Breaking FBI Directored fired by President

eastcoast_bsc said:

long overdue.

News from The Associated Press

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Comment, ppl? I'm not even American, so I don't know.

On a par with President Nixon's firing of CIA Director Richard Helms in 1972?

eastcoast_bsc said:

Comey has a lot of enemies on both sides of the aisle.

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In the way that things are done, it seems that a firing in such circumstances - "announced that so-and-so has been fired, and now they have started looking for someone else to replace him" - might have happened in a less than happy - in fact, tense - atmosphere.

Usually the way these things are done is that everyone brushes up with Colgate, and a smiling Cabinet member or President stands with a smiling departee and a smiling newcomer to the office in question, and speeches are made to the effect of how good everyone is.

The way President John F. Kennedy fired Allen Dulles as CIA Director and appointed John McCone in his place was a masterpiece of grace and tact.

Dulles was blamed for the Bay of Pigs - a rather major event, which repercussions for decades, yet JFK chose to ease him out and his successor in with grace.

I suppose each occupant of the Oval Office has his own style of doing things.

jfklibrary dot org

eastcoast_bsc said:

Comey sins where poor decorum , ex. When he spoke out publically regarding the Hillary investigation. That was not his place. Especially his condescending attitude toward the current president.

There was also talk that the rank and file had lost confidence in him.

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I can see your point, in that the FBI Director is an official of the Executive branch, albeit as very senior one, serving the President in office.

When it comes to JFK's relationship with his CIA Director Allen Dulles, there is plenty of indication that they were on cordial terms - on the surface.

Yet also it's probably true to say that this relationship was so deep and obscure and complex that the real truth will never be known. One of veteran CIA man E. Howard Hunt's more memorable quotes - referring to another President and his relationship with senior officials - is 'the darkness reaching out for the darkness'.

It all boils down really to the nature of CIA and FBI: the obscure complexities of their relationship with the Oval Office are probably inevitable and crafted by centuries of subtle hardball procedure, with throwbacks to Nathan Hale and even Cardinal Richelieu.



jfklibrary dot org

Things could be about to get very exciting...or depressing...

Genersis said:

Things could be about to get very exciting...or depressing...

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Of course, you guys in the UK - as up here in Canada - don't have a system based on the separation of power, like in the US. I think part of the specific background in the US to the firing of Director Comey is that as a senior member of the Executive Branch of government it is alleged that he made unacceptably controversial public statements about Administration figures and a Presidential candidate, if I understand correctly.

Addendum: rather than President Nixon's firing of CIA Director Helms in '72, attempts are being made to compare President Trump's firing of FBI Director Comey with the Saturday Night Massacre of '73, when Watergate Special Prosecutor Cox (followed by the resignation of his two most senior deputies) was fired by President Nixon.

Here's a 40 year Retrospective with Bob Woodward and others about the Saturday Night Massacre, FYI:

The Democrats hated Comey. But now they are decrying that he was fired.

They attack President Trump no matter what he does.

You cannot convince me Trump did this in some sort of dumb move to make the Russia investigation go away. Wanna bet he tries to put one of his cronies on the spot? My money's on Giuliani.

LivingWordUnity said:

The Democrats hated Comey. But now they are decrying that he was fired.

They attack President Trump no matter what he does.

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You mean like Republicans did with Obama?

You reap what you sow...

Antigone said:

You mean like Republicans did with Obama?

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Republican opinion of Obama has been consistent.

So it's not like the extreme flip flopping that we are seeing with Democrat's opinion of Comey.

They go from demanding he be fired to being outraged he was fired.

LivingWordUnity said:

The Democrats hated Comey. But now they are decrying that he was fired.

They attack President Trump no matter what he does.

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You can't let any event go unexploited. If Trump had come out yesterday praising Comey up and down and all around, the Democrats would have come out just as loud and just as negative about that hypothetical event.

