Comey Day ended up being a very odd day. People had wildly different expectations depending on where they fall on the political spectrum. Personally, I didn’t expect James Comey to walk into the Capitol wearing a suit made of receipts. And yet I did expect to see Donald Trump in full-on meltdown tantrum mode at some point during the day. It didn’t happen. Trump’s baby-carrot-sized Twitter fingers stayed silent all day. His son, Don Jr., did a lot of tantrum-tweeting, and Trump’s lawyer came out and made a nonsensical argument, of course. But no tweets… until this morning:
Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication…and WOW, Comey is a leaker!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2017
Great reporting by @foxandfriends and so many others. Thank you!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2017
Again, Comey is not a “leaker” in the sense that Trump means. Comey was clear about why he authorized one leak, which came after Trump tweeted about those “tapes.” As for the “false statements and lies,” lawmakers tell Politico that Emperor Bigly is free to come to Capitol Hill and testify under oath about his own recollection of his meetings with James Comey.
As for why Trump stayed so quiet yesterday, the Washington Post reports that Trump was finally convinced by staff and family members to let other people do the heavy lifting on “discrediting” Comey. Trump’s senior aides convinced Bigly to “stay cool and lie low” and let his lawyer handle everything. Here’s a funny sentence from WaPo: “Trump watched some of Comey’s testimony in the morning with legal and political advisers in a small dining room off the Oval Office outfitted with a 60-inch television, but his aides also scheduled counterprogramming in the form of meetings and public events.” As in, Bigly’s aides still have to organize busy-work for the toddler president so he doesn’t rage-tweet at everyone and everything.
Oh, and you guys heard Speaker Paul Ryan’s defense of Trump, right? Eddie Munster said: “He’s new to government. And so he probably wasn’t steeped in the long-running protocols that establish the relationships between DOJ, FBI, and White Houses. He’s just new to this.” Think about that. Think about that statement as a defense good and hard. Think about what Republicans would have said if that excuse had ever been used for any Democrat.
An early look at next week's cover, "Modern Times," by Barry Blitt: https://t.co/VzD3PlLncq pic.twitter.com/5MpGu7mZ7a
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) June 9, 2017
Photos courtesy of Pacific Coast News, cover courtesy of the New Yorker..
You literally cannot claim that you’ve been vindicated by someone’s statement and then call that person a liar in the same breath. It literally, logically, is not possible. I will stand up for reality at any cost. F*ck you, Donald.
Which reality? The real reality or the alternative facts reality?
Trump totally contradicts himself all the time. That’s a problem when he tweets right away before thinking twice
Shambles, you took the words right out of my mouth. “I’ve been vidicated by this liar!” uhhh, okay there DonDon.
THE HYPOCRISY. I seriously cannot take it anymore. His former campaign manager was on the morning show today and he was getting so caught up in his evasive lies, it was unreal to watch.
How about Ms Hucklebee-Sanders, she didn’t have the guts to say it on camera but gave a verbal response to the press that Trump is NOT a liar. Sure Jan, that’s why you are hiding your face. Might as well join Spicer hiding behind the WH bushes!
Actually it is possible (emphasis on possible.) i am not a Trump fan (I’m Team Comey) But Comey testified several hours on several issues. I assume Trump feels vindicated on the election collusion with Russia issue. He may feel like comey lied on another issue. Do I think so? Nope. I’ve felt Comey to be a man of integrity all along including his handling of HRC issues.
But it is literally possible.
Maybeytomorrow- your argument would only work if Trump wasn’t claiming complete and total vindication. That’s literally impossible if there were any lies at all.
Not sure I interpret it that way, but I’m so used to trumps hyperbolic language on everything and anything that I just discount it automatically. This is all parsing and semantics anyway because I am team comey across the board (which is rare for me) and I think Trump is usually a buffoon.
VINDICATED BY A LIAR! This is for real and true Orwellian 1984 “doublespeak”! It’s impossibly disturbing that so many people will be fooled. That’s the Donald’s MO – he fools the uneducated. The “elites” have it down – but there are fools among us who feed on “reality” TV – fools who are willing to vote against their own interests – because he is a “man” with a cover-model wife? Drumph doesn’t just drive a red pick-up – he has a helicopter. People are looking at commercials to tell them what they need and want and they are voting for who has the hype. The dishonesty that simple people cannot see thru – because they believe the red pick-up will do them good for their own self-image. People who voted for Donald have an image problem.
