A firing like we’ve never seen
Donald Trump mocked a disabled reporter—we'd say in the most schoolyard bully way, but that would insult schoolyard bullies. Then he denied having done anything of the sort. But we can see it online, and could from the moment he mocked said reporter. It's only a click away.
Donald Trump said he received the most electoral votes in a generation, at least since Reagan. But he didn't. We can see the numbers in a thousand stories, government records and charts. He also said he would have won the popular vote if not for massive voter fraud. Except nobody can find that, either. He even went full 6-yearold on the size of the crowd at his inauguration.
And since becoming president there have been Alternative Facts, Steve Bannon, non-existent Obama/Trump Tower wiretapping, Michael Flynn, (unsuccessful) travel bans, free commercials for Ivanka's stuff, temper tantrums, Sean Spicer's first news conference, and his last one in the bushes, the "so-called judge," and 4 a.m. tweets insulting Arnold Schwarzenegger. Is it possible that it takes only a few months to suffer from The Donald Fatigue?
President Trump has done some good things. We give you his outstanding Cabinet, approval of pipelines, and ordering the cutting of federal regulations. But all that is clouded by the constant, self-inflicted, unnecessary controversies that We the People get from the man-child in the White House.
When Donald Trump was inaugurated, many folks in the nation's commentariat said: Give the new president a chance. Some of us actually meant it. It appears that our friends on the port side of politics only meant it as long as they could point back to their statements on Jan. 20 after things finally went sideways. And therefore claim that they did all they could.
But it's hard to blame his opponents inside and out of the media when the (still new) president pulls something like the firing of James Comey.
Did the former FBI director need to go? Maybe he did. On Jan. 20. But in mid-May it appears as though the president of the United States is trying to slow an investigation that could implicate him, his administration or maybe only his former campaign. Either way-whether James Comey was a grandstanding self-promoter or just a good cop on the beat-his firing was one more self-inflicted, unnecessary controversy.
Instead of calling the director to the White House to give him the news, the president sent over a letter with a former bodyguard. Word got out at FBI headquarters. And the nation's top cop learned of his firing as he was giving a speech in Los Angeles, when televisions behind him began their crawls with the news. Word is he turned, saw what was happening, made a joke, and left for Washington. And now-this being the Trump administration--there are as many stories as to why James Comey was fired as there are folks in the administration willing to talk to the press. And every hour it seems there's a new, real, no-we-really-mean-it-this-time reason. Then the president semi-threatens to stop news conferences and suggests he has tapes of Mr. Comey, etc. etc. etc.
The president would be wise to get some adults in the room. This is much too early to talk about fatigue in any administration. The nation elected him because he promised to shake up Washington. But the voters wanted competence, too. — Arkansas Democrat-Gazette