Most news media and the entire Democratic Party has concluded that President Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey was a corrupt effort to quash an investigation into his campaign and administration, and to protect himself politically and legally.
Anything's possible, but there is scant evidence to support the suspicion so far. The one thing certain about that firing of Comey was that it would produce a firestorm and stoke suspicion about collusion with Russia. So the suggestion it was done to make the investigation go away is implausible on its face.
The Comey firing so far looks more like a replay of Trump's first travel ban, in January — a controversial but justifiable decision executed incompetently, bolstering opponents' charges of bad motives.
This has become a tiring and distressing pattern that the Trump administration follows too often.
The president's handling of Comey's dismissal isn't just a matter of bad appearances. He simply sent a letter to FBI headquarters. Comey wasn't there and saw news of his execution on television monitors while he gave a recruiting lecture across the country. Trump's letter also included a weird and tasteless self-congratulatory line about himself not being under investigation.
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01.17.2025