Comey Fired! Today's News for May 10th

Fox News:

Trump fires FBI Director Comey

President Trump on Tuesday fired FBI Director James Comey, abruptly ending a rocky year-long stretch for the top law enforcement officer who came under fire for his handling of the Clinton email probe -- and whose agency has been investigating whether Trump's campaign had ties to Russia.

...The White House made the stunning announcement shortly after the FBI corrected a sentence in Comey's sworn testimony on Capitol Hill last week. The director had told congressional lawmakers that Huma Abedin, as a top aide to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, had sent "hundreds and thousands" of emails to her husband's laptop, including some with classified information.

On Tuesday, the FBI said in a two-page letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee that only "a small number" of the thousands of emails found on the laptop had been forwarded there while most had simply been backed up from electronic devices.

But that error was apparently unrelated to the Comey firing. DOJ officials instead cited his handling of the Clinton probe. 

While the White House is claiming it was his handling of the Clinton probe, which only helped get President Trump get elected, as the Right is pointing (wink wink nudge nudge) to the correction of Comey's testimony as the reason for the firing.

Naturally, the Left has a different take:

CNN:

Behind the scenes of James Comey's epic firing

...Keith Schiller, President Donald Trump's pugnacious former bodyguard who now sits sentry outside the Oval Office doors, was at the law enforcement agency armed with a bombshell message from his longtime boss to FBI Director James Comey: "You are hereby terminated and removed from office."

Schiller emerged from the building just short of an hour later, the manila folder gone. By then, the stunning intent of his visit to the FBI was known, and the ramifications of a sitting president firing the man investigating his campaign's ties to Russia were reverberating across Washington.

So it is the Russia story, again?

Just to show how overboard the Left is, cue the Nixon comparisons:

CNN

Comey firing draws comparisons to Nixon's 'Saturday Night Massacre'

The "Saturday Night Massacre" was one of the most dramatic turns of events in the Watergate scandal -- the political drama that rocked the United States in the 1970s and led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

President Nixon and the Attorney General's office were locked in a political standoff over Nixon's refusal to comply with orders to release recordings of White House conversations.

Nixon ordered the firing of Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox. But Attorney General Elliot Richardson and his deputy William Ruckelshaus resigned rather than comply with the order. Cox was eventually fired by the US solicitor general.

Critics of President Trump's firing of FBI director James Comey see similiarities between Cox's firing decades ago and Trump's action on Tuesday.

Of course, this isn't the first time the Left has used this meme:

This isn't the first time Trump's critics have invoked the "massacre" comparison -- some dubbed Acting Attorney General Sally Yates' firing in January the "Monday Night Massacre."

Let's not forget the RINO's who make everything stupid done by the Left justifiable:

While Democrats slammed Trump's decision on Comey as "Nixonian," some members of the President's own party expressed concerns and divided traditional GOP alliances.

Arizona Sen. John McCain said he was "disappointed" by the incident. Sen. Bob Corker, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and occasionally advised the Trump campaign last year, said he also had concerns.

"Regardless of how you think Director Comey handled the unprecedented complexities of the 2016 election cycle, the timing of this firing is very troubling," said Sen. Bob Sasse of Nebraska in a statement.

On the other hand, more independent-minded Representative Justin Amash of Michigan had this to say:

My staff and I are reviewing legislation to establish an independent commission on Russia. The second paragraph of this letter is bizarre. https://t.co/wXeDtVIQiP

— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 9, 2017

The letter:

Read President Trump's letter dismissing FBI Director James Comey https://t.co/cpCRJPCg2U pic.twitter.com/TQpJhqkFbD

— CNN (@CNN) May 9, 2017

While the second paragraph which Amash references is curious when taken within the context of the letter, it is clearly necessary to distance Trump from the FBI's investigation into the administration's Russian connections. It serves the purpose of a legal disclaimer.

What is missing from the Russian connection stories is an actual connection between that investigation and the Trump administration. It is possible the FBI has discovered something, but we don't have that information. If anyone can make a connection between what the FBI has discovered and the firing itself, and all it takes is a "big fact" to be released along with proof that Trump knew about the "big fact" prior to firing Comey.

Until we get the big reveal from the FBI, then the Russia story will continue to be the "can't prove a negative" story. If no nefarious connection to Russia exists, how can Trump prove it?

Having said that, it still deserves investigation, especially because of the Comey firing. But if nothing is found, we need to admit there is nothing there.