On Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey: We have traversed similar territory before. I was 17 and 18 when the Nixon administration was coming apart. I remember where I was on the evening of October 20, 1973, known as the Saturday Night Massacre, when Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy AG William Ruckelshaus resigned rather than obey President Nixon’s order to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archbald Cox. The dirty deed was finally done by Solicitor General Robert Bork. When the news came over my high school debate coach’s car radio, I was thrilled because it was instantly clear that Nixon’s days were numbered. Of course the details here are different, but Russiagate now will only heat up.
Trump was an idiot to mention in his dismissal letter how pleased he was that Comey had told him he was not the target of an investigation. Forget about whether that was an accurate characterization. Trump couldn’t resist signaling that he was thinking entirely about his own interests. It reeks of coverup.
We might as well address this now: those of you who have been saying, “No impeachment, because Pence is worse,” might want to get out of the way before you are run over. Like it or not, that is at best a secondary consideration. Sure Pence is horrible (he was terrible as governor of Indiana on LGBT and women’s issues, for example), but we’re not in the driver’s seat. And let’s be honest: nobody has said that Trump is the only problem in this administration. We are all well aware that our troubles will not be over when he is gone. So fasten your seat belts.