Okay, for a guy who’s constantly yapping about how much he luvs Mozart, that is a less than classy headline, but sometimes accuracy must trump class. After all, Trump always trumps class.
It was House Speaker Paul Ryan, aka Lyin’ Paulie Ryan who first pushed this meme, claiming that Trump couldn’t break the law or violate accepted Washington protocols because he didn’t understand the concepts, backtracking a little when he realized that 1) he was essentially giving Trump license to commit murder and 2) Trump might well take him up on the offer.
But, anyway, let’s examine the “idea” on the merits. Were Trump’s actions the man who literally didn’t know that what he was doing was wrong? Well, not to keep you in suspense, the answer is “no”. If Trump didn’t know it was wrong to pressure the FBI director to do his bidding, why did he do so implicitly rather than explicitly? Why “remind” Comey that lots of people wanted his job and then say that he “expected” loyalty when he could have said “Listen, either you kiss my ass or I’m canning yours”?1 Why did Trump ask Comey if he could see his way to letting Flynn off the hook, one time clearing the room of everyone else, including Comey’s superior, Attorney General Sessions, and also, repeatedly, to publicly confirm that Trump himself was not personally under investigation when Trump could have simply announced, in his role as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, that Flynn was off the hook and, incidentally, so was he?
Furthermore, if Trump didn’t know it was “wrong” (though legal) to fire an FBI director without cause, why did he conspire with the attorney general and his deputy to create a false justification for his action?2 Why hasn’t he “demanded” that Congress impeach the federal judges who have “defied” him? Congressional actions related to impeachment of members of the executive and judicial branches are not reviewable; if the House passes articles of impeachment their validity cannot be challenged in any venue other than the Senate, and the Senate’s decision whether to approve or disapprove such articles can be challenged by no one.
Trump is a man whose whole career shows that he knows well what the law is: It’s a tool one uses to advance one’s will, without scruple or remorse. But Republicans can’t look at Trump, because then they would have to look at what they themselves have become.
- Only very brave Republicans note how, well, grotesquely inappropriate it was for Trump to speak with Comey on nine occasions in a little over four months (three in person and six over the phone), repeatedly bringing up the same investigation–one that, of course, affected the White House intimately–when President Obama only spoke to Comey twice, once when Comey took office and then when Obama left it. Only suicidal Republicans acknowledge that if Obama had exercised as his “right” as president to dismiss Comey for no reason at all the Republican House of Representatives would have immediately impeached him, voting along strict party lines, even though the Senate probably would not have found him guilty (voting on strict party lines once more). ↩︎
- Comey’s testimony again reminds us of the disgraceful behavior of both Deputy Attorney General Rod “Nice Jewish Boy” Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff “Mendacious Southern Prick” Sessions, both of whom should resign. What’s truly remarkable is that both men thought it was a good idea to dismiss Comey on the grounds that his incompetence had caused the Bureau to lose confidence him, surely the most insulting thing one could say about a bureaucrat, and the thing most likely to provoke a desire for revenge. I have no doubt that Sessions is deeply corrupt and will be delighted ot learn more. Rosenstein appears to be a careerist time-server pure and simple. ↩︎
