Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe
told Congress there “has been no effort”to impede the investigation into Russia’s election meddling — minus, you know, the episode that made him the acting director.
Today is white nationalist Richard Spencer’s birthday and, on a totally unrelated note, remember how people get punched on their birthdays for every year they’ve been alive? And President Trump is hanging a map of his electoral college win on a White House wall. This would be the weirdest bit of art in the Trump administration if HUD Secretary Ben Carson didn’t already have that picture of himself and Jesus.
This is HUFF POST HILL for Thursday, May 11th, 2017:
LEFT HAND DOESN’T KNOW WHO THE RIGHT ONE IS FIRING –
Ryan J. Reilly: “President Donald Trump had already made up his mind to fire FBI Director James Comey long before Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein wrote up a memo to justify the decision, the president said in an interview with NBC News on Thursday. Trump’s team had repeatedly claimed that Rosenstein’s memo precipitated Comey’s firing. Hours after Trump fired Comey on Tuesday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer blamed Rosenstein for the FBI director’s dismissal. ‘It was all him,’ Spicer said, referring to Rosenstein. But in an interview with Lester Holt on Thursday, the president revealed he’d made up his mind to fire Comey before he met with Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Rosenstein on Monday . ‘I was going to fire Comey, my decision,’ Trump said. ‘I was going to fire Comey,’ he repeated, adding that there was no good time to fire someone. ‘I was going to fire him regardless of recommendation. He made a recommendation, but regardless of recommendation, I was going to fire Comey.’” [HuffPost]
Today in things that won’t happen: Merrick Garland as FBI director.
GOOD GOD THE PRESIDENT REALLY DOESN’T KNOW HOW ANY OF THIS WORKS – **** Steve Holland and Jeff Mason: “The anger behind Donald Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday had been building for months, but a turning point came when Comey refused to preview for top Trump aides his planned testimony to a Senate panel, White House officials said. Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had wanted a heads-up from Comey about what he would say at a May 3 hearing about his handling of an investigation into former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. When Comey refused, Trump and his aides considered that an act of insubordination and it was one of the catalysts to Trump’s decision this week to fire the FBI director, the officials said.” [Reuters]
Good god : “In the weeks before President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, a federal investigation into potential collusion between Trump associates and the Russian government was heating up, as Mr. Comey became increasingly occupied with the probe. Mr. Comey started receiving daily instead of weekly updates on the investigation, beginning at least three weeks ago, according to people with knowledge of the matter and the progress of the Federal Bureau of Investigation probe.Mr. Comey was concerned by information showing possible evidence of collusion, according to these people .” [WSJ’s Shane Harris and Carol E. Lee]
Read More: Congratulations To White House Press Secretary Jared Kushner – HuffPost
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