US Politics Mega-thread - Page 7484

On May 10 2017 10:17 xDaunt wrote:
1) Trump fired Comey either for a) legitimate reasons, or b) to cover up the investigation (an illegitimate reason).

On May 10 2017 11:37 TheYango wrote:

There's also possibility c) Trump fired Comey for illegitimate reasons that are unrelated to the Russia investigation. I'm also skeptical of the assumption that Trump firing Comey means Trump is guilty, but that doesn't mean I'm automatically assuming that Trump's reason for firing Comey is therefore legitimate. It seems more likely to me that Trump is firing Comey for some dumb reason and just happens to be oblivious of how bad the timing of this makes him look.

On May 10 2017 11:37 biology]major wrote:
What if the next fbi appointment turns down the job lol. That would be hilarious

On May 10 2017 11:45 LegalLord wrote:
I'd personally sidestep the Russia issue

On May 10 2017 11:53 LegalLord wrote:

You want to be a troll or you got something useful to add here?

On May 10 2017 11:53 LegalLord wrote:

You want to be a troll or you got something useful to add here?

On May 10 2017 10:55 eviltomahawk wrote:

The question is, what are those legitimate reasons? It's stated in the letters that the primary reason for the firing is due to the Clinton email investigation. While they can cite that investigation as a legitimate reason, it did occur last year, so what could have changed between inauguration and now regarding that investigation that would've prompted the firing? The timing seems awfully fishy because of that, which could be indicative of some other, unstated reasons for the firing that we can only speculate on.

On May 10 2017 11:41 xDaunt wrote:

Yeah, there could be other, unknown illicit reasons for why Trump canned Comey, but the running narrative around here is that it must have something to do with the Russia investigation, so that's the one that I singled out for scrutiny.

The more James Comey showed up on television discussing the FBI’s investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, the more the White House bristled, according to aides to President Donald Trump.

Frustration was growing among top associates of the president that Mr. Comey, in a series of appearances before a Senate panel, wouldn’t publicly tamp down questions about possible collusion with Russian interference in the 2016 presidential race. A person with knowledge of recent conversations said they wanted Mr. Comey to “say those three little words: ‘There’s no ties.’”

In the months before his decision to dismiss Mr. Comey as head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Mr. Trump grew unhappy that the media spotlight kept shining on the director. He viewed Mr. Comey as eager to step in front of TV cameras and questioned whether his expanding media profile was warping his view of the Russia investigation, the officials said.

On May 10 2017 10:17 xDaunt wrote:


No, you pretty much have it backwards. There's a critical difference between presuming that someone is above a certain threshold of stupidity and then presuming that someone is smart. The logic is basically this:

1) Trump fired Comey either for a) legitimate reasons, or b) to cover up the investigation (an illegitimate reason).
2) Trump would only have reason to fire Comey to cover up the investigation if there was something to that investigation.
3) However, if there is something to the investigation, then firing Comey won't stop the investigation.
4) Only someone who is really stupid wouldn't understand Point 3 and would try to fire Comey to stop the investigation.
5) I find it highly unlikely that Trump is stupid enough to not understand Point 3.
6) For this reason, I think that it is more likely that than not that Trump fired Comey for legitimate reasons.