Comey kerfuffle is conspiracy to bring down the president
No sooner had President Donald Trump fired James Comey — the embattled FBI director once condemned by Republicans and Democrats alike — than Trump foes and the mainstream media summoned the ghost of Richard Nixon. The termination, so goes the Tricky Dick talking points, smacks of the “Saturday Night Massacre” when Nixon ordered the firing of independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox.
“Didn’t you know you’re supposed to wait til Saturday night to massacre people investigating you?” quipped John Podesta, the former chairman of Hillary Clinton’s failed campaign. Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts lamented that “[t]his episode is disturbingly reminiscent of the Saturday Night Massacre during the Watergate scandal and the national turmoil that it caused.”
Republican critics of Trump piled on, too. Sen. John McCain of Arizona claimed he was “disappointed” by the decision to dump Comey. The leading Never-Trumper Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska put on a tinfoil hat by suggesting “the timing of this firing is very troubling.”
But should the timing of the termination be a cause for concern? Has Trump willingly brought on the Nixon comparison by firing a man who was investigating potential Russian interference in the 2016 election?
When Nixon gave the order to throw Cox from the train, the walls were closing in on the Oval Office. Congressional hearings and Cox’s investigation were long underway and producing credible evidence of wrongdoing. And, more important, Cox’s record as a competent investigator was never in doubt. Fast-forward to 2016, and the differences between Cox and Comey are that of night and day.
There is no hard evidence suggesting Trump officials were working with Moscow to tamper with the 2016 election. Fired acting Attorney General Sally Yates was supposed to provide new evidence about Russia and Trump. Instead, she fell flat.
In addition, Comey had routinely failed at the FBI. Although his handling of Clinton’s email investigation was universally panned by Republicans and Democrats, this was not his only shortcoming as FBI director.
He oversaw an embarrassing spat with Apple when he tried to get the tech giant to create a “backdoor” for law enforcement to access terror suspects’ phones.
Comey’s FBI also investigated Omar Mateen before the terrorist attacked Orlando’s Pulse nightclub. Though Mateen admitted lying to FBI agents, the FBI closed the case.
Comey’s inability to handle investigations is why Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York said that he did “not have confidence in him any longer.” It is why House Speaker Paul Ryan claimed Comey set a “terrible precedent.” It is why he is no Archibald Cox.
Comey did the impossible: At one point in his tenure at the FBI, he had Republicans and Democrats united in calling him a disaster. So if members of both political parties were Doubting Thomases when it came to Comey, why is The New York Times leading with the headline “In Trump’s Firing of James Comey, Echoes of Watergate”?
Make no mistake; this faux crisis has nothing to do with the timing of Comey’s termination. Do we really believe that Democrats would be crying foul if Clinton had won the election and gave Comey the boot? Remember, before the Russians most Democrats blamed Comey’s 11th-hour decision to re-open Hillary’s email investigation for costing her the election.
Nor is Comey’s firing about fears of Watergate 2.0. Although there is some evidence Russia may have meddled in the election, there is no evidence that Moscow was working with Trump. That is a huge distinction lost on Trump critics.
The Comey controversy, however, is exposing an active conspiracy to bring down a president at all costs and, ironically, tamper with the 2016 election results. Trump foes are using Comey as a means to an end to undermine, resist and remove Trump. And if it was not Comey yesterday, it would be something else today.
Doubt this? Even before Trump raised his hand to take the Oath of Office, Democrats were calling for his impeachment. Our nation is in crisis, but the crisis is caused by those who would rather take down a president than admit they lost.