It’s golf day # 107 today with the Japanese Prime Minister, as Trump can’t help himself, tweeting diversionary message regarding Comey firing.
“Slippery James Comey, the worst FBI Director in history, was not fired because of the phony Russia investigation where, by the way, there was NO COLLUSION (except by the Dems)!” Trump tweeted.
PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump is saying he did not fire James Comey as FBI director because of the Russia investigation, even though he revealed last year the probe into potential collusion during the 2016 campaign was on his mind at the time
But in an interview with NBC days after firing Comey last year, Trump said, “In fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, ’You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story.”
The White House’s initial explanation for Trump’s decision was Comey’s handling of the Clinton email investigation.
Now, however, the Southern District can investigate potential Trump crimes in any area connected to Cohen, a fixer who is known to have arranged payoffs to an adult film star who says she had an affair with Trump. These prosecutors can go back as far as they want before the election, not to mention during and after it.
And there’s essentially nothing Trump can do about it. He can’t fire the career civil servant prosecutors who are now on the job. And practically, he can’t order the Southern District to stop investigating him, because such an order would likely be construed by the prosecutors there as a criminal obstruction of justice.
But to react to Comey’s charges against Trump with a comprehensive assessment of his entire career is to miss the point. James Comey is a critical figure of our time not because of any particular decision, right or wrong, that he made during his tenure in government. He’s important because he exemplifies values — most of all, the pursuit of institutional independence and autonomy — whose presence among career officials safeguards the United States against the threat of systemic corruption.
The greatest safeguard we have against the dangers of Trump’s highly personalized style of leadership and frequently expressed desire to reshape all institutions to serve his personal goal is that officials and bureaucrats have the power to say no. Comey, whatever else he did, said no to his boss and was fired for his trouble. America needs more government officials who are willing to take that stand. In many ways, Comey is not the hero the United States deserves. But in a critical moment, he may be the hero we need.
Days Trump has spent at Mar a Lago:
62
Cost of flights to Mar a Lago (17 so far):*
~$33,153,000
Days Trump has spent at Bedminster:
33
Cost of flights to Bedminster (11 so far):*
~$8,481,000
Trump has visited his clubs once every this many days since his inauguration:
4.6
Projected visits to golf clubs in four years:
319
Projected visits in eight years:
638
Total times Obama played golf during his eight year Presidency:
306
trumpgolfcount.com/...
In a post accompanying the list of 994 IRA accounts, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said the company “did not detect any effective use of these accounts to engage in vote manipulation.” It’s not entirely clear what Huffman meant by this statement. While there is no evidence to suggest Reddit was used in any efforts to directly manipulate votes (i.e., by changing vote totals), there is evidence that exposure to “fake news” influenced voters’ decisions and contributed to Trump’s win. However, the degree to which Reddit contributed to the spread of “fake news” (misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda) ahead of the 2016 presidential election has not yet been determined.
One key difference the research found is voters are more receptive to the argument that Republicans are likelier to use government to personally enrich themselves and their wealthy donors. “They actually don't think the tax plan was done for policy reasons,” Pollock said. “They don't even think it was done for ideological reasons. They think it was done for purely dirty campaign reasons.”