It’s hard to believe this happened because Donald Trump is under investigation for possibly colluding with Russia. The President fired the FBI Director who was investigating him for colluding with Russia. And now it comes out that Trump told the Russians that it relieved pressure from the investigation when he fired “nut job” Comey.
Which is exactly what someone who was colluding with the Russians would say.
This latest scoop comes via The New York Times with reporting by Maggie Haberman, Matt Apuzzo, and Matthew Rosenberg based on a document that summarized the President’s May 10 meeting meeting with the Russians in the Oval Office.
Trump told the Russians, “I just fired the head of the F.B.I. He was crazy, a real nut job. I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.†The Times noted the document was read to them by an “American official.”
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“I’m not under investigation,†the President added.
Donald Trump told the Russians that the pressure because of Russia was taken off because he fired the head of the FBI.
This sounded like another admission of obstruction of justice to me, but then former Special Counsel for Ethics and Government Reform in the Obama White House Norm Eisen weighed in to point out that Trump denied collusion with the Russians but these comments “virtually amount to it.”
Trump denies collusion with the Russians but these comments virtually amount to it. Sickening. https://t.co/fp5WD71BQN
— Norm Eisen (@NormEisen) May 19, 2017
And they do point to collusion. Trump is telling the Russian spies all is well, I am not under investigation, I fired that guy. The pressure is off. Don’t worry about anything, I took care of it.
These are things you tell someone who is in on it with you and who also wants the investigation to go away. Trump said these things while he was also revealing highly classified intelligence about an ISIS plot to the Russians – a very helpful bit of information for them that was not even shared with the “five eyes” alliance.
The scariest thing about this is how ignorant Donald Trump is. He held this meeting with the Russians and told them this in the Oval Office and he didn’t realize that they would have this over his head and that they most likely know more about the investigation into Trump than Trump does. If they fell for Trump’s bluster that he is managing this, they might be projecting too much.
Trump is at times a stunningly foolish man. He thinks he’s lining his own pockets and getting the dream White House for himself by making a deal with the Russians.
Trump is wily and clever in his way, but he is a fool when it comes to understanding other people’s motives and his propensity to think he’s the smartest person in the room makes him easy pickings for those who know better than to assume they are the smartest person in the room.
Trump’s easy denigration of the former FBI Director to representatives/spies of a hostile foreign power who interfered in our election is the opposite of patriotism and statesmanship.
Just who leaked this to The Times from the White House is yet another segment of the palace drama.
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Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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