I think it's less a problem of them reporting inconsequential things as it is them trying to figure out what's consequential enough that people will actually give a shit these days. In any other time the AG perjuring himself during his confirmation hearing would be the biggest political scandal of the year. In the era of Trump? No one reacts. At this point in Obama's presidency, Fox was attacking Obama for eating dijon mustard.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/337509-trump-considering-firing-special-counsel-mueller If he pulls the trigger we're going to see the biggest shitstorm in US politics in a century.
Wow, in a century? Iran-Contra, Watergate, and Clinton's impeachment were all pretty shitstormy. I'm not saying it wouldn't be a big deal, but the deal will only last until the next thing Trump does that makes history. So, like a week.
I would say he's not stupid enough to do it, but you never know with Trump. It can be construed that Mueller has a minor conflict of interest, but that would literally be the worst thing Trump could do right now. It would be a comical irony if Trump turned out to be innocent of collusion with foreign agents, but managed to get himself impeached because he was too temperamental to stop himself from lashing out like a wild animal every time someone stepped on his shoes. Comey's testimony shook out in a way that it allowed both sides to claim it bolstered their position. As eventful as it was it didn't actually change anything, yet. If Trump fires Mueller I think a lot of the republican congressman who have stood by him are going to jump ship. As of right now this is all just a rumor of a maybe though...
I think it gave the average citizen the chance to actually hear Comey speak and them to form their own opinion about him, rather than just hear Trump and Co. spew their version. In that regard, it solidified him (Comey) as a fucking Boy Scout and a seemingly straight shooter. Never mind Trump's reaction to Comey's testimony... which just dug him deeper into the hole he's standing in.
Wow... http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/12/politics/donald-trump-cabinet-meeting/index.html Seems like Trump needed a public "pick-me-up" Cabinet meeting to make himself feel better... that was crazy. The video is just one big public ass-kissing.
Now that we've seen both men in front of a microphone, it's pretty clear who the jackass is. Comey carries himself like a textbook G-Man. If he paused for more than one second, he apologized and explained the pause. In my eyes, that was as honest of an interview/testimony as we'll probably ever see again. I must imagine deep down in Comey's reserved mind he is screaming with rage. Screaming things like "Who is this doughy, know-nothing Wharton Business School silver spooned fuckhead think he is firing ME?"
He was also smart enough to come out and make it about Trump disparaging the FBI and his (old) team... it wasn't about him. The dude is a fucking shark swimming in his own domain, and Trump is Finding Nemo in a wading pool.
And it still blows my mind that the guy was as calm, cool, and collected as he was, while millions around the world watched. Never mind this was his immediate environment: I have no idea if he's really full of shit, or just a really solid professional at this, but he was incredibly well composed and believable, and earned a ton of respect from me as a result. Meanwhile, I just want to see Trump in a room alone with Mueller for an hour... CCTV...
His brief time as director took quite a trajectory. First, the democrats are screaming at him for trumping up charges on Hillary's e-mail investigation. The republicans love him. Then they hate him when he doesn't press charges and claim he's an insider for the democrats. The democrats claim it's a vindication. Then, the democrats hate him again for arousing the same issue close to election day. The republicans love him. The democrats claim he's an insider for the republicans. Then he's not pressing the Russia issue hard enough. Then he's the only one pressing the Russia issue honestly. Then the republicans hate him again. Then he's a hero for the democrats. Maybe he was just a guy trying to do the best job he could in a toxic political environment. However, as much as I credit him for giving a matter of fact and seemingly honest testimony I think his timid approach to so many hot button issues cost him in the end, and that he probably didn't have the resolve to be an effective director. I say that without knowing a lot about Trump's replacement who might make him look brilliant by comparison.
I generally think that it was his role as being one to NOT "get out ahead of things". He said in his testimony that there was a ton of shitty reporting going on, and he couldn't just call up the NYT or WaPo and say, "hey, you got that wrong... this is what happened..". To the contrary, he basically had to just ignore it and carry on. He made a specific point a few times to call out that the bullshit stories that were published as "fact" were indeed bullshit, as the Security Committee knew behind closed doors, and the "real" reasons were top secret. And both Republicans and Democrats on the Committee agreed with that... and I think that was the biggest self-serving statement he made during that... to clear his name and let people know that there is/was other shit going on that he wasn't allowed to talk about, and that silence does NOT mean consent when dealing with FBI matters.
We're rooting for him to fire mueller right? Just to watch the chaos? If trump wants this investigation stuff to go away, firing Mueller is literally the worst way to say "I'm totally not guilty *wink wink*" that I can imagine, and yet I can easily see him doing it just because he acts like the world has to play by his rules.
There's a news report that quotes a "friend of Trump" as saying he's going to fire him, but I have to think that that's just him grandstanding to his friends in an off-hand manner... "meh, I'll fire him, too". I just cannot see his staff letting him actually do it. But yeah... part of me thinks he just might.
There's video included. The friend of Trump is the CEO of Newsmax, and is a known confidant of Trump's. Not saying he's definitely going to do it, but Trump is notoriously difficult to dissuade from terrible ideas once he's got ahold of them.
I've been travelling all day, someone want to me a cliff notes, bullet point type summary of what happened today and help me catch up?
I heard an interview with Jesse Ventura this morning (who, believe me, I know, has his own set of weird issues, but was a fantastic governor for MN when I was living there), he said, "I still like the man as a person, but I think he's a terrible president. He seems to think he wasn't elected president, he thinks he was elected dictator. He forgets that our government has three sets of checks and balances, so that he can't be dictator, but he doesn't seem to get that."
This snippet sums it up. So he might be planning to brush the Russia investigation aside by bringing way more heat on him, which will allow him to move forward with his campaign agenda... or something. The travel ban was upheld by a second appeals court and will likely move on to the supreme court. Trump is also being sued by some democrats for accepting payments from foreign officials. Whether or not said democrats have any evidence to make the suit stick is ambiguous. Fairly typical Monday.