The New York Times report on the Comey memo was the latest piece to drop this week and bring scrutiny on President Trump and his administration. According to the report, the memo shows that Trump attempted to get the former FBI Director to drop the investigation into Russia and Michael Flynn. The National Security Advisor would eventually be fired by the president after mounting pressure but was referred to as “a good guy” according to the memo.
The Times report increased the criticism against the Trump administration and forced Congress to show signs of life in response. House Oversight Chair Jason Chaffetz has already set a deadline for all FBI documents related to Comey and Trump to be turned over and House Speaker Paul Ryan has informed Chaffetz of his agreement on the request. Senator John McCain also shared his displeasure with the details of the report, moving away from his more inactive tone in recent months to compare the recent developments to Watergate.
@SenJohnMcCain at IRI dinner now- "We've seen this movie before. It's reaching Watergate size and scale….This is not good for the country"
— Ana Navarro-Cárdenas (@ananavarro) May 17, 2017
Senator Chuck Schumer shared a similar historical sentiment in his statement on the floor of the Senate, blasting the president for sharing alleged classified material with Russian officials and the details of the memo. As Schumer states, “America is being tested” by the actions of the administration and “History is watching” what the members of Congress will do next. Many of Schumer’s fellow Democrats are also ramping up their calls for impeachment, including Rep. Joaquin Castro and Rep. Elijah Cummings who called the Comey memo a “smoking gun” according to Vice.
As you can expect, the reaction at The White House is reportedly one of chaos. Much like reports of the shouty, angry Trump following the initial firing of James Comey, the latest snippets seem to indicate that the atmosphere in The White House is more doom and gloom than with previous drama. According to The Daily Beast, several staffers and members of the administration described the state of things following the release of Tuesday’s report:
“I feel like running down the hallway with a fire extinguisher,” one senior Trump administration official told The Daily Beast, in response to an inquiry regarding Tuesday’s developments.
On the heels of yet another round of bad press that started on Monday — reports that the president shared classified national security information with top Russian diplomats in an Oval Office meeting last week — Tuesday’s reports on Comey’s memo sent another wave of frustration through a White House already reeling from a week of intense media scrutiny.
“Every time I feel like we’re getting a handle on the last Russia fiasco, a new one pops,” a White House staffer told The Daily Beast on Monday evening. On Tuesday, after reports of the Comey memo began to circulate, the staffer revised that assessment: “I guess I was wrong about the timing,” the staffer said. “We can’t even wrap up one Russia fiasco before we’re on to the next one.”
A senior official in the Trump administration, who previously worked on the president’s campaign, offered a candid and brief assessment of the fallout from that string of bad press: “I don’t see how Trump isn’t completely f*cked.”
With each revelation, there is always a wave of comments marking it as the thing that brings down Trump. The difference this time seems to be James Comey, the man who has been vilified by both parties and could possibly be the spark that aids the downfall of both candidates from the 2016 election. If this memo and any other memos turn out to be true and hold information that could hurt Trump, the chances of the president being brought down could actually become a reality.
And it’s only May.
(Via The Daily Beast / Huffpost / Vice)