via Mediaite
Reactions from the bombshell news that President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey are coming in hot and fast, and first on our list of insight and analysis comes from New Yorker columnist and CNN legal contributor Jeffrey Toobin.
The long-time and vocal critic of all things Trump did not disappoint an audience looking for critical insight as he compared this news to “non-democracies.” When asked if this was unusual by host Wolf Blitzer, Toobin did not demure, saying:
“You bet it is, Wolf. And a grotesque abuse of power, by the President of the United States. This is the kind of thing that goes on in non-democracies. That when there is an investigation that reaches near the president of the United States, or the leader of a non-democracy, they fire the people who are in charge of the investigation. I have not seen anything like this since October 20, 1973 when President Nixon fired Archibald Cox, the Watergate Special Prosecutor. This is something that is not within the American political tradition. That firing led indirectly but certainly to the resignation of President Nixon. And this is very much in this tradition. This is not normal. This is not politics as usual. This is something that is completely outside how the American law is supposed to work.”
The complete story and video from Mediaite here >
Toobin on Coomey Firing: ‘Grotesque Abuse of Power’ and ‘Kind of Thing That Goes on in Non-Democracies’
via The Washington Examiner
Amid the flood of reactions calling President Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey "Nixonian," the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum set the record straight Tuesday night: Nixon never fired the FBI director.
Amid the flood of reactions calling President Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey "Nixonian," the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum set the record straight Tuesday night: Nixon never fired the FBI director.
L. Patrick Gray, who served as acting FBI director under Nixon from May 1972 to April 1973 and was nominated by Nixon in February 1973 but never confirmed, helped Nixon cover up the Watergate scandal. White House officials gave him documents related to the Watergate break-in and Gray shredded them to hide the evidence.
Gray resigned after his actions were discovered.
Mark Felt, the deputy director of the FBI, was the famous "Deep Throat" who helped Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover Nixon's role in the crime.