In reading one
of these articles, I learned, to my dismay, that half the U.S. population
was born after 1979. So, if the above is
opaque to you, read
the Wikipedia entry on the Saturday Night Massacre. I'll wait.
Back?
Ok, so why did Trump go full Nixonian and fire Comey? I know, he's given at least five different
reasons so far. Wait until his next
Tweet or interview and there will be a new one.
It's not the Russia enquiry.
Trump has viewed that as an annoying mosquito buzzing around him without
any chance of it biting him. He wishes
he could slap it dead but he has no fear of it in part because he is a man
incapable of believing he has ever done wrong.
He's happy to sacrifice others as needed—like firing Flynn when then Acting
Attorney General Yates warned him that Flynn could be blackmailed over his
Russian contact lies. No, it's not the
FBI's Russia investigation that goaded Trump into firing Comey, not that it
helped. Nor was it Comey's
dismissal of Trump's wiretapping claim, although that put him on thin
ice. It was one word:
"nauseous".
When Comey told the Senate Judiciary
Committee that he was "mildly
nauseous" that his announcement about the Clinton email investigation
could have affected the election, Trump was outraged. Trump, you see, isn't interested in
non-partisan or apolitical government officials.
He isn't even interested in parties, policy preferences, norms, laws, or
institutions (I could go on…..). Like a
petty third world autocrat, he
is focused on personal loyalty, full stop.
He interpreted the Clinton email announcement that helped swing a close
election as a personal favour, an endorsement of his candidacy. It would never cross Trump's mind, nor could
he comprehend it if someone explained it to him, that Comey may have been
acting, however blunderingly, in a way he believed to be nonpartisan and
dictated by the obligations of his role.
Likewise, Trump never interpreted the Russia investigation as a
nonpartisan endeavour by the FBI. He has
repeatedly asserted that it's nothing more than Democrat sour grapes and sought
Comey's personal loyalty and assurance that it was a mere formality. True, he was increasingly frustrated that
Comey would not swear unconditional loyalty to His Serene Highness but it was
the "nauseous" comment, and that alone, that precipitated the firing.
Everything that diehard Trump
supporters say is disturbing—and, to borrow a term, more than mildly nauseating—but
I've been particularly alarmed by their uncritical embrace of the loyalty
concept. They say that Deputy Attorney
General Rosenstein better not appoint a special prosecutor, and that Congress must
not do so either, because that would be disloyal to Trump. The implications of that reasoning are
chilling.
They have also expressed disdain for Democrats
denouncing Comey's dismissal after calling for his head in October. Trump himself was clearly
not expecting that Democrats would have any objections, with White House
spokesweasel Sarah Huckabee Sanders snapping, “How could he have, considering the fact that most of the people
declaring war today were the very ones that were begging for Director Comey to
be fired?” I
myself wished President Obama could have fired Comey then but I was under no illusion
that he could do so as the appearance of partisanship would have been beyond
the pale. I'm no fan of Comey and I
doubt many Democrats are sorry to see him out of the job but that's not remotely
the point. The reason that all sane people,
Democrats or not, are appalled by his dismissal is its obvious partisanship and
attempt at obstruction of justice. Trump
fired for disloyalty an official whose job demands rigid nonpartisanship. Trump's supporters are incapable of seeing
that Comey's sacking sets an alarming precedent and is a dangerous abuse of
power that overshadows any personal opinions about the official himself.
Better get yourself a bucket because it's
going to get much worse before it gets better.
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