I'm a natural pessimist, but even I can see that the president of the United States was asking for trouble by firing James Comey, and might be on the verge of getting what he asked for. Here's The Washington Post on that:
Many [FBI and Justice Department] employees said they were furious about the firing, saying the circumstances of his dismissal did more damage to the FBI’s independence than anything Comey did in his three-plus years in the job.
One intelligence official who works on Russian espionage matters said they were more determined than ever to pursue such cases. Another said Comey’s firing and the subsequent comments from the White House are attacks that won’t soon be forgotten. Trump had “essentially declared war on a lot of people at the FBI,” one official said. “I think there will be a concerted effort to respond over time in kind.”
A lot of people are looking into this. There are several investigations and there are a lot of people who have motivation to leak. All this might lead to Trump's downfall. If so, in the end it's going to be obvious why he had to go.
Well, it's going to be obvious to many of us. On the right, will Trump be like Nixon -- someone whose guilt was, in the end, generally acknowledged, even though he was one of their guys?
I have my doubts. Too many of our fellow citizens live in a post-truth world now. I wonder whether the right-wing media will ever acknowledge Trump's guilt.
Here's a blog post right now from right-wing hack Patrick Howley. This is the conservative narrative right now. I suspect that it might continue to be the narrative months or years from now, when Trump is boarding his jet after resigning from office:
DEEP STATE WINS OVER THE LEFT: Democrats Cheer On FBI To Release ‘Dirt’ On Trump
Progressives are hoping that the U.S. national intelligence agencies will take out their personal animus toward President Donald Trump by leaking information collected from their surveillance activities to damage his reputation and his presidency. The Deep State, having won over the very people once opposed to it, is quickly taking over.
The FBI is reportedly declaring “war” on Trump and vowing revenge on the president for firing its director James Comey....
The shadow civil war, then, is underway....
Trump Derangement Syndrome is not merely used to weaken and try to impeach the president. Now it is used as an active tool to aide the Deep State takeover by convincing the resistance that the Deep State is actually their hero....
In another era, before our school systems went to Hell, there would be bipartisan outrage at the FBI for declaring a personal “war” on the President of the United States. There would at least be an acknowledgment of the gravity of the situation. People would at least be calling this “war” what it really is: a new Civil War.
Richard Nixon's approval rating plummeted throughout 1973 and was below 30% in 1974, up to his resignation. Will Trump's aproval go much lower than it is now? Or will his 40% chunk of the electorate hang on to the bitter end, persuaded by Fox and Breitbart and talk radio that no crimes were committed and Trump's demise came as the result of a Democratic/"deep state" coup?
Some of Trump's backers will accept the facts. But I'm not sure the conservative media will ever accept them. The message will be: We finally managed to elect someone who intended to drain the swamp, and the swamp creatures destroyed him. Therefore, we have to find new leaders who are even more relentless in their opposition to the liberal/Democrat/deep state swamp conspiracy.
Maybe the holdout voters will be so small a minority that we won't need to fear them. But I think the pro-Trump rage will be deeper than voter support for Nixon was by the end. Trump might be gone, but the rage that elected him really might live on.
Crossposted at No More Mr. Nice Blog