+100
He doesn’t care if the statement is nonsensical because he gets to brag and bully at the same time.
It is so incredibly depressing to think about how much damage has been done and will be done before we get rid of this piece of trash. I hope history remembers all of the traitorous GOP members who let this happen to our country.
Idk. I think they have party loyalty and are defending the selection of the voters who elected this man president. Crazed lunatic? Imho yes, but he was freaking elected acting no different now than he did on the trail. Talk about damage control. To what extent does the GOP do damage control vs letting it play out, vs trying to oust him?
I hear you – but the GOP is playing with fire. Fire is big – it goes out of control in an instant – you can’t play with it – nor can you control such a destructive force – How Dare They?! So much can be lost in an instant! It’s not just about voters – voters believe that the Congress will protect them because they are considered more educated, and more aware of the dangers – but NO!
Ideology is not the problem – it is the vigilantes that care about nothing but ideas.
Example: Being in a college classroom where ideas are debated – without rancor, or you would lose the debate. Paul Ryan has no guts for the real! He protects ideas, rather than our countrymen. He raises commercials to pre-empt reality, which is the total of the Donald, in one sound bite. It’s very, very clever to play to the commercials we watch over and over and over, telling us each day how to spend our money.
So true. I don’t think our country will ever be the same after this. He is obvious in his corruption, and the GOP’s enabling is so disturbing.
Republican logic:
A 70 year old billionaire should be given help and a huge learning curve to figure things out.
But a poor single mother who lost her job and needs assistance to get back of her feet – F**K HER!
Yep. This. So much this.
The truth behind this one comment makes me want to cry…
Right? Why would you want to give a single mother living in this country the opportunity to help contribute to our economy in a positive way? It’s just better to let them struggle. I don’t have the answer for the problem but I’ve been the struggling mother. We have an economy that makes it hard for people of a certain income level to work with kids because they make decent money but it’s not enough to afford childcare…so you end up having to NOT work just to feed your babies…the cost of daycare is more than your income.
Yeah, and they are so protective of all unborn children, but to heck with helping them after birth.
People have empathy, I have heard, for others who look like them? White men for white men.
Also, An article in WaPo discussed the difficulty of affording 2 bedroom rent in most of the US for single parents, and the first article comment said “easy solution, don’t have two children With a dud” and I wanted to scream. Like “don’t get abused, don’t get harassed, don’t be a woman, don’t be a victim” are easy solutions
Why is there no ‘Are you fit to be president?’ test that candidates have to sit to work out if they have any idea about the political structure in the US? That’s where the extreme vetting should be done.
And of course he’s thanking Fox News.
Not only if that “he’s new” defense was used on a democrat, but come on…he was elected with complete understanding by his voters that had had literally 0 experience in politics…him being new is no excuse.
They legit used that as criticism of Obama. A guy who was a lawyer, a professor that taught law and government classes, was the editor of the Harvard Law Review and senator.
GOP is f*cking ridiculous
Yeah, I remember Sarah Palin scoffing at Obama’s lack of experience. The irony is like a gut punch.
*sobs*
And if a person is charged with engaging in criminal activity, you can’t say “oops, sorry, I didn’t know that was illegal.” Ingnorance of the law is not a valid legal defense. A judge will laugh at you. So being “new to the job” won’t help Donny boy if/when he is charged with any crimes.
Trump knew it was wrong. If he was just too naive to realize how inappropriate it was, then he would have said it in front of the others originally in the room. I’m sure Trump has been having such chats to get special favors frequently in his life, and he knows to do it one on one and behind closed doors. Is Ryan a complete fool or is he just corrupt?
@jwoolman: my money’s on corrupt. Anything (including the health of our country and its people) to repeal the ACA.
And he had from the day he was elected to the day of inauguration to learn and COMPREHEND as much as he could before taking over. NO EXCUSE EVER!
