Raise your right hand.
Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but
the truth, so help you God?
So long as Donald Trump is president, the actions of
the US government and the men and the women who work for it cannot be trusted.
To understand why, I want you to watch two particular parts of James Comey’s testimony.
At the time, did you say anything to the president about, that is
not an appropriate request?
Rubio was talking about Trump's request that Comey end the investigation into Michael Flynn.
end the investigation into Michael Flynn.
Sir, did you tell the White House
Counsel that is not an appropriate request, someone needs to go tell the
president that he can't do these things?
I didn't, no.
Ok. Why?
I don't know. As I
said earlier, I think the circumstances were such that it was, I
was a bit stunned and didn't have the presence of mind.
Then there was a similar exchange with Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
Now here's the question. You're big. You're strong.
I know the Oval Office, and I know what happens to people what happens to people
they walk in, there is a certain amount of intimidation. But why didn't you stop
and say, Mr. President, this is wrong. I cannot discuss this with you.
It's a great question. Maybe if I were stronger I would have.
What is amazing about these exchanges if they're the favorite exchanges of Donald Trump’s defenders.
But they're they're so scary if you listen to them closely.
I was so stunned by the conversation that I just took it in.
And the only thing I could think to say, in my mind, because I could remember every word he said.
Republicans see these
back and forths as devastating to Comey.
The reasoning, as I understand it, is that
if Trump's request of Comey was so egregious, so awful, then how come Comey
didn't tell Trump on the spot –
PAUL RYAN: "The president's new at this."
– that it was over the line? How come he didn't quit right then and there?
I remember saying, I agree he's
a good guy, as a way of saying I'm not agreeing with what you just asked me to
do. Again, maybe other people would be stronger in that circumstance. But that
was how I conducted myself. I hope I'll never have another
opportunity. Maybe if I did it again I would do it better.
You can see Trump’s son
making a version of this argument on Twitter. He even does it with a
laughing/crying emoji.
But James Comey was a director of the FBI. As
director of the FBI he had a 10-year term designed to grant him unusual
independence. He led an agency with a proud culture of resisting outside
interference. He was exposed daily to the most unnerving secrets and profound
threats that face a country. In other words, Comey is one of the hardest civil
servants to intimidate. But when trapped in a room with the president of the
United States, and when his job and all the good he believed he can do in that
job is dangled before him, even he felt the pressure. We know this is how Trump
works. Asked for qualities he looks for in new hires, Trump replied: “The thing that
is most important to me is loyalty.” Then there's this extraordinary passage from
The Art of the Deal. In it, Trump is praising his mentor Roy
Cohn. Compare him with all the hundreds of respectable guys who make careers
that are boasting about their uncompromising integrity but have
absolutely no loyalty. They only care about what's best for them and don't
think twice about stabbing a friend in the back if the friend becomes a problem.
What I liked most about Roy Cohn was that he would do just the opposite. So of
course Trump asked Comey for loyalty. Of course he asked him to protect his
friend Michael Flynn. It's a height of naivete to believe this same story isn’t
playing out elsewhere in Trump's Administration, to believe that it ends with
James Comey, or to believe that every public servants Trump tries to intimidate or
asks for loyalty will fare as well or have as much integrity as James Comey. Think
of how this could have gone. Imagine it wasn't Comey who Trump had invited to dinner,
but a candidate for the FBI directorship who shared Trump's values, who was more
focused on his own career advancement than on his integrity. Imagine Trump
asked for loyalty and this person immediately agreed. We would never know
that conversation had happened, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation would
now be serving Trump, not the American people.
And this is what scares me: It might have already happened. On Wednesday, Trump
nominated Christopher Wray to replace James Comey as FBI director. How do we know the
reason Trump chose Wray over all the other candidates isn't because Wray said
yes, I will be loyal to you. Is what I'm saying fair to Wray? Maybe not. Maybe he
didn't do any of that. But this is a cloud of suspicion the US government
will be under so long as Donald Trump is president. We know Trump holds an office
gives him vast power for intimidation, for vengeance. We know he's a man who
will use that power to serve his own ends.
We know that people who survive in Donald Trump's employ are those who
carry out his commands. We know that those who refuse get fired, like James
Comey. In the American system, the presidency is an office bounded by
constitutional limits and competing institutions, yes, but it is just as
importantly bounded by the morality and personal rectitude of whoever occupies
it. There was little doubt before Comey’s presentation that Trump was of poor moral
character. There is no doubt after it. Trump is dangerously unfit for this role.
The defense cannot be, maybe the President United States isn't
“technically” a criminal. And then only maybe. I would ask Republicans hearing
this to imagine the word Trump replaced with Clinton or with Obama. How would
they feel if everything I've described here was done by Hillary Clinton? How
afraid would they be if it was President Obama acting like this? That is how they
should feel now. The country needs more from them right now, needs more from all
of us, than excuses for behavior that we know is wrong.
Of course there needs to be a degree of independence between DOJ, FBI, and a White
House, and a line of communication is established. The president's new at this.
He's new to government, and so he probably wasn't steeped in the
long-running protocols that established the relationships between DOJ, FBI, and White Houses.
He's just new to this.