Michael Tomasky: The Week that Could Make-Or Break-America
The Week that Could Make—Or Break—America
I truly do believe that good will prevail, but this week proved what many of us had long predicted and feared—that Trump is a threat to the Constitution.
Michael Tomasky
05.12.17 10:35 PM ET
Remember the week of May 7. Remember that this was the week our constitutional crisis began. Remember that it took Donald Trump just 110 days to commit a high crime or misdemeanor (well, as far as we know; he might well have done sooner). Because that is what he did, in firing James Comey, even though Republicans won’t say so. Remember, if and when the day comes that we see Donald Trump issue that last salute and clamber aboard Marine One for his last, albeit ahead of schedule, helicopter flight as president, that it all started this week.
Bells may have started ringing in your head when you read those words above, high crime or misdemeanor. Bah. Alarmist. I say: no. The firing of Comey was almost undeniably obstruction of justice. Comey was pursuing, however you want to parse it, justice—trying to get to the bottom of a question that is obviously one of legitimate public and legal interest. Trump, in firing him, obstructed that pursuit. Case closed.
But oh, there’s more. As the Beast’s Justin Miller reported Friday, Trump’s January dinner with Comey may have broken the law. Bill Clinton implored then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch to meet him on a tarmac. That was considered scandalous, and reasonably so; it looked like Clinton was trying to influence the course of a federal investigation into his wife. So if that was scandalous, what is inviting the FBI director over for dinner while he’s investigating not your spouse, but you?
But oh, there’s more. Then Trump asked Comey point blank if he, Trump, was the target of an investigation. The mere asking of that question, as Lawrence Tribe told Lawrence O’Donnell Thursday night, was a high crime or misdemeanor. Then Trump went on national TV (the Lester Holt interview) and not only admitted that he asked this question, but boasted about it! Then, in all likelihood, he lied about it—it seems impossible to imagine that Comey would have said anything other than something like, “Mr. President, respectfully, I believe we shouldn’t be discussing this.”
This isn’t just weird or unusual. It’s obstruction of justice—it’s inserting oneself into a federal investigation. Imagine President Hillary Clinton doing the same thing to Comey one week into her presidential tenure. The House Judiciary Committee would be drafting articles of impeachment right now.
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What will it take…two things. One, Trump gets so low in the polls that he’s clearly an albatross to the House Republicans in their pursuit to hold on to their majority in 2018. Two, he does or says something that just makes everyone throw up their hands and say “okay, enough.” We can’t say what that thing is, but it does exist. As Potter Stewart said, we’ll know it when we see it. Or maybe the Republicans will never know it when they see it, which will increase the chances that the Democrats will take the House in 2018, and then it's a different ball game.
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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/05/12/the-week-that-could-make-or-break-america
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