Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

President Trump Dismisses FBI Director Comey

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 329 posts

Re: President Trump Dismisses FBI Director Comey

#181

Post by hendersoon »

koolba wrote: post #62
stevenwoo wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The one professional prognosticator who came closest to predicting a Trump win at 33% agrees with the letter playing an outsize role - https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-comey-letter-probab...

There's also a follow up by I believe the NYT that downplays the letter. Per the trajectory of the polls leading into the date it was released, she wa on the way down both nationally and in the key swing states. The release of the letter coincided with polls that showed that slide yet predated its release (in collection). It's not that it didn't have an impact. Just that it probably wasn't the deciding factor.

The results in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania were so close-- under 1%-- that even if the letter only induced a 1% shift, it was THE deciding factor. If you read the 538 story, this is his "Little Comey" version.

That doesn't mean Hillary didn't make a huge strategic mistake in going after Trump's competence and character rather than focusing on the issues. She did. She totally did.

Re: President Trump Dismisses FBI Director Comey

#182

Post by cli »

sacheendra wrote: post #128
jayess wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

James Clapper, the former Director of National Intelligence, told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Monday that he still has not seen any evidence of any kind of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian foreign nationals. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-N.C., asked if Clapper's prior statement was correct, when he said on NBC that there was "no evidence' of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.…

Why does he use language like "We did not include any evidence in our report"? Does this imply that there was evidence and he did not include it?

I watched that NBC interview here: http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/former-dni-jam.... Right after Clapper answered, the interviewer asked him whether the information exists, and Clapper answered that it does not to his knowledge, but he does not know whether more information has come to light since he left office.

Re: President Trump Dismisses FBI Director Comey

#183

Post by hendersoon »

tannhauser23 wrote: post #151

Everyone should read the letter that the Deputy Attorney General wrote to the Attorney General in recommending that Comey be fired. It's brutal: http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/politics/fbi-dire... This and Comey's recent misstatements to Congress about Huma Abedin forwarding sensitive emails to Anthony Weiner are alone grounds for Trump to fire Comey. Whether Trump had other motives... I mean, who knows?…

I agree with every word of that latter. He deserved to be fired.

However, the idea that Trump fired the FBI director for causing Clinton to bleed is just a teensy bit hard to swallow.

And if they're going to fire him for going after Clinton, why wait until May? Why not January?

Re: President Trump Dismisses FBI Director Comey

#185

Post by CalChris »

Animats wrote: post #61

The FBI director is supposed to have a 10 year term. That went in after J. Edgar Hoover died. Nobody wanted another J. Edgar Hoover FBI Director for Life situation, but having the FBI director be a "pleasure of the President" appointment made it too political. This makes Andrew G. McCabe acting FBI director. He's in the civil service, not a Presidential appointment. He was an FBI agent and worked his way up. From wha…

Actually, not a 10 year term but a term limit of 10 years and apparently even that was waved for Mueller. Big difference. However, I think McCabe will be the acting FBI Director for the remainder of Trump's term which hopefully will be short. I can't imagine a Trump nomination getting past the Senate but then Republicans.

EDIT: I was mistaken. It is a 10 year term. Mueller was given a separate 2 year term.

I'm no fan of Comey either. This all seems very strange and is likely reaching a crisis point.

Re: President Trump Dismisses FBI Director Comey

#186

Post by geomark »

sacheendra wrote: post #128
jayess wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

James Clapper, the former Director of National Intelligence, told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Monday that he still has not seen any evidence of any kind of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian foreign nationals. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-N.C., asked if Clapper's prior statement was correct, when he said on NBC that there was "no evidence' of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.…

Why does he use language like "We did not include any evidence in our report"? Does this imply that there was evidence and he did not include it?

The entire existence of spooks is about deception. That's why they don't speak directly or truthfully.

Re: President Trump Dismisses FBI Director Comey

#188

Post by pm90 »

dualboot wrote: post #79
self-diversity wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah you can tell the Trump-Russia connections are not a quixotic quagmire by how the stories continue to be filled with weasel words and spend 100% of their column inches not presenting any evidence at all.

The problem is the response from the man himself. This could all have been resolved with the release of his financials and being open regarding his business dealings when he made the decision to step into the role of public servant.

This is a complete guess but I think by the nature of the man and his history of bankruptcy and lying, that making those documents public would start even more controversies, even if they would put the Russia ties to rest (if that were truly the case). I'm guessing that he has been advised by the people who know this to not disclose them at any cost.

Re: President Trump Dismisses FBI Director Comey

#189

Post by defined »

jayess wrote: post #106
TheBiv wrote: post #4

"Trump just fired the man leading a counterintelligence investigation into his campaign, on the same day that the Senate Intelligence commitee requested financial documents relating to Trump's business dealings from the treasury department that handles money laundering." -Comment from reddit that sums up how strange this is.

James Clapper, the former Director of National Intelligence, told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Monday that he still has not seen any evidence of any kind of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian foreign nationals. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-N.C., asked if Clapper's prior statement was correct, when he said on NBC that there was "no evidence' of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.…

I thought Clapper clarified today that he didn't mean there was no evidence, only that he was uninvolved and did not know of any evidence.

Lack of knowledge of evidence != no evidence.

Re: President Trump Dismisses FBI Director Comey

#190

Post by Tloewald »

jayess wrote: post #106
TheBiv wrote: post #4

"Trump just fired the man leading a counterintelligence investigation into his campaign, on the same day that the Senate Intelligence commitee requested financial documents relating to Trump's business dealings from the treasury department that handles money laundering." -Comment from reddit that sums up how strange this is.

James Clapper, the former Director of National Intelligence, told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Monday that he still has not seen any evidence of any kind of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian foreign nationals. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-N.C., asked if Clapper's prior statement was correct, when he said on NBC that there was "no evidence' of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.…

Instead of relying on selected quotes from the Washington Examiner, you could read the (declassified version of) the report:

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3254229/ICA-2017-...

From my quick skim, I would say that the report isn't about collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign but about how Russia's means and motives in interfering in the election.

Post reply on HN