James Comey: How Trump Co-opts Leaders Like Bill Barr

[demmiblue]

Accomplished people lacking inner strength can’t resist the compromises necessary to survive this president.

People have been asking me hard questions. What happened to the leaders in the Trump administration, especially the attorney general, Bill Barr, who I have said was due the benefit of the doubt?

How could Mr. Barr, a bright and accomplished lawyer, start channeling the president in using words like “no collusion” and F.B.I. “spying”? And downplaying acts of obstruction of justice as products of the president’s being “frustrated and angry,” something he would never say to justify the thousands of crimes prosecuted every day that are the product of frustration and anger?

How could he write and say things about the report by Robert Mueller, the special counsel, that were apparently so misleading that they prompted written protest from the special counsel himself?

How could Mr. Barr go before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday and downplay President Trump’s attempt to fire Mr. Mueller before he completed his work?

And how could Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, after the release of Mr. Mueller’s report that detailed Mr. Trump’s determined efforts to obstruct justice, give a speech quoting the president on the importance of the rule of law? Or on resigning, thank a president who relentlessly attacked both him and the Department of Justice he led for “the courtesy and humor you often display in our personal conversations”?

What happened to these people?

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/opinion/william-barr-testimony.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytopinion

[Nuggets]

1. And how could

How could Comey go against protocol and scold Clinton with his “extremely careless” statement when giving the press release that there was no evidence to indict Clinton?

How could Comey wait until the 11th hour to inform Republicans initially that he found more info to soft through using information purposely held for months by McCabe?

and why didn’t Comey correct the Republicans and news networks that the investigation hadn’t been re-opened?

And why did he lie about the time it would take to cross check the emails from Weiner’s phone?



What has happened to these people?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Whatabout whatabout whatabout....

Not relevant to the point he's making here, which is right on the money.

[Nuggets]

6. Totally relevant

as he is just as corrupted.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

9. But is what he said in this op-ed incorrect?

[Nuggets]

11. Nope..it's all true.

But that doesn’t change any of his actions prior to the 2016 election, nor does it make up for them.

It’s a great way to make himself appear innocent though, isn’t it?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. He answers, at least partly, a question that's been nagging at me for two years -

How do otherwise intelligent people get pulled into Trump's web?

....Proximity to an amoral leader reveals something depressing. I think that’s at least part of what we’ve seen with Bill Barr and Rod Rosenstein. Accomplished people lacking inner strength can’t resist the compromises necessary to survive Mr. Trump and that adds up to something they will never recover from. It takes character like Mr. Mattis’s to avoid the damage, because Mr. Trump eats your soul in small bites....

Of course, to stay, you must be seen as on his team, so you make further compromises. You use his language, praise his leadership, tout his commitment to values.

And then you are lost. He has eaten your soul.

Comey nailed it. But the question that remains unanswered is why some people have the strength of character to resist getting their souls eaten while others do not. One possible reason that Trump's inner circle now consists entirely of toadies is that the strong people did resist, and either quit or were fired. Even a guy like Jeff Sessions, whom I would not call a paragon of moral strength, didn't cave completely but stayed recused, and he was fired. Sally Yates was fired. Preet Bharara was told he could keep his job but then was fired. Tillerson was fired because he didn't agree 100% with Trump's insane foreign policy ideas. And so on. So everyone who remains understands that you must never disagree with Trump and you must praise him fulsomely. But why would Rosenstein on his way out kiss Trump's ass so enthusiastically in his resignation letter, when he wouldn't have had to do that at all? Stockholm Syndrome? Retroactive justification for supporting Barr? But why did he and the others let themselves get sucked in at the beginning?

Trump has eaten a lot of souls. If anyone remembers the great movie "A Man for All Seasons," there's this line: "It profit a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world. . . but for Wales?” But for Trump?

[StevieM]

4. How could James Comey be co-opted by Republicans at the FBI? Or at the State Department IG office?

Bill Barr has gone down the same road as Comey, he just went further down that road.

[Nuggets]

7. Absolutely!

They have all been portrayed as the good guys. I’m sick of it.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. Comey fucked up, of course, but I'd argue it was exactly the opposite of what happened to Barr

and Rosenstein. Comey wrongly ignored established protocols for dealing with public disclosures of concluded investigations. I don't think he was co-opted at all; his sin was arrogance. He decided his own judgment should take precedence over the FBI's policy of not commenting on investigations - in order, he said, to show the FBI wasn't biased and wouldn't be criticized for exonerating Clinton if she won - which he said he believed would happen.

But regardless, that's not relevant to the frightening truth he speaks in this op-ed - that Trump drags people into his orbit and destroys them if they aren't strong enough to see what he's doing and resist.

[StevieM]

10. He screwed up time and time again.

The July press conference.

The October intervention.

Not to mention accepting a "public referral" and getting the FBI involved in the first place.

And he did it because he kept listening to the partisan Republicans around him.

[ancianita]

5. If this is true, zombies work for the lizard.