[res0nat0r]

The man at the FBI leading the investigation into the Trump / Russia connection was fired upon recommendation from Sessions who said he was recusing himself from all Russia / Trump investigations.

Looking corrupt as hell? Most certainly.

[tannhauser23]

To be clear, Sessions said he concurred in the recommendation of his deputy Rothstein, who is a life-long prosecutor. Plus, virtually every former Attorney General agreed that Comey made a terrible mistake in announcing the results of the Clinton investigation.

[res0nat0r]

Firing him around January would have had some creedence, not now months later after praising him for months and Trump finding out that Comey has been investigating him and his campaign for almost a year now.

[maxerickson]

Rod Rosenstein became Deputy Attorney General on April 26th.

Having him write the memo recommending the action isn't really all that strange and goes quite a ways towards explaining the timing.

People would have complained that it was about the investigation anyway in January.

[res0nat0r]

No one knew of the FBI investigation of the Trump campaign, even former DNI Clapper, until Comey testified as such on March 20th. Trump firing him any time after this date reeks of a coverup no matter the explanation.

[tannhauser23]

That's when Comey publicly confirmed it, but news about the investigation has been leaking since the moment Trump was elected.

[ak4g]

That's just not true. The first credible reporting on the existence of the investigation came from CNN, 10 days prior to Comey's testimony in March.

[Tloewald]

Yes, indeed I think the supreme irony is that Comey is, in effect, being fired by Trump for helping Trump get elected.

[mattnewton]

That is the reason they are putting on the books at least. The fact that he is leading an open investigation into Trumps campaign, and that Trump can replace the head of that investigation with another person now is interesting though.

[hn_throwaway_99]

News is now coming out that Rothstein threatened to resign when the White House was saying that Rothstein was the one who originally wanted to fire Comey. Rothstein wrote the letter, but Trump was the one who asked him to write it.

This is impeachment level shit.

[eneveu]

For other ESL speakers wondering why they didn't find much when searching for "rothstein": his name is "Rod Rosenstein".

[wonderwonder]

Trump also complained that senate rules were unfair to him and congratulated Erdogan on seizing more power and is meeting with Duterte. He just wants to be a strongman and is not afraid to remove obstacles.

[enraged_camel]

At this point Trump is looking more and more like Nixon on fast-forward.

[res0nat0r]

And I'm guessing he's going to freely get away with much more than anything Nixon did.

Thanks to the GOP who doesn't care about any abuses coming out of the White House because they want to get tax cuts for their millionaire friends they are allowing the integrity of our systems to erode.

[aaron-lebo]

At some point you simply make too many enemies.

Dems already hate him and this removal continues his conflict with the traditional GOP.

He's either gonna cross the wrong person or be so unpopular that he's gone in a few more years and nobody will care.

[cthulha]

There doesn't seem to be any Democrat involvement with this. Every recent development is to do with Trump-Russia investigation.

Seems unlikely that Democrats would have supported him much, but it sounds like they weren't asked to -- they were told at 5.30pm that he was fired, same as everyone else!

[CalChris]

Even the Nixon Library trolled Trump:

  FUN FACT: President Nixon never fired the Director of the FBI #FBIDirector #notNixonian

https://twitter.com/NixonLibrary/status/862083605081862145

[tanderson92]

A very good Nixon parody account is @dick_nixon: https://twitter.com/dick_nixon

[anigbrowl]

Minus the intelligence and a number of other factors. I seem to be the only leftie in America that rather admires Nixon despite his numerous flaws and considers him a bit of a tragic figure. In an earlier and scrappier era he'd have been considered a great statesman.

[pm90]

Like another comment pointed out, Nixon created the EPA for chissake....unthinkable thing for a Republican today.

[mikestew]

Ooh, if you like that one, you should read up his proposal for health care. Were it not for that little Watergate kerfluffle, the whole ACA debate might have never taken place, and the U. S. might have had decent healthcare. (A lot of supposition behind that, though.)

In other words, comparing Trump to Nixon does a disservice to Nixon, IMO.

[tzs]

...and Ronald Reagan instituted the first cap and trade system in the US for the phase out of leaded gasoline, and then a few years later used cap and trade again to reduce the chemicals that damaged the ozone layer. Also unthinkable in today's GOP.

[maxerickson]

I like to troll time travel threads by joking about warning Nixon.

People don't like it.

[sandworm101]

Fast-something. Nixon created the EPA, trump is on rewind there. I think nixon was more his own person, this guy seems a sponge for whoever spoke to him most recently. In that way he is more similar to many historical kings than modern presidents.

[tareqak]

FWIW, it has been 43 years since

> The United States House Committee on the Judiciary opens formal and public impeachment hearings against President Richard Nixon.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=May_9&oldid=77960...