But why fire Comey now? The answer is simple. The day before, President Barack Obama’s former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper repeated, under oath, what he told NBC News’ Chuck Todd on Meet the Press on March 5 — that he had seen no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. That gave the Trump administration the breathing room to dismiss Comey — which it simply did not have before.I heard somewhere that Sean Spicer was asked about Trump's faith in Comey a week ago and Spicer was like: "Oh, I haven't asked him recently." Which was a weird thing to say, in hindsight.
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
Why now?
I guess this is as good an explanation as any, although I've also heard that the Comey firing correlated with the installation of Rosenstein at Justice:
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Politico reports the obvious: despite "Mr. Comey breaking with longstanding tradition and policies by discussing the case and chastising the Democratic presidential nominee’s “careless” handling of classified information," this isn't about Comey's former cheerleader Trump belatedly discovering his displeasure for the way the FBI Director handled his job last summer:
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/10/comey-firing-trump-russia-238192
Behind Comey’s firing: An enraged Trump, fuming about Russia
[Trump] had grown enraged by the Russia investigation, two advisers said, frustrated by his inability to control the mushrooming narrative around Russia. He repeatedly asked aides why the Russia investigation wouldn’t disappear and demanded they speak out for him. He would sometimes scream at television clips about the probe, one adviser said.
...Trump had grown angry with the Russia investigation — particularly Comey admitting in front of the Senate that the FBI was investigating his campaign — and that the FBI director wouldn't support his claims that President Barack Obama had tapped his phones in Trump Tower.
...In his letter dismissing Comey, Trump said the FBI director had given him three private assurances that he wasn't under investigation. The White House declined to say when those conversations happened — or why Comey would volunteer such information. It is not the first time Trump has publicly commented on an ongoing investigation — typically a no-no for presidents. He said earlier this month that Comey had done Clinton a favor by letting her off easy.
...Other people familiar with the events said Trump had talked about the firing for over a week, and the letters were written to give him rationale to fire Comey.
Or, another view:
https://twitter.com/ianbremmer/status/862074820732891136
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