While the cable, tv news, and the press are saturating the coverage of FBI Director James Comey’s firing, and this insignificant blog is not needed on this, I will continue commenting on this. Part of the blog is just as a diary of what we are exposed to. The other outlook, is that this is living real history, of enormous importance to our democracy , and to our system of justice. It is unique in the history of the Presidency. I will comment on the various issues, without repeating the hour by hour coverage.
First, Trump has now emitted that he is mad at Comey for exonerating Clinton, rather than for going public and chastising Clinton without charging her, as the media had been misinterpreting Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s letter.
Trump is still upset over Clinton’s IT assistant erasing 33,000 personal emails. But Trump has refused to give Congress ANY documents about his campaign assistants who are being investigated.
Trump wined and dined Comey, and asked if he was under investigation. He also asked if Comey wanted to keep his job by pledging loyalty to Trump. Both are interfering with an investigation, and essentially trying to bribe the Director of the FBI. Trump also met with the Attorney General in firing Comey, over the now admitted investigation of links with Russia. Remember when Bill Clinton made a “social” call to Obama’s Attorney General Loretta Lynch on her airplane, and was roundly attacked by all Republicans? And who had to recuse herself from the Clinton investigation?
Trump complained that Comey had stated that there was no evidence that Trump’s New York Tower had been tapped by Obama. But Trump let’s a Troika of Russian operatives into the Oval Office, something that hasn’t been done before. Trump threatened Comey with being bugged at the White House, but now it is much more likely that the Oval Office is bugged by Russia.
Finally, the Election Math lesson. Trump bragged about his victory, since it is so hard for Republicans to get Electoral College votes. Exactly the opposite is true. Let’s do a back of the envelope calculation. Republicans dominate 33 states, which should give them 66 Senators to 34 for Democrats. The population of Republican states is 60% of the US, and of Democratic states is 40% of the US. This should be roughly proportional the number of Congressional districts for the House. Of the 435 House members, this would break down as 261 Rs to 174 Ds. Adding, we roughly estimate an electoral vote of 327 Rs vs 208 Ds.
The hidden in-the-background story is Trump’s pursuit of his dream that he won the popular vote except for 3 to 5 million illegal votes. To supposedly prevent this, Trump has established a Federal election commission. Voting is supposed to be regulated by the states. Republicans have been blocking poor voters in Republican states by requiring picture identity cards. Is Trump trying to exclude Democratic voters all over the country with this approach, including California, with more liberal voting laws?
