been told no in his life, has no one around him to tell him no, wouldn't listen if he did, and lives in the same insulated world he was born into only on an even larger scale right now. At some point, if the Republicans want to hold onto power past 2020 and Trump continues in this fashion, they are either going to have to bitch slap Trump into some sense of reality, score some major victories of their own making, or impeach him.

[airboy]

Without overly-derailing the thread, my personal belief is that Trump doesn't get the distinction between a private Enterprise where he can do whatever he wants, and a government where power is intentionally designed to be shared. He thinks he was elected King, not President, and doesn't really get the difference

It is worse.  In most private businesses you keep dealing with the same employees and customer base.  But Trump has primarily been in large scale real estate development.  In this business you seldom have repeat business with the same clientele.  In business-to-business sales you deal with intelligent people with capital.  If you mislead or nail people on a deal, they won't do business with you again and you will develop a very bad reputation in your industry.  This eventually kills you.  But if you do a lot of one-off real estate projects in different markets you keep messing with different people.  I've talked about this quite a bit with a couple of my real estate buddies and they at least see the merits of this point of view.  Because of his industry, Trump is not an average business CEO.  Tillerson - yes he has the normal behaviors and attributes.  Trump, not so much.