I don’t believe Orange Foolius wrote those tweets. If he did, there would have been a lot more misspellings, paranoia, and blatant lies. These were measured lies. Almost like Foolius’ lawyer wrote those tweets or the lawyer’s intern.
Paul Ryan is trash. Also, his answer is as ridiculous as I expected from him. He doesn’t deny that the behavior is bad, but just that Foolius is ignorant of the processes. As if this is a real and acceptable answer to give for an adult running the country.
“As if this is a real and acceptable answer to give for an adult running the country.”
Unfortunately, in the current GOP controlled bizzaro world we now live in , it is.
Ignorance of the law isn’t a defense. it’s still a crime to attempt to obstruct justice. The fact that Trump is a bumbling idiot doesn’t hold any weight as a defense unless he wants to plead insanity.
Is Fox News paying him for these constant commercials? And most people watched actual testimony, we didn’t need “reporting” to understand the questions asked and the answers given.
As for Ryan, federal employees have a probationary period, screw up in that period and you’re gone. Trump should be gone. Also, Preibus and Sessions aren’t new, what’s his excuse for them?
Who would have thought that the GOP, the party of Lincoln, Eisenhower and Reagan would be so unpatriotic and un-American? While I might not have liked most of the Republican stances, I never thought they were traitorous.
Reagan wanted to spend billions on a Star Wars shield, which threw away the concept of mutual deterrence because he fell asleep and didn’t know that at the end of Return of the Jedi, the shield got taken down by a robot and a bunch of teddy bears with a stolen tank. He ran up huge debts and blamed the country’s economic woes, not on himself or the military industrial complex or unethical businesses, but on black women living in poverty – a theme the GOP continues to this day.
Right-but in his mind he was doing what he thought was best for the country. I don’t agree with what he did-but I never thought he was in it for himself or to line his own pockets. Trump only cares about himself.
Reagan got his post acting career started by crushing actors’ unions. He was pretty much senile for his two last years in office, but hid it so he wouldn’t have to resign. He’s NO idol.
@Ankhel-again, didn’t like him, I know he had Alzheimers at the end–but I stand by my statement that he wasn’t a traitor, and didn’t become POTUS to fleece people and his family weren’t grifters attacking others.
Hey Trump , if Comey is lying then set the record straight. Stop hiding behind your phone, put on your big boy pants and testify before congress or turn over those tapes you supposedly recorded.
Yes to all of this. Not holding my breath, though.
He’s too scared to do that. He knows they’ll make mincemeat out of him because be knows less than nothing and is nothing but bluster and bravado. He only impresses his Deplorables because most are even lower information than he is and are impressed with his supposed wealth. Truth, integrity and intelligence are foreign words to them and we know what they think of anything foreign.
Sure Don will testify, just like he released his tax returns, gave a proper medical report, put his companies into a blind trust, did any work on his first day …
Two things:
1. Trump clearly doesn’t understand what Comey said if thinks that he completely and totally vindicated him.
2. Of course Donald Trump doesn’t know what he’s doing. That’s why he should never have been elected President!! Literally no other job gets filled by a person with no experience. Why should the Presidency be any different?
Zero experience (not even serving as a city councilman), plus he has never reported to anyone other than his Daddy. He ran a family business (with multiple BKs, no less).
I thnk the assumption is though that anyone running for President would know the basics of Government, certainly the Constitution, the Separation of Powers, the independent of the Judiciary and the Intelligence services etc and surround himself with people who can help educate. The trouble with Donnie Two Scoops is that he’s surrounded himself with Yes-men and woman whose only roles are to kiss his ring and sooth his ego. Kinda like a parent would do for a toddler. SMH
Breaking news Cheeto’s lawyer is going to file a complaint against Comey for leaking information.
JFC 45 is such an unbelievably vindictive piece of sh*t.
Outside of the GOP, DC must absolutely detest this man…dude has burned more bridges in 6 months than Obama did in 8 years.
Bigly will not win any complaint. Comey is smart enough that he wouldn’t have admitted giving those memos to the media without making sure it was legal. Cause unlike Bigly, Comey knows the law.
It’s not a leak since it was after he was fired and it wasn’t classified material-just his recollections as a private citizen.
CORRECTAMUNDO! Comey set up an obstruction of justice charge with his testimony, hinted strongly that there’s a tape of Trump somewhere and spoke touchingly of his love of the American experiment.
