![]() ![]() In Spicer’s telling, Paul Manafort was a virtual nobody, someone who “played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time.” Spicer’s defense strategy was in part to distance Trump from the figures under investigation by the FBI for their ties to Russia. ![]() “It’s one thing to read statements from a transcript or a newspaper, and that’s not unimportant, but when you see it on video, it carries a punch.” “It just makes it much more vivid,” said Peter Wehner, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center who has worked in the three previous Republican administrations. He should be focused on salvaging his health-care bill, not continuing to draw all of America’s eyes to the Russia investigation.”Ī master showman, Trump surely could intuit the theatrical power of Comey trekking to Capitol Hill to testify for several hours about Russia, all broadcast live on national television. That’s a brutal blow to his credibility and a huge opportunity cost. “Except this time he is getting slapped down by the sitting FBI director. “He just cannot let it go,” Palmieri said. Jennifer Palmieri, who served as communications director on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, said Trump’s wiretapping situation reminded her of his “death spiral” after lashing out at a federal judge over his Latino heritage. “The central contention that Barack Obama wiretapped Donald Trump in Trump Tower was blown out of the water and utterly dismissed.”Īs always in Trump world, where the guiding ethos is winning at any cost, the worst sin is conceding defeat. “I think we’re going to test the outer limits of the Trump ‘fake news’ cult,” said Rick Wilson, a Republican strategist. White House press secretary Sean Spicer picked up the torch in the afternoon, trying in a contentious briefing with reporters to deflect attention from Trump’s false wiretapping charges while steadfastly refusing to admit any wrongdoing. “Must find leaker now!” he wrote in one tweet from his personal account.ĭuring Comey’s testimony, Trump offered live commentary on his official presidential Twitter account, pushing the argument that Russia did not influence the election. Before Comey was sworn in at the hearing, Trump tried to set the tone with a series of early-morning tweets decrying the accusations of collusion with Russia as “FAKE NEWS” being pushed by defeated Democrats and arguing that the real scandal is the leaking of sensitive information from within the intelligence community. On the Russia issue, Trump and his aides were defiant Monday in the face of Comey’s testimony. “All that really matters this week is Gorsuch moving forward and the House passing step one of Obamacare repeal,” said Scott Reed, a veteran Republican strategist who works for the U.S. Some of Trump’s defenders said the impact of Comey’s testimony could easily be overtaken if the White House is disciplined enough to marshal its agenda, as well as Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, through Congress. (Video: Jenny Starrs / Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) The Comey episode threatens to damage Trump’s credibility not only with voters, but also with lawmakers of his own party whose support he needs to pass the health-care bill this week in the House, the first legislative project of his presidency.įurthermore, the FBI’s far-reaching Russia investigation shows no sign of concluding soon and is all but certain to remain a distraction for the White House, spurring moments of presidential fury and rash tweets and possibly inhibiting the administration’s ability to govern. Gallup’s tracking poll as of Sunday showed that just 39 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s job performance, with 55 percent disapproving. His approval ratings, which were historically low at his inauguration, have fallen even further. Edgar Hoover or any other FBI director would have testified against a sitting president? It would have been a mind-įor Trump, Comey’s testimony punctuates what has been a troubling first two months as president. “There’s a smell of treason in the air,” presidential historian Douglas Brinkley said. ![]() Questions about Russia have hung over Trump for months, but the president always has dismissed them as “fake news.” That became much harder Monday after the FBI director proclaimed the Russia probe to be anything but fake. He confirmed publicly that the FBI was investigating possible collusion between Trump campaign officials and associates with Russia, part of an extraordinary effort by an adversary to influence the outcome of the 2016 U.S. ![]()
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