Comey’s word Trumped by president’s double-speak
If it all boils down to interpretation, as I believe it will, in the war of words between President Trump and fired FBI chief James B. Comey, then Comey definitely got Trumped. And that should be scary. Why would the head of the FBI not probe for more clarity in a statement he found troublesome in a private conversation with Trump, rather than just rely on gut instincts to interpret what he thought it meant? Why not just say, “Mr. President, I am not sure what you mean,” or “what are you asking me to do?”
Instincts are good barometers. As a mother, I swear by my maternal instincts. But in no way do they make up for good old-fashioned clarification — and unchecked instincts can lead to injustices, as they have in the past. I am reminded of former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s wayward instincts to wiretap black leaders like James Baldwin, members of the Black Panther Party, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, simply because he thought black leadership was subversive.
Now Comey is no J. Edgar Hoover. He seems to be a standup guy, and transparent. But he made some bizarre moves before he was fired — like when he contributed to Hillary Clinton’s loss by publicly reopening the email investigation a week before the election.
But Trump shouldn’t get a pass. Rushing to his defense, House Speaker Paul Ryan said Trump is in this mess because he isn’t a politician and doesn’t know the ways of Washington. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, but frankly I don’t think anyone gives a damn. Trump is the leader of the free world, he shouldn’t need you to clarify what he means.
Shouldn’t we be worried by a president’s so-called language deficits, style and the loopholes they create by lending themselves to constant interpretation of his words and their meaning? Trump has long been in the business of taking advantage of loopholes. By giving him passes because he’s new to the ways of Washington or doesn’t speak the language positions him to get away with a lot more.
At times his words have been downright insulting, like his open mic moment with TV host Billy Bush. Yet Trump became president. In the end, some women didn’t seem too bothered by the conversation about sexual assault. Final election tallies showed that white women, the very demographic who should have been the most insulted, gave him his margin of victory. There are a few ways to interpret that baffling outcome, but none is pleasant.
You have to give it to our president, he is a master of manipulation. His words to Comey were sufficiently unclear and nonspecific to be interpreted in a variety of ways. And if that’s not political-speak or the double-speak that permeates Washington these days, I don’t know what is.