Trump’s lawyer lacks a proof reader, copy editor, spell-checking facility and fact checker. Oh, and a credible client.
He’s new? He’s in the job months. I started a new job last week and can now bore the arse off you talking about the place I work in through history.
I hope Comey countersues. This is nothing but a nuisance suit.
Let him. He released that as a private citizen. Those were not classified FBI documents. Idiot. His lawyer isn’t well versed in this arena anyway. He’s a f–ing business attorney with ties to Russia (surprise surprise).
But not surprised. Orange butthole modus operandi is to grind it out in court until the other side runs out of money. I hope someone is going to defend Comey pro bono. Stinking orange turd.
Heck, he could get donations from millions of people to pay his legal bills at this point. A lot of people are ticked with Trump.
Someone needs to remind him that there are penalties for filing frivolous lawsuits
He’s just new, you guys. He didn’t get to the part of the onboarding process that said it’s against company policy to ask the FBI Director to stop investigating your campaign.
Who is going to be the first Republican to grow a spine? I know many put party first, but I am genuinely baffled by what these men [mostly men and mostly white] think this crippled president can help them accomplish.
Makes you wonder what Putin might have on them. I’m sure the Democrats weren’t the only ones hacked.
The RNC WAS hacked. The intelligence community has acknowledged that all along.
I know right. They don’t have to hang onto baby pants when the other evil spawn (Pence) is in the wings. That’s what’s baffling. I think a lot of them have dirt they don’t want exposed.
I wonder who took his phone off of him to prevent him from live tweeting Comey’s testimony. I just imagine him following Ivanka around saying ‘C’mon just give me the phone. It’ll be fine. C’monnnnnnnnn”
The lawyer did. He watched the testimony with his attorney. No lawyer would let a client tweet out responses and incriminate himself during something like that. Instead, the guy was probably asking him questions, trying to build up a defense to Comey’s statements. Ivanka has no problem with Daddy’s tweets
A republican senator, i dont remember his name, said yesterday that since Trump told Comey he hope you can let Flynn go, there wasnt any problem, because saying you were hoping something wasnt a direct instruction.
That shows you the lenghts the republican party is willing to go to cover this mess for Trump. They have shame. There is no way Trump is impeached while they are the majority. While everyone is busy worrying about Trump and his incompetence, and the Russia investigation that could take years, republicans are deregulating everything, and fulfilling their reverse Robin Hood agenda.
Seth Meyers took that argument apart last night. As he said, if you say to someone that you hope he/she can join you for dinner, you want that person to come for dinner. You won’t answer the door when that person shows up and ask what they’re doing at your house.
And when it’s your boss who “hopes” you can come to dinner, its natural to worry that declining the invitation could have a negative impact on your status at work.
I had this conversation with my boss this morning (he’s a Trump supporter STILL) and he said “saying I hope it’s not a direction.” so I said to him:
“Maybe if I say it to you but the difference is when a person in power says such a phrase to a subordinate. If I said to you ‘I hope you can see your way clear of this.’ it’s exactly that – me hoping my boss will ignore my missdeeds. When you say to me ‘I hope you can see your way clear of this,’ it’s not an invitation to think about it. It’s a directive to ignore your missdeeds.” He would only concede that I “had a point.”
UM YEAH I have a point. I have all the points. The best points.
Erica- so true! The power balance is significant. And, they were alone. Why did he clear the office if not to give a private order?
And who would be so blunt as to say “I order you to stop this investigation”? It’s called being subtle. Obstruction is often hints and not direct meddling.
Comey knows how the English language works. He knew that Trump was using the “hope” language to mean “I really want you to do this and will be very unhappy if you don’t.” And of course, the proof that Comey’s interpretation was correct came later, when he was fired because he continued the investigation. Trump admitted that on tv. And Trump did lie in his letter to Comey about how the FBI felt. It’s quite obvious that Comey was well liked and the FBI was zipping along fine. Certainly not flailing around in disarray.
jfc how many lies is that orange turd going to tell
And can he please perjure himself all the way to impeachment, ignominy and jail already? Or are the Republican majorities in the House and Senate such a strong buffer against that? And how craven do they have to be, to remain that way?
