Politico reports
President Donald Trump on Thursday said he may change his position to not be involved with the Justice Department’s sprawling probe into whether his campaign colluded with Russia to meddle in the 2016 presidential election.
“Because of the fact that they have this witch hunt going on with people in the Justice Department that shouldn't be there, they have a witch hunt against the president of the United States going on, I‘ve taken the position, and I don't have to take this position, and maybe I'll change, that I will not be involved with the Justice Department,” Trump said in a wide-ranging interview with "Fox & Friends" on Thursday morning.
“I will wait until this is over. It is a total, it is all lies and it is a horrible thing that is going on, a horrible thing,” the president continued.
Well, yes, his presidency is a horrible thing- but it can get much worse.
The President's rhetorical shift, the threat to become directly involved in the Special Counsel's probe, is a precursor to a (unlikely) second term. It is one of the ways in which he has chosen to warn us of what is coming, if he is allowed to have his way.
Generally defending former FBI director James Comey in the lawfare blog, Benjamin Wittes has written
I believed that Trump would fire Comey because it was clear who Trump is, and I knew who Comey is. I had a feeling they could not coexist. A tyranny cannot have independent law enforcement and remain an effective tyranny. A would-be tyrant thus must purge government of law enforcement that would be independent. He simply must get the law enforcement apparatus under his control—that is, protecting his friends and himself and arrayed against his enemies. I did not know who would be the Trump administration’s attorney general or deputy attorney general. But I knew that Trump would not be able to get law enforcement under his control with Comey in office—so I worried that he would remove Comey sooner or later. That this came to pass, and quickly, is not a reflection of my prescience. It is a reflection of what Comey, in his testimony to the Senate intelligence committee, called “the nature of the person.”
On Air Force One earlier this month, Trump argued he had nothing to do with the payoff to Stormy Daniels, claiming "You’ll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my attorney. You’ll have to ask Michael.” On the Fox and Friends segment, President Trump reversed course and admittted "He (Cohen) represents me, like with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal, he represented me."
Comey maintained in his memoranda that Trump told him that he did not stay overnight in Moscow during the 2013 Miss America pageant. Evidence has mounted, however, that Trump stayed through at least one night and today Grump shifted significantly his story: "I stayed there a very short period of time but of course I stayed. Well, his memo said I left immediately. I never said that. I never said I left immediately."
Donald Trump lies and does so effortlessly, but also can turn on a dime. Today he denigrates the FBI and the "deep state" but if re-elected, may use the FBI as his private police force and ingratiate himself seemlessly into whatever the heck the "deep state" is.
He'll do that because
A tyranny cannot have independent law enforcement and remain an effective tyranny. A would-be tyrant thus must purge government of law enforcement that would be independent. He simply must get the law enforcement apparatus under his control—that is, protecting his friends and himself and arrayed against his enemies.
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President Donald Trump on Thursday said he may change his position to not be involved with the Justice Department’s sprawling probe into whether his campaign colluded with Russia to meddle in the 2016 presidential election.
“Because of the fact that they have this witch hunt going on with people in the Justice Department that shouldn't be there, they have a witch hunt against the president of the United States going on, I‘ve taken the position, and I don't have to take this position, and maybe I'll change, that I will not be involved with the Justice Department,” Trump said in a wide-ranging interview with "Fox & Friends" on Thursday morning.
“I will wait until this is over. It is a total, it is all lies and it is a horrible thing that is going on, a horrible thing,” the president continued.
Well, yes, his presidency is a horrible thing- but it can get much worse.
The President's rhetorical shift, the threat to become directly involved in the Special Counsel's probe, is a precursor to a (unlikely) second term. It is one of the ways in which he has chosen to warn us of what is coming, if he is allowed to have his way.
Generally defending former FBI director James Comey in the lawfare blog, Benjamin Wittes has written
I believed that Trump would fire Comey because it was clear who Trump is, and I knew who Comey is. I had a feeling they could not coexist. A tyranny cannot have independent law enforcement and remain an effective tyranny. A would-be tyrant thus must purge government of law enforcement that would be independent. He simply must get the law enforcement apparatus under his control—that is, protecting his friends and himself and arrayed against his enemies. I did not know who would be the Trump administration’s attorney general or deputy attorney general. But I knew that Trump would not be able to get law enforcement under his control with Comey in office—so I worried that he would remove Comey sooner or later. That this came to pass, and quickly, is not a reflection of my prescience. It is a reflection of what Comey, in his testimony to the Senate intelligence committee, called “the nature of the person.”
On Air Force One earlier this month, Trump argued he had nothing to do with the payoff to Stormy Daniels, claiming "You’ll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my attorney. You’ll have to ask Michael.” On the Fox and Friends segment, President Trump reversed course and admittted "He (Cohen) represents me, like with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal, he represented me."
Comey maintained in his memoranda that Trump told him that he did not stay overnight in Moscow during the 2013 Miss America pageant. Evidence has mounted, however, that Trump stayed through at least one night and today Grump shifted significantly his story: "I stayed there a very short period of time but of course I stayed. Well, his memo said I left immediately. I never said that. I never said I left immediately."
Donald Trump lies and does so effortlessly, but also can turn on a dime. Today he denigrates the FBI and the "deep state" but if re-elected, may use the FBI as his private police force and ingratiate himself seemlessly into whatever the heck the "deep state" is.
He'll do that because
A tyranny cannot have independent law enforcement and remain an effective tyranny. A would-be tyrant thus must purge government of law enforcement that would be independent. He simply must get the law enforcement apparatus under his control—that is, protecting his friends and himself and arrayed against his enemies.
Share |
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