Questions about credibility come as president pushes for health-care overhaul, Supreme Court confirmation
.. The Comey appearance also threatens to further erode Mr. Trump’s job-approval ratings, possibly giving Republicans in more moderate districts an incentive to keep their distance from the president as the FBI investigation plays out... The poll found that 58% of Americans disapprove of the president’s job performance and just 37% approve... “If you like him, you’re blowing it off as the swamp going back at him,”.. “If you’re one of our activists, all you care about is, are you getting these things done—Supreme Court, Obamacare repeal?”.. Some of the centrist Republicans whom Mr. Trump needs for his governing coalition skipped an opportunity on Monday to defend the president, with intelligence panel members such as Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R., Fla.) saying it was important to conduct an investigation of Russian election meddling in a spirit of bipartisanship... But when Mr. Comey confirmed the FBI was investigating Russian meddling in the elections, including potential links between Russians and people in Mr. Trump’s orbit, Republicans seemed to realize that embracing Mr. Trump might expose them to unwanted political risks.By the end of the hearing, they were openly worrying that the revelations could interfere with the ability of the Trump administration to succeed... Mr. Spicer predicted that the FBI investigation will inevitably conclude there were no illicit contacts between the campaign and Russian operatives... “Republicans have a historic opportunity for conservative change if they keep their eyes on governing and away from the shiny objects,” Mr. Holmes said... some Republicans had been questioning Mr. Trump’s credibility in the sausage-making aspects of passing laws. When Mr. Trump last Friday said he had won the support for the health bill from of an influential bloc of House conservatives, some House Republicans openly challenged him on Twitter.“Absolutely not true that conservatives have flipped to yes on the health care bill,” wrote Rep. Justin Amash (R., Mich.) in a post that was retweeted by Rep. Thomas Massie (R., Ky.). “It doesn’t repeal Obamacare. It remains a disaster.”.. Republicans may be reaching a point where they can challenge Mr. Trump with impunity... “GOP lawmakers are criticizing him with impunity—and that makes it easier for them to oppose him on Obamacare, his budget, tax policies, etc.,” he said. “Trump is squandering his political capital, which he needs to win enactment of his agenda.”
Yes, Trump Is Being Held Accountable
James B. Comey (a former colleague of mine at the Justice Department), has proved to be an independent actor
.. Mr. Trump could fire Mr. Comey on a whim, but that would not kill the F.B.I. investigation. Rather, just as President Richard Nixon hastened his impeachment with the Watergate-related firings known as the “Saturday Night Massacre,” canning Mr. Comey would only heighten the public’s and Congress’s suspicions about Mr. Trump’s guilt and increase pressure on the F.B.I. and others to get to the bottom of the Russia matter.
.. Those investigations will now be supervised by Rod J. Rosenstein, soon to be the deputy attorney general, who is a career prosecutor of undoubted independence and an expert on national security and public corruption.
.. Another reason to think the existing process is working to keep the president in check are the plentiful leaks from the executive branch that have revealed a great deal about the Russian imbroglio. Leaks of this sort are a predicable response to a perception of illegitimacy or overreach inside the executive branch.
.. one should not overlook what is truly remarkable here: In the second month of a new presidency, several bodies in a Congress controlled by the president’s party are conducting high-profile, politically fraught and hard-to-control investigations that potentially implicate current and former administration officials and former campaign officials.
.. All of these actors and institutions are holding the Trump presidency to account.
Trump’s Talk About Muslims Led Acting Attorney General to Defy Ban
As Republicans seethed over President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration in early 2015, Senator Jeff Sessions sharply questioned Sally Q. Yates about whether she had the independent streak needed to be the Justice Department’s second in command.
.. “If the views the president wants to execute are unlawful, should the attorney general or the deputy attorney general say no?” Mr. Sessions asked during a confirmation hearing for Ms. Yates.
.. President Trump’s own words convinced her that his executive order on immigration was intended to single out Muslims, senior officials said. Hours after she refused to defend that order, Mr. Trump fired her.
.. The Office of Legal Counsel of the Justice Department had reviewed the order and signed off on its legality. But Ms. Yates and her staff lawyers believed that the department had to consider the intent of the order, which she said appeared intended to single out people based on religion.
“We have comments from the president about what this is supposed to do,” Ms Yates said in one meeting on Monday, according to two people involved in the discussions. She later added, “The intent was clear from the face of it.”
.. Mr. Trump had campaigned on a promise to single out Muslims for immigration restrictions. One of his advisers, Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, said in an interview that Mr. Trump wanted a Muslim ban but needed “the right way to do it legally.” Mr. Trump said in a later interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network that Christian refugees would be given priority for entry visas to the United States.
.. Ms. Yates considered resigning, the officials said, but concluded that doing so would leave the decision to whomever succeeded her, even if in a temporary capacity.
.. Mr. Sessions, an immigration hard-liner, argued that the Justice Department should have refused to support Mr. Obama’s executive action liberalizing immigration policy.
Ms. Yates promised that she would stand up to the president, if necessary.
.. Last year, Ms. Yates and Ms. Lynch earned the ire of Democrats — including many in the department — for not intervening and prohibiting the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, from sending a letter to Congress in the final days of the presidential campaign.
America Becomes a Stan
We are, after all, about to hand over power to a man who has spent his whole adult life trying to build a cult of personality around himself;
.. Meanwhile, one look at his Twitter account is enough to show that victory has done nothing to slake his thirst for ego gratification. So we can expect lots of self-aggrandizement once he’s in office. I don’t think it will go as far as gold-plated statues, but really, who knows?
.. Some prominent Republicans are already suggesting that, rather than enforcing the ethics laws, Congress should simply change them to accommodate the great man.
.. Some Trump apologists have even taken to declaring that we needn’t worry about corruption from the incoming clique, because rich men don’t need more money. Seriously.
.. Not incidentally, James Comey, the F.B.I. director whose intervention almost surely swung the election, had previously worked for the Whitewater committee, which spent seven years obsessively investigating a failed land deal.
.. Indeed, America botched the occupation of Iraq in part thanks to profiteering by politically connected businesses.