THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH

Here are one man’s highlights from Comey Day on Capitol Hill.

·         Marco Rubio, of all people, scolding James Comey for not doing a better job of standing up to Donald Trump.  Only one Senator would qualify as more hypocritical – Ted Cruz.  Trump called Cruz’s wife ugly and claimed that Cruz’s father helped assassinate President Kennedy.  Of course, Cruz endorsed him anyway.

·         John McCain, confused and confusing.  He once said that the only cure for political ambition is embalming fluid.  As Richard Burr, the Chair of the Committee, said, “the Senator’s time has expired.” 

·         Kamala Harris was clearly relishing a future investigation of Jeff Sessions.

·         Republican senators, arguing that no obstruction of justice could have occurred because Trump said “I hope” rather than “I order.”  Two points on that topic.  When your boss says he hopes you’ll do something, he’s not expressing a hypothetical aspiration; he’s telling you to do it.  Anyone who’s had a boss knows this.  Trump asked Comey to drop the investigation, and fired him when he refused.  Obstruction of justice occurred when Trump fired Comey for not shutting down the investigation.  He even went on television and confirmed the whole sequence of events to NBC’s Lester Holt.  This is not hard.   

·         Remarkably, Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee made no effort to poke holes in Comey’s story.  They basically conceded that Trump was a liar.  Their fallback position was simply to shrug and say it didn’t matter.

·         Paul Ryan, echoing a major Republican talking point, claims that Trump’s attempts to suborn Comey were innocent because he’s new at the job.  Sure.  All new presidents obstruct justice at least once in their first hundred days in office,  right?  Or maybe Trump is just a bad president. 

·         To cap the morning off, Trump’s lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, issued a press release simultaneously claiming that Comey was not a credible witness, and that his testimony completely exonerated the president.  It starts off with a great typo referring to “Predisent” Trump.

What does it all add up to?  Today is the day when Donald Trump became Predisent.