How badly Comey hurt Trump: President’s defenders are engaged in furious and unconvincing spin — don’t buy it
To the extent they are interested in protecting the President from his critics, Republicans have settled on a defense for Donald Trump: He has no idea what he’s doing.
That was, at least, how House Speaker Paul Ryan attempted to save Trump from himself. “The President’s new at this. He’s new at government,” Ryan said. “He’s not steeped in the long-running protocols that establish the relationships between DOJ, FBI and White Houses.”
That was the speaker’s first reaction to the testimony delivered by former FBI Director James Comey before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday, which gives you some indication of how well the affair went for the White House.
The sequence of events that Comey recounted in testimony does not paint a portrait of a naive American President, buffeted by events beyond either his control or ability to comprehend. Comey’s assertions crafted the image of a President who was eager to see the investigation into his campaign’s conduct speedily concluded on favorable terms, and this directive was reinforced through punitive measures.
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In the wake of the explosive allegations, Trump and his cronies declared him “vindicated,” even as they smeared Comey’s credibility and integrity. He’s a showboat; he’s a liar; he’s a leaker. And, in the wings, apologists have insisted that all the obsession over potential obstruction of justice is so much Washington insiderism.
It is not necessary to believe that the President committed a crime to think that he made a series of calculated decisions to achieve specific and politically advantageous ends. Indeed, it stretches the bounds of credulity to suggest the actions this President pursued were undertaken at random and entirely out of ignorance. Rather, they are revealing of his character, and of his apparent fear, for whatever reason, of what a deep dive into his campaign associates’ interactions with Russia might reveal.
What makes the administration’s attempt to call Comey a liar for contending that his firing was linked to the Russia probe so rich is that Trump himself has admitted as much. Repeatedly.
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Trump is not unaware of how powerful people can influence the course of legal affairs by their mere presence. At least, he’s aware of that dynamic when the people engaging in that kind of untoward behavior are Democrats.
“How bad a judgment is it for him or for her to do this?” Trump told a radio host when asked last year about former Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s decision to take a meeting with former President Bill Clinton while his wife was under investigation by the Justice Department. “The system is totally rigged,” he added. “Does anybody really believe that meeting was just a coincidence?”
This is no babe in the wilderness.
If they’d like, pro-Trump forces can cherry-pick some favorable headlines from Comey’s testimony, but those only mask the damage the former FBI director has done to this White House.
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But the way Comey described his reaction to this request was revelatory. He told Sen. James Lankford that he believed Lynch wanted to “align” the Clinton campaign’s language regarding the investigation with the Justice Department’s. That’s grotesque corruption, particularly considering that Lynch’s decision to take a meeting with Bill Clinton compelled her to provide the FBI director with extraordinary prosecutorial discretion in the Clinton case.
While these details are disturbing, though, they don’t have much political salience. In fact, Comey’s candor on the topic, which damns Democrats who’d been in power, only serves to underline the very credibility and integrity that Trump is desperately trying to trash.
Step back from the breathless run-up and furious spin, and it becomes clear that in his Thursday testimony, Comey set some time-delayed charges that have the potential to do some serious, long-term damage to this administration.
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With precision and subtlety, Comey spent four hours on Thursday skillfully lacerating the administration’s exculpatory narratives. The White House is slowly hemorrhaging credibility. They don’t seem to have noticed the wounds yet. When they finally do, it may be too late to save the victim.
- Discussion
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ICYMI: my op-ed in today's @NYDailyNews: Comey's subtle strikes at the WH's narrative may yet prove fatal. https://t.co/SMR8bxno3A
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) June 11, 2017
“Republicans have settled on a defense for Donald Trump: He has no idea what he’s doing.”
If so isn’t that exactly one of the reasons we urged people not to vote for Trump?
I contend that in this case however, the President knew exactly what he was doing.
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