James Comey got fired! I am a recovering news junkie who is trying not to follow the drama of the Russia investigation...anyone want to be my pundit for me?
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I just woke up to this and I am seriously worried about this turn of events.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/donald-trump-james-comey-attack-american-democracy
I'm going to be writing my congressman and senators today to demand an independent prosecutor/investigation.
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Just to offer a different opinion on the issue than that set forth by the liberal New Yorker:
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It sounds too much like deflection/cover up of the Russia investigation, to me.
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@agold: It's interesting that the Fox article you posted does not a make a single mention of the Russia investigation. If Trump was so concerned about Comey's handling of the Clinton investigation, why did he not fire Comey when he took office?
I will certainly not deny that The New Yorker is liberal, but for Fox to completely leave out any mention of Russia in their article on Comey being fired is irresponsible, and certainly not balanced reporting either.
ETA: every single article I've read this morning (NYT, Washington Post, NPR, BBC, other foreign press outlets, etc.) has mentioned the Russian investigation in their articles on this matter. Why would Fox leave this out?
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@lamariniere: FOX is EXTREMELY biased. This is how they do their reporting. They never (from what I've seen) report anything that's not true, but they leave out crucial details or word things in ways that might imply something inaccurate. It's very frustrating.
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@lamariniere: My coworkers and I read Washington Post or NPR and refer to them frequently when we talk about politics at work. We have ONE coworker who is the sole Trump supporter in our team and she ONLY reads Fox News. So when she tries to discuss things with us, there's always something missing. Needless to say, we don't get into discussions with her. Plus, she said the Obamas were uneducated.
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Subpoenas were issued in a grand jury investigation of Flynn.
And that second paragraph of Trumps letter about Comey is like a 5 year old that stole cookies trying to convince you they didn't. -
And the only thing on Trumps schedule today is to meet with Russia's foreign policy minister. Bad optics for sure. Is it just bad optics, probably not. Both Trumps sons have confirmed that most of their investment money is from Russian sources
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@Mrs. Oreo: oh my. Yeah, that Harvard Law School is just not up to par 🤣
@Maysprout: I just don't understand how bad he is at even making things appear normal and not shady. I think it's a symptom of narcissism. Trump just thinks he's smarter and better than everyone and can do whatever he wants.
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@MrsSCB: yeah. Trump is having another twitter meltdown now. It's odd how much he acts like a baby and people think it's somehow good leadership. He's everything I teach my kids not to be.
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Comey needed to go last year when he overstepped with the Clinton email situation. I think he has been much more cautious in how he's handled the Russian investigation. I'm not going to blame him for the leaks.
However, firing him seems vindictive and definitely a way to quell further investigation into Russia. Similarly if Obama had fired him when he was in office it would have looked the same way that he was trying to cover up any possible misdeeds by Clinton.
I feel like we are no different than any other country with a repressive regime in place now.
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: it sounds like the critique from the right is that he didn't do enough with the Clinton investigation, not that he overstepped? It is hard for me to believe that he doesn't have self-serving interests in mind.
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Perhaps I'm alone in this line of thinking, but wouldn't firing Comey make people MORE interested in investigating alleged Russia ties - not less? I honestly don't think Trump fired him because of that - because of the timing, at the very least. And the truth lies somewhere in between Fox "news" and the New Yorker...both are extraordinarily biased sources.
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Anyone who believes Trump fired Comey for mishandling Clinton's email investigation is delusional (if this were the case why not fire him in January?).
I'm not upset that Comey is gone. I'm upset that the president fired the director of the FBI during an active investigation and gave a BS excuse for why he did it.
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@lawbee11: yes, this exactly. I think people on both sides on the aisle thought that Comey should be fired, the timing and the rationale are incredibly suspicious.
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: I agree with you 100%.
eta: What upsets me about the whole situation is that the government is supposed to work for the people. It seems incredibly self serving right now. This isn't about what party you align with or whether you're conservative or liberal. It should be about being human.
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@Adira: oh, I know that, but to see it first hand on such a monumental issue is pretty astounding.
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Here's this morning's WSJ editorial to add to the mix: https://www.wsj.com/articles/comeys-deserved-dismissal-1494380259?mod=wsj_review_&_outlook
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@Pancakes: I wish I could read it, but I'm not a subscriber. Only the first 1.5 paragraphs are visible on their site.
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@lamariniere: I posted that opinion piece on your wall - and made it private b/c I'm sure WSJ doesn't approve of copying and pasting their articles.
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@tlynne: I think it does make people more suspicious, but I don't know if Trump cares about public perception outside of his base, which is big enough to carry the amount of support he needs to stay relevant. Also, with Comey out, who would lead an investigation? You can have all the speculation in the world, but if you don't have someone willing to investigate it, then all that speculation is for naught.
I think Dems are on a wild goose chase with the Russia thing, but I also think this was a case of bad PR. But we are so balkanized socially that I don't think it will have much impact on him going forward.
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@mediagirl: thank you! It's a very interesting read, and they make good points about how Comey should have been fired much earlier. I just hope the next FBI director will not stifle the Russia investigation, and that an independent prosecutor/investigation will finally be put into place. Maybe in the end there will be no fire, but there's a heck of a lot of smoke that shouldn't be ignored or swept under the rug.
