I used to always vote Republican. But lately, I’ve been calling myself an independent. Now, President Donald Trump is causing me to favor Democrats. Trump is doing all kinds of things that I think make him look unfit to be our president. But then, that’s what I kept blogging about him last year during the presidential campaign.
Since Trump has been president, he hired Michael Flynn as national security advisor. But during the vetting process, Flynn lied of his involvement with Russian government officials. Of course, Trump didn’t actually fire Flynn, but forced him to resign. Flynn may have talked to the Russians about removing sanctions on Russia for meddling electronically in our presidential election process last year, which would be a crime. Trump only forced Flynn’s resignation after pretty much being forced to do so.
Flynn put out a feeler about asking Congress to give him immunity to testify about his actions. In my opinion, you don’t do that unless you are guilty of some crime. Lawyers now claim that Flynn could be prosecuted for three different crimes that send him to prison for years.
President Trump also fired his acting Attorney General Sally Yates, a lifetime public servant who is highly respected. He did so because she, according to her conscience, refused to implement President Trump’s executive order to prevent Muslims from seven Middle Eastern countries from entering the U.S. Yates was soon vindicated somewhat when federal judge in Washington State ruled Trump’s order unconstitutional and thus stopped it from being executed. A federal judge in Hawaii soon ruled likewise.
Yesterday, President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, saying he “wasn’t doing a good job.” The specific accusation was that Comey mishandled the FBI’s investigation of former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s emails using a private server. I’ve already blogged about that. But the outrageous thing about that is that Trump had praised Comey after he informed Congress only eleven days prior to the election that the FBI had reopened this Clinton investigation due to new data. Many, including myself, said Comey mishandled that, but not as Trump claims. He says Comey never should have closed the Clinton investigation in the first place, that she should had been prosecuted and jailed. How pitiful! The president of the USA has a lot more important things to do than that and a lot of his Twitter tweeting.
During Trump’s campaign, he constantly stirred up his political supporters at rallies by yelling, “lock her up,” referring to jailing Hilary Clinton. Flynn attended one or more of those rallies, seen yelling the same. But I’m saying Comey, according to FBI protocol, should not have said anything about reopening that Clinton investigation. And if he was going to do it, he also should have said he had months ago opened an investigation into the possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. Why? It was the fair thing to do for the electorate. Comey couldn’t see the forest for the trees.
It is now being reported that a majority of FBI officials are angry at President Trump for firing Director Comey. They are also claiming Trump fired Comey because of the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe and not because of Comey’s mishandling of the Clinton investigation. I think they are right.
Tonight, the Wall Street Journal says some time ago, Comey told some FBI officials Trump is “crazy.” It was because Trump claimed, with no evidence, that President Barak Obama had “wiretapped” Trump Tower, the headquarters of his presidential campaign. But Comey testified before Congress that he had no evidence that was true. He also asked the Justice Department to make a public statement that the FBI had no evidence of that accusation, but it refused to do so.
Democrats are rightly calling for a special prosecutor to investigate this possible collusion. Several prominent U.S. Republican senators are doing the same. They better, or they likely will not be elected next time. I think a significant majority of Americans are going to be calling for an independent special prosecutor. Yet today, U.S. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said we don’t need a special prosecutor. Well then, I say Kentucky doesn’t need Mitch McConnell any more as its U.S. senator.
There are parallels between what is happening in our federal government and the Watergate affair. The Republican party did a stupid, rather innocuous, act. Five Republican operatives burglarized the Democratic headquarters located in a giant office building called The Watergate. They were caught. President Nixon then lied about the whole affair. Special prosecutor Archibald Cox was hired to investigate it. When Nixon started feeling uncomfortable about Cox’s probe, Nixon ordered his Attorney General Richardson to fire Cox. He refused, and Nixon fired Richardson. Nixon then ordered the assistant attorney general to fire Cox. When he also refused, Nixon fired him. This all happened on October 19-20, 1973 and came to be called the Saturday Night Massacre. Nixon finally got Cox fired and then hired attorney Leon Jaworski of Texas, my home state then. But that didn’t help Nixon. Jaworski subpoenaed private tape recordings of Nixon lying about the affair. The revelation of Nixon’s conversation on those tapes caused him to resign. It was a historic time in our democracy. I was glued to my TV set watching congressional hearings about it. But this Trump-Russia probe is much more serious.
Recently, Director Comey asked the Justice Department for more funds to accelerate the Trump-Russia probe, which Congress was asking the FBI to do. That seems to be the last straw for Trump. Trump sent him a one page letter, saying thanks for telling him three times that he did not have Trump under investigation. Yet Trump then said in the letter, effectively, “you’re fired,” just as he did so often on his popular television program The Apprentice. This firing of Comey is just more evidence of a coverup that is turning the White House into a Black House, meaning ethical darkness.
I think Donald Trump suffers from narcissism, is somewhat of a serial liar, and thus unfit to be our president. Being a successful businessman, he may be able to help our country economically. But that’s not enough in being our president. There’s too much going on that I think suggests that he is guilty of colluding with Russians to win the presidency. I doubt any of his operatives did such collusion without him directing it. Why would Trump thank Comey in that letter that Comey told Trump three different times that he didn’t have Trump under investigation? I think that is very suspicious.
If this story has legs, Congress could tell Mr. Donald Trump, “You’re fired.” But there is another alternative. I’m going to make a prediction: Donald Trump will resign the U.S. presidency within a year. In doing so, I think he could throw up a smokescreen, giving as the sole reason for his departure that the federal government is treating his financial empire unfairly. That is another investigation that has just begun.
Trump refusing to reveal his tax returns is another issue that makes him suspicious of something he does not want America to know. But if he resigns, that may not be the end of Trump’s problems with the U.S. government. If it proves Mr. Trump himself, not just his people, colluded with Russians to win the presidency, the government for the people, of the people, and by the people may be yelling, “lock him up.”
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