New my ass. Comey told him it was inappropriate. I believe that was in his declaration. I’m pretty sure anyone from DOJ (Keebler as well) could have told him this. He f—king has a staff to tell him how DC works. FU Eddie Munster.
baby fists knew it was inappropriate or he would not have asked everyone except Comey to leave the room.
I’m not buying that he was quiet on twitter or didn’t have a meltdown because he was kept preoccupied all day. This is all pr. Trump was tweeting from his son’s twitter account. No one thought it was crazy how Trump’s twitter account falls silent while his son’s twitter account suddenly has an increase in activity? As for the meltdown, did you see the statement issued by Trump’s lawyer? That was all Trump. When that failed, they went after Comey by releasing an email and then having Sessions respond to Comey’s testimony.
If Trump didn’t watch Comey’s testimony like he watched Sally Yates, then how did that lawyer prepare his response to Comey’s testimony so fast? Trump was taking notes as he was watching Comey’s testimony.
Trump also gave a speech where he made passive aggressive digs.
It’s crazy how they are putting a spin on what Trump did yesterday and what’s even crazier is how the press fail for it. You can tell that Trump watched Comey’s testimony because they brought out Kristen Welker and Kelly Odonnell to normalize Trump and pat him on the back for behaving on Comey Day just like they did when Trump dropped those bombs on Syria.
He didn’t need to tweet yesterday. 45 Jr. did it all for him
He’s holding a news conference now, I tried you listen but I couldn’t – I tried, 2 mins I lasted and had to turn it off. HE IS A LIAR.
He’s a liar who can’t keep his lies straight and is unspeakably ignorant. But he doesn’t care about any of that because at least the cameras are on HIM.
Just watched his speech. When the hell will he stops bringing up his election? He was calling the reporters “fake news” and would only say we’d known soon if there were really tapes. I wonder if he’ll ever get serious. Face palm 😢
That’s why I can’t watch him. He’s a childish, petty, vindictive person.
This is off topic but just read that CNN let go host Reza Aslan for his Donald Trump piece of shit comment. I don’t think CNN should have dropped him.
Which is crazy since Trump is always calling them fake news. Trump bashes CNN all the time and excluded their reporters from Spicer’s briefings, and then they appease Trump by firing the one person who wasn’t afraid to call him out on his nonsense? When will enough be enough?
They even said that today they put CNN way in the back while other stations were up in the front during Trump’s interview. They deserve to be put in the back after hearing that they fired Reza A.
I guess CNN is firing people (Kathy, Reza, who else?) to get back in trump’s good graces – ass kissing.
This is why I have kept away from politics/news since the awful night of the election. Watching/listening to this orange bafoon really upsets me. Everything out of his mouth is a lie – he’s a con artist. I truly dislike him.
Trump is starting the bullying campaign against Comey, apparently his lawyer is filing some sort of complaint against Comey for releasing his own memos.
Trump says that he hardly knew Comey, yet he was blowing Comey kisses and winking at him during one of the WH meetings. Like what was said at the WH Correspondents dinner, Trump is the Liar in Chief. He lies even when he knows that there is evidence to contract him.
Trump also says that he will testify under oath 100 %. So who wants to bet that Trump will be “too busy” to sit before the HIC and Senate?
Last week, one show did a highlight of Trump’s response to reporters when they ask him when something will be taking place. They showed that his 2 favorite responses was “in 2 weeks” or a variation of “a little while longer/sooner”. When asked when he would release the tape, he said “a little while sooner”.
The GOP have created a monster. Trump leaks classified information, that he was told not to tell to anyone, to the Russians, and it’s okay because he is president. Comey leaks his own memos which weren’t privileged or classified, and according to Trump, Comey is a leaker and should be held accountable? Trump claims that he had a right to ask Comey for loyalty, which many have pointed out several times that the President isn’t supposed to have contact with the FBI so that they can be independent. The GOP claim that Trump didn’t know what he was doing, but he was criticizing Loretta Lynch and Clinton for having contact.
You know somebody hid his phone for the day LOL
If he was just naive about this being against the law, then why did he order all witnesses out of the room before he started pressuring Comey?