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Trump spent his campaign praising Comey on his investigation into the Hillary e-mail's. Every chance he would get he would talk about how great of a job Comey and the FBI did on it. No surprise as that very well handed him the election. And now he's pointing to that as the reasoning for firing him? It's shocking but not shocking to me that Trump thinks that we're going to believe anything other than the Russia allegations were the reasoning behind this.
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: I completely agree on your last point. DH and i have been saying for the last few months that the US is becoming more and more like a South American country. And that's not a good thing.
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@Mrs. Sketchbook: I don't think it's a wild goose chase. Russia interfered in the election, Flynn was a foreign agent for Turkey and Russia, he discussed lifting sanctions as soon as he could, which affect Tillerson whose had a lifetime of business dealings and friendship awards from Russia, numerous people from his campaign lied about meeting with the Russian ambassador, and Trumps sons who work for him have both said that they obtain their investments from Russia. And there's a start of grand jury investigation.
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@Maysprout: I don't disagree with you about all the evidence, he probably did do it, but in the court of public opinion it is all just much ado about nothing. Trump's base support hasn't changed since he got elected. If we want to hit that core of support, we have to stop talking about "palace intrigue" and start talking about core values, etc. I follow Trump's numbers and he always takes a bump when he makes unpopular domestic decisions, not when he's called out as a liar, etc. Trump's supporters are all about actions, not words or motive. Plus an impeachment would give us Pence as president and Ryan (or McConnell I guess?) would be our VP, and I actually dislike both of them more than I dislike Trump, because they are true social conservatives, while Trump is really more like an opportunist. To me, it really doesn't matter if DT is making decisions/implementing policies that are good for Russia, because most of those policies (anti environment stuff, anti free press stuff, supporting fake news, lying, etc.) is bad on its own merits even if Russia were not involved whatsoever, and I feel like when Dems get fixated on "palace intrigue" stories instead of just facing the problems head on, we lose in the court of public opinion. I would rather hear the media spend a week talking about why getting rid of the Clean Power Plan is bad for the environment instead of spending that time talking about whether or not the repeal of the CPP is good for the Russians, motivated by Russia, etc.
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@lamariniere: edit, nevermind...
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@Mrs. Sketchbook: I think the checks and balances of democracy are worth protecting, maybe that's palace intrigue but it seems fundamental.
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@Maysprout: I think I may not follow you! But I definitely agree about checks and balances. I'm pretty impressed with all the judges and bipartisan GOP members who are checking Trump, Sally Yates, and the ALT National Park, ATL EPA etc.
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I feel like we're living on a page right out of 1984. Not only does the timing of the firing seem so outrageously suspicious, but the behavior of the White House staff after the announcement was so incredibly bizarre. I mean, Sean Spicer hid in the bushes for 10 minutes before finally agreeing to answer press questions in the dark and without being recorded. Like, what IS that?!
There's not just this that's really scaring me, though. What about the arrest of the woman who laughed at Sessions during a senate hearing? I'm completely horrified by it, but I feel like NO ONE is talking about it! This is a huge deal! She faces huge fines and jail time because she snickered when someone said that Sessions has a history of treating all Americans fairly (I'm paraphrasing). I mean, that statement IS laughable - I'd have laughed to if I was in the room! But she's been convicted and might go to prison?! That's unacceptable.
America under Donald Trump and his cronies is quickly becoming a totalitarian state.
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@littlebug a journalist was just arrested while trying to question Tom Price (Secy of HHS) about Domestic Violence as a pre-existing condition.... said he was "causing a distrubance". This is all terrifying.
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Strong language but funny
https://www.themarysue.com/comey-goodbye-letter/ -
@Maysprout:
thanks for the humor!
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@Maysprout:
Perfect!
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@Mrs. Sketchbook: I am extremely impressed by your comments in this thread! i think you hit the nail smack on the head when you mention the media focus on Russia and how it's not necessarily what we should be focusing on. I think it fires up the democratic base (of course) but Trump supporters completely tune it out because we're frankly tired of hearing about how evil republicans are and we want a politician to finally take action on something instead of just over analyze it through intellectual discussion. I think if the media spent half the time they spend reporting on conceived conspiracy theories actually talking about the heart of some of these issues then you would shift a sizable portion of the republican base. Until he cuts the corporate tax rate to 15%. Lol, then "nana na na, hey hey hey, goodbye!"
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This is pretty funny: http://www.salon.com/2017/05/11/trump-comey-letter-colbert-early-drafts/
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@Mrs. Sketchbook: I watched an interesting video from the co-founder of the Tea Party. She basically said the way to speak to repubs about clean/renewable energy isn't that it's good for the environment or climate change, it's about personal choice in your energy provider. I thought it was really interesting to hear that because as a moderate, I am mostly concerned about the good for others, but some are motivated by benefit to self. I think it's important that people pay attention to that.
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@Maysprout: Ha ha, "These are your orders Jim out." Thanks for sharing, I needed that!
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@Mrs. Sketchbook: honestly nothing in this country in terms of politics makes any sense to me any longer. I try not to panic about it but its very worrying.
Perfect!
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63 comments