Re Comey: After Trump won, certain USG officials were so consumed by hatred for Trump, (a) they believed EVERY story about him, no matter the provenance; (b) they decided to do their utmost to remove or hamper him, using whatever means at their disposal. Very much a #Resistance
If they believed they could not in good faith serve in a Trump presidency, they should have resigned in January. That would’ve been the honorable thing.
Instead, they stayed to dismantle, sabotage & poison the new administration. They were prepared to destroy lives, & they did.
Instead, they stayed to dismantle, sabotage & poison the new administration. They were prepared to destroy lives, & they did.
Now that might be an honorable thing, too, so long as you believe a Trump presidency would necessarily be an *extinction-level event* for the United States.
If that’s your position, you’re not a serious person—and unfit for a job in government, much less our national security.
If that’s your position, you’re not a serious person—and unfit for a job in government, much less our national security.
When a guy with as much self-regard, humorlessness & sanctimoniously showy patriotism as James Comey has decided that Trump violates his conception of *morality*—bc he sees all these things as synonymous—it was easy to see how Comey could dedicate himself to destroying him.
When Comey pronounces Trump to be “morally unfit” not only is he saying that Trump lacks Comey’s personal, cartoonish views of patriotism and G-Man propriety—But he’s a National security threat, too.
Because Comey’s self-image is so tied to being Ace G-Man, Trump’s personal failings in Comey’s eyes turn into fertile ground for Russia conspiracy theories.
At the end of the day, I think Comey was far too *earnest* in his heroic conception of himself as Ace G-Man and Flag-waving Elliott Ness. He was consumed by it, leading him toward where he would swallow absolutely any phony story if it would implicate Trump.
Some of the other guys, like Clapper and Brennan—no, I don’t think they believed any of the Steele nonsense for a second. They used it to dismantle a political opponent. Comey, I think, needed to believe it to be able to square his actions with his heroic self-conception.
