New York Times (May 7)
“It’s breathtaking and yet, by now, so predictable. Like aspiring authoritarians everywhere, Mr. Trump sees law enforcement in intensely personal terms. When the law investigates you, it’s a witch hunt; when it’s used to punish your enemies, it’s an essential tool…. Americans should remember May 9, 2017,” the day Trump fired FBI director James Comey, “as the beginning of one of the great tests of American democracy.”
Tags: Authoritarians, Breathtaking, Comey, Democracy, Enemies, FBI, Law enforcement, Personal, Predictable, Punish, Trump, U.S.
The Economist (May 13)
The jury is still out on whether “the sacking of James Comey” was incompetent or malign. “Is the administration chaotic and unworthy of its place in a mighty tradition, but more farcical than corrupting…? Or is Mr Trump, who has just become the first president since Richard Nixon to fire a man who was leading a formal investigation into his associates, and perhaps himself, a threat to American democracy?”
Tags: Chaotic, Comey, Corrupting, Democracy, Farcical, Incompetent, Investigation, Jury, Malign, Nixon, Threat, Trump, U.S., Unworthy
LA Times (May 10)
“The shocking dismissal of FBI Director James B. Comey by a president whose campaign he was investigating can’t be undone. The immediate priority is to safeguard the integrity of that investigation and its credibility in the eyes of the public and to preserve the evidence that has been amassed.”
Tags: Comey, Credibility, Dismissal, Evidence, FBI, Integrity, Investigation, Safeguard, Shocking