What hand of Comey's was forced by Trump tweeting his tape conversations tweet?
What beans were spilled that weren't already going to be spilled.
IMO, the only thing Trump "won" from that tweet is more investigation from Mueller.
There Were No Tapes
- Thread starter GunsOfFrankEaton
- Start date
What hand of Comey's was forced by Trump tweeting his tape conversations tweet?
What beans were spilled that weren't already going to be spilled.
IMO, the only thing Trump "won" from that tweet is more investigation from Mueller.
Yeah, serious. I don't pay attention to politics except to read stuff on this board.
JD, IYHO, could the tweet be reasonably seen as an attempt to intimidate a witness?
Nah. Doesn't meet the imminence or threat of actual harm standards.
Last edited:
"The president tweeted on Friday after I got fired that I better hope there's not tapes.
I woke up in the middle of the night on Monday night 'cause it didn't dawn on me originally that there might be corroboration for our conversation. There might be a tape. And my judgment was I needed to get that out into the public square.
So I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter. I didn't do it myself for a variety of reasons, but I asked him to because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel."
He directly attributed Trump's statement about tapes as the reason he woke up in the middle of the night and decided to leak an unredacted memo via proxy to the New York Times - a not insignificant choice of conveyance, given their ratio of negative Trump stories.
He got over on Comey by making him panic and painting him into a corner where he had to admit several things he likely would've preferred to be coy about.
Trump leveraged Comey in this way to finally get it into the public discourse that he (Comey) had told him (Trump) on 3 separate occasions that he was not under investigation. Do you really have to be a cheerleader to see that? I disagree.
If you like your plan you can keep your plan...
Agreed. Trump simply wanted Comey -- a chickenshit of the highest order -- to tell the truth.
Now whether it was good strategy is debatable because Comey also knew the memo would likely engage a special investigation - JD is right about that. I'm just saying Trump wanted to force Comey to admit he wasn't under investigation and had told him so 3 times. Hard to debate that he got what he wanted in that regard.
If you think Comey's public testimony before Congress was a success for Trump, I don't really know what to say. He "got over" on Comey by tricking Comey into releasing memos that implicate Trump in possible obstruction of justice which will almost surely be investigated more fully by Mueller? And you consider that a winning strategy?
It wasn't a disaster for him, but if you think Trump "won" or got over on Comey as a result of him leaking the memos and saying some things he might have preferred not to....some of which look like they are directly related to reports of Trump now being under investigation for obstruction by Mueller....you are definitely looking at the totality of the circumstances with spray tan orange skin tone colored lenses.
Last edited:
But when someone talks about 4D chess or "winning" by doing this or that Trump got over on Comey, the valuation of the cost to him to get Comey to do that one thing he wanted has to be factored in. In the totality of that, I still don't see how anyone but a cheerleader could come to the conclusion that he came out ahead as a result of that tweet when you consider the totality of the circumstance. His strategy didn't end up in a good "deal" for him.
And that was what my cheerleader statement was directed at....the totality of the circumstances and him "winning".
"I don't see any way that tweeting about possible surreptitious recordings, being subpoenaed to produce them if they exist by Congress, and then admitting or stating that there never were any can be viewed as a winning strategy by anyone but the most ardent Trump cheerleader."
Last edited:
I don't know how debatable it really is. IMO, in the totality of the circumstances he pretty clearly ended up with the short end of the stick in this exchange. It wasn't a disaster for him like the left tried to paint it, but he also wasn't on the "good" side the deal by any stretch of the imagination.
The narrow focus of my point is he made Comey dance exactky the way he wanted him to. Whether it was wise or helped him? different discussion.
Harder to quantify. Tactically awkward for sure, but strategically? Legally maybe a different answer than the PR value. It seems to be playing well to people who like to see the establishment - of which, Comey is clearly a member - gotten over on. It feels like a FU to the swamp.
Assuming Mueller finds nothing actionable, I predict Trump's base will view it favorably.
Harder to quantify. Tactically awkward for sure, but strategically? Legally maybe a different answer than the PR value. It seems to be playing well to people who like to see the establishment - of which, Comey is clearly a member - gotten over on. It feels like a FU to the swamp.
Assuming Mueller finds nothing actionable, I predict Trump's base will view it favorably.
Trump's base views everything he does favorably. Even if they have to play Twister to find a way to get there.
That's a VERY narrow focus point....especially given your first post in the thread.
Of course his base will view it favorably....whether or not Mueller finds anything actionable.
By base, I don't mean cheerleaders. Well maybe what you call cheerleaders, but not what an objective person would.
I mean people who voted for him. Not all those are what you describe here.
I wouldn't necessarily consider all people who voted for him "his base" either.
We've heard from a whole lot of people here who basically have said they didn't necessarily want to vote for Trump, but that his primary qualification was he wasn't Hillary. I would consider the people who were enthusiastic about his election and actively desired him as President to be his base. I would consider primarily "Anti-Hillary" voters as outside of his base.
Yes. Why is this an accomplishment? It's a "win" to get the FBI to say that the POTUS isn't under criminal investigation? Pretty sad state of a presidency if you ask me.
And now he is. So by your thinking if being under investigation is the currency of victory isn't Biff the loser here?
he wasn't hilldebeast
he wasn't bernie
he wasn't ted
he wasn't marco
he wasn't jeb and his millions
and now we look to georgia and the millions the dems pumped into that race and got stoned
twitter russia comey be damned he's changed america
the dems are gonna have to get the votes