The Democrats have honed negativity to a fine point. That said, the Republicans are good at negativity as well. It bodes very badly for democracy continuing on much longer. Which may be just fine with the Democrats as they seem to want a constitutional crisis (Rep. Ellison) that they can exploit until they get the revolution.

I've already heard rhetoric about Trump being a dictator. Now I didn't vote for him but the rhetoric against him is crazy talk. If anything, Trump looks way more reasonable than the leftist hate mongers who have become apoplectic since his election. I never thought I could put the words 'Trump' and 'reasonable' together, but in comparison to the apoplectic mob, they fit.

The Democrats would have attacked President Trump if he wouldn't have acted fast enough in firing Comey after receiving the letter from Rod Rosenstein that recommended it.

LivingWordUnity said:

The Democrats would have attacked President Trump if he wouldn't have acted fast enough in firing Comey after receiving the letter from Rod Rosenstein that recommended it.

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For sure. They don't let any opportunity for an attack pass unexploited. They are a party unfit to govern. Not sure the Republicans are fit to govern either. That's why I'm looking at American Solidarity Party as a possibility. Do they have the oomph to govern? Not sure. But at this point they look better and better as the other parties look worse and worse.

I've stayed out of this forum for quite a while, and until today, didn't even lurk. I dropped by to see what was being said about this and was neither surprised nor disappointed. But to spend all of your time pointing out that the Democrats didn't like Comey and now they do is completely irrelevant, and the Democrats' position is very understandable based on actual events. It's like you are saying that since the Democrats were upset when he decided to announce that he had reopened the investigation on Hillary, we should hate him for all eternity no matter what he does in the future. We liberals don't think that way.
We were suspect of his motives on October 27th. We voiced our displeasure. Then we agreed that the Trump campaign's coziness with Putin should be investigated. Now we are suspect over TRUMP'S motivation over firing him just as that investigation was ramping up. Those of us old enough to remember the early 70s have seen this before. We have every reason to question it and to decry Trump for firing the man investigating him.
This business of whining because we are "inconsistent" is completely ignorant of actual events.

Why can't Democrats and others just agree? They don't want to agree in the other politics forum threads either. Yes Trump's timing is suspect. Yes the Democrats are hypocrites. That's it. But I will say this. After Comey's testimony the other day, Sessions wasn't left much choice. So one can argue, it's Comey's timing coming out with more evidence of Hillary and CO's guilt.

I posted this in the general politics board, but it's even more relevant to where the conversation is headed here:

Observe the reaction on the Colbert show when he announces that Comey has been fired:


Colbert explains the cheering as meaning that his audience is full to the brim with Trump supporters, but given his constant rants against President Trump, does anyone believe that to be true for an instant? Note as well that by the end of the clip the audience is cheering and booing at the approved spots.

So what happened? Why did they cheer?

Because they had out of date information. As Colbert notes, the news happened literal minutes before the show was shot. Thus the audience would have been waiting in line and in the seats when it happened; and likely would have gotten next to no information about it. Thus, as far as they knew, the narrative was still that Comey was an evil kingmaker who intentionally abused his position to cost Hillary the election. They had no way of knowing that the updated narrative was that Comey was a director with a spotless record who was fired by President Trump for no legitimate reason.

It's a lesson to learn well: in modern politics the difference between being on the right side of history and under the bus could very well be whether or not you checked the approved narrative today.

FBI investigations do not change when the director is fired. Whatever investigations are in process will continue.
The Assistant Attorney General, who's job it is to recommend what to do with the FBI director, was only confirmed a couple weeks ago. Enough time to make a recommendation... which was to fire him.

By the way... The now interim leader of the FBI is a democrat. His wife is a donor to Hillary. If Trump was worried about anything he would fire everyone. But, since there is nothing to worry about... he didn't.

There is no scandal here. It is, in fact, fake news.

Many people on the left like to eat this stuff up. Which is too bad.