Frankly, I warned that Trump would channel Nixon in this impeachable fashion.
FBI Director James B. Comey has been dismissed by the president, according to White House spokesman Sean Spicer – a startling move that officials said stemmed from a conclusion by Justice Department officials that he had mishandled the probe of Hillary Clinton’s emails.
Comey was fired as he is leading a counterintelligence investigation to determine whether associates of President Trump may have coordinated with Russia to meddle with the presidential election last year.
(Washington Post, May 9, 2017)
This is not complicated folks. In fact, it might suffice to note that only one other president in US history had the authoritarian gall to fire the public officials investigating his alleged high crimes and misdemeanors. That president, of course, was Richard M. Nixon – who infamously justified his authoritarian behavior as follows:
Well, when the President does it, that means that it is not illegal.
(Frost/Nixon Interview, May 1977)
I have repeatedly lamented the cognitive dissonance that has “normalized” Trump’s Orwellian lies and Nixonian behavior. It’s only in this context that it makes any sense for Trump to claim that he’s firing Comey for mishandling the probe of Hillary’s e-mails.
After all, this is the same Trump who spent much of his campaign not only hailing Comey for his handling of that probe (notwithstanding his refusal to prosecute), but also making political hay of the damning findings Comey shared in his controversial July 5, 2016 news conference.
Alas, brazen lies, contradictions, and hypocrisies have become routine features of his presidency – just as they were of his campaign. Indeed, firing Director Comey to restore public confidence in the FBI, as Trump claims, is every bit as Orwellian as throwing journalists in jail to protect the freedom of the press.
This is why I can only reiterate my forlorn hope that Republican politicians will stand up to Trump (beginning with a clarion call for a special prosecutor) – just as they stood up to Nixon, and thereby precipitated his downfall.
Here, for example, is what I wrote in “Intelligence Report on Russian Hacking of Presidential Election,” January 7, 2017.
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Trump’s continued, Manchurian-like deflection of blame from Putin’s Russia, while imputing it Democrats, constitutes one of many seeds already germinating for impeachment proceedings. And he has yet to be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States.
Speaker Paul Ryan is leading a chorus of Republican leaders in singing Trump’s praises. But their resentment over his bull-in-a-China-shop run to the White House is palpable.
Therefore, don’t be surprised if they seize the first opportunity to impeach and replace him with Vice President-elect Mike Pence — who Republicans and Democrats alike consider far more fit to serve as president … for a litany of well-documented reasons. And, given Trump’s Nixonian inclination to punish his enemies, to say nothing of his Clintonian inclination to enrich himself, he is bound to provide all kinds of opportunities for them to do so.
(“WTF! President-elect Donald J. Trump?! America. What. Have. You. Done.” The iPINIONS Journal, November 10, 2016)
Mind you, Trump would be lucky if his presidency ends with impeachment. After all, he insinuated throughout his presidential campaign that Hillary’s would end with a “Second Amendment remedy” if she were elected.
In any event, one cannot overstate the significance of Democrats and Republicans venting near unanimous support for the findings in this report, as well as for the categorical imperative of retaliating against Russia. Hence Trump really is “an island” — albeit one that can affect lives, for good or ill, on every continent of the world.
Stay tuned, folks.
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I fear the worst is yet to come. But I’m convinced that, when all is said and done, Republican loyalty to country will trump loyalty to this president.
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