President Trump’s customary Friday morning tweet storm contained two notable segments, the latter of which we’ll discuss first. Trump appears to be incensed about the New York Times report that described a private dinner conversation between himself and then-FBI Director James Comey. The president had asked Comey to pledge his “loyalty,” but Comey would not take that Godfather-esque vow. Instead, he told the president that he could count on his “honesty.” Comey reportedly informed associates about this talk and how Trump had further pushed him, yet Comey would only commit to “honest loyalty.”
Well, Trump believes that everyone who disagrees with his position is dishonest, so that promise was no good. And after this conversation came to light, Trump’s resulting tweet accused Comey of “leaking” to the media. He also suggested that there were in fact “tapes” of this dinner talk with Comey.
James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017
This, of course, will draw even more Watergate comparisons than we’re already seeing this week. Whether or not Trump is aware of this era of history is unclear, but the tapes that Nixon recorded in the Oval Office proved to be key in the investigation of the Watergate scandal. However, those tapes did not bode well for Nixon, for they proved his wrongdoing (in the form of being complicit with that particular cover-up), so Trump should be careful, you know, about what he wishes for.
A short while earlier, Trump tweeted his disbelief at how people seem to expect “perfect accuracy” from his surrogates. He’s undoubtedly talking about criticisms of Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who struggled with the ever-changing story about why Trump fired Comey during the Thursday press briefing (while she filled in for Sean Spicer). Trump tweet-explained that he’s a “very active President,” so people shouldn’t expect his spokespeople to get everything correct. And he threatened to stop holding “press briefings” (he actually used quotes) and hand out pamphlets instead.
The Fake Media is working overtime today!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017
As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017
…Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future "press briefings" and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy???
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017