I first learned about dealing with bullies from Andy and Opie Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show. Opie taught me that when you stand up to bullies and get a black eye, it doesn’t hurt as much as putting up with their taunts. Opie also taught me that when a bully draws a line in the dirt and dares you to step over it, you should step over it. Because the bully is likely to back down. Even if he doesn’t and you end up with a black eye, that’s better than being bullied.
President Trump has drawn just such a line and is daring someone to cross it. In an interview with NBC News’ Lester Holt, Trump explained his decision to fire FBI Chief James Comey, contradicting previous explanations from his vice president and other White House officials.
“He (Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein) made a recommendation, but regardless of [the] recommendation, I was going to fire Comey,” Trump said. “In fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story. It’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won,’” he added.
Trump seemed to tie Comey’s firing to the FBI’s investigation of Russia’s alleged hacking against Democrats during the election — essentially admitting to firing the guy investigating his campaign’s possible connections to Russia and challenging someone, anyone, to do something about it.
That sound you hear is the Republican Congress shrugging its shoulders. The line Trump has drawn has yet to be crossed.
The timing of Comey’s firing is suspicious, to say the least. It comes just as the investigation into the Trump campaign’s Russian ties was accelerating, according to media reports. Specifically, The New York Times reported in the aftermath of the firing that Comey had recently requested additional resources for the investigation from Rosenstein. Was the firing precipitated by the investigation?
Of course, it’s just as likely that our president, who makes decisions based on his gut, was simply angry that Comey could not be controlled and, thus, continued to bring up a Russia investigation that vexes Trump, surfacing his own feelings of illegitimacy and inadequacy. Or, as Kathleen Parker speculates in The Washington Post, Trump may have fired Comey because he, at six feet, eight inches, is taller than Trump.
Either way, the firing is the act of a childish or, even worse, an incompetent president who continues to flaunt his power in the face of an enabling Republican Congress. How else to explain the lack of outrage at a president who just dismissed the head of the FBI during an investigation of said president’s campaign? Bullies continue to act out, to get their way, until someone stands up to them.
Make no mistake, there is plenty to savor about the antics of Trump and his cast of characters last week — the Time magazine article that revealed that Trump gets an extra scoop of ice cream with his pie after dinner, the audacity of Trump’s tweet that there may be “tapes” of a conversation with James Comey, White House Spokesman Sean Spicer hiding “among” the bushes outside of the White House — but the comedy is decidedly dark when one realizes the seriousness of what is happening. Despite the repeated declarations of the intelligence community that the Russian government meddled in the 2016 U.S. election, our president persists in calling the investigation into his campaign a “taxpayer funded charade,” and he has fired the head of the FBI with impunity.
The Democrats in Congress are united in calling for a special counsel to lead the investigation. There are similar demands from constituents at the most recent congressional town hall meetings. Thus far, the Republican majority in Congress has refused to turn up the heat on the Justice Department to name a special counsel. Silent majority, anyone?
I know from Andy and Opie that a bully without boundaries is not a good thing. They steal apples and lunch money and break street lights and, eventually, as Deputy Barney Fife will tell you, they end up on motorcycles, wearing leather jackets, and zooming around, creating a reign of terror.
Which Republican or Republicans will be the first to cross the line that Trump has drawn? Which Republican will be our Opie?
