Concern, Controversy Over Trump Presidency Has ‘Country Being Tested In Unprecedented Ways’

By Askia Muhammad -Senior Editor- | Last updated: May 24, 2017 - 2:43:55 PM

Protesters march for President Donald Trump to show his taxes April 15, 2017. Photo: MGN Online (R) Jennifer Lewis protests along Wards Road before President Donald Trump speaks at the Liberty University commencement on May 13, in Lynchburg, Va. Photo: AP/Wide World photos

WASHINGTON—President Donald J. Trump swaggered into the second 100 days of his term in office, just as he concluded his first 100 days, with Washington, the seat of the U.S. government, in turmoil.

The volume of the criticisms—his style and his many un-forced errors—on top of allegations of serious, potentially impeachable offenses, by the president; the charges, the daily, openly contradictory statements by administration officials and by the president himself; are exceeded only by the speed with which the incriminating evidence is being disclosed.

The damage has not been contained by the inexperienced White House staff. And the news about the investigations can hardly be contained within a single 24-hour news cycle.

The speed of the deterioration of the administration’s credibility takes your breath away: like a ride on a rocket ship. As President Trump landed in Saudi Arabia May 21, on the first day of a 9-day round of visits and summits, he personally escaped the charged Washington political atmosphere his actions had instigated, but his troubles at home continued to make headlines.

James Comey Jr. Former director of the FBI

“I’m almost speechless,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said on “Fox News Sunday” after the president left for Saudi Arabia. Mr. McCain was asked about President Trump’s purported disparaging remarks about fired FBI Director James Comey in an Oval Office meeting with the Russian foreign minister, “because I don’t know why someone would say something like that.”

The New York Times reported that President Trump expressed relief about Mr. Comey’s termination to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak, during a meeting personally requested by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to the report, Mr. Trump called Mr. Comey a “real nut job” and said he had “faced great pressure because of Russia” that was “taken off” by his decision to fire Mr. Comey.

The revelations come one week after the president fired Mr. Comey amid reports that the FBI director was seeking additional resources for his probe into possible ties between Russia and the Trump Organization.

Michael Flynn

The president apparently concluded that the fallout from the extremely bad press he would receive for firing the FBI director would not be as catastrophic to his position as the truths he might discover in his investigation into Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. Mr. Flynn has been implicated in reports of multiple financial dealings with the governments of Turkey and Russia, while he was an active member of the 2016 Trump campaign.

According to The New York Times in yet another report, Mr. Trump personally asked then-FBI Director Comey to end the agency’s investigation into Gen. Flynn. Mr. Trump made the extraordinary request to the FBI chief during an Oval Office meeting on Feb. 14—one day after Mr. Trump fired Gen. Flynn for lying both publicly and privately about his contacts with Russian officials.

Mr. Trump reportedly asked Vice President Mike Pence and Attorney General Jeff Sessions to leave the room before making the request to Mr. Comey, saying, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.” The news report was based on two sources who cited a memo written by Mr. Comey, immediately after the meeting. The White House did not deny the accuracy of those quotes.

Chuck Schumer, politician, the senior U.S. senator from New York and a member of the Democratic Party; he is the current U.S. Senate minority leader

Discussions of the politics of the scandals even put possible impeachment on the table. Speaking from the Senate floor, New York Democrat and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told his colleagues, “History is watching.”

“Concerns about our national security, the rule of law, the independence of our nation’s highest law enforcement agencies are mounting. The country is being tested in unprecedented ways. I say to all of my colleagues in the Senate: History is watching,” he said.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, traveling with the president, said that Mr. Trump discussed the abrupt termination of Mr. Comey with Russian officials to prove he was not “distracted” from working to improve the U.S.-Russia relationship.

“I think what the president was trying to convey to the Russians is, ‘Look, I’m not going to be distracted by all these issues that are here at home, that affect us domestically, I’m not going to let that distract from our efforts to see if we can engage with you, engage with Russia,’” Mr. Tillerson said on “Fox News Sunday” May 21.

The sheer weight of the political drama led to yet another shocking development, just ahead of Mr. Trump’s departure for Saudi Arabia. The Department of Justice named another former FBI Director—Robert Mueller—as special counsel in the investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 U.S. election.

Standing next to a photograph of President Donald Trump and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., center, joined by, from left, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and Rep. Ruben Kihuen, D-Nevada, speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 17. Photo: AP Photo/Alex Brandon

This continuation of the FBI’s Comey investigation will include allegations that Russia colluded with the Trump campaign to sway the presidential race. The appointment was made by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who was originally blamed by the president for recommending Mr. Comey’s dismissal, before he admitted that it was his own idea all along.

On top of those numerous troubling reports, there are reports that before he decided to fire him, Mr. Trump asked Mr. Comey during the Feb. 14 Oval Office meeting to consider imprisoning journalists who report on leaks of classified information.

Mr. Trump’s political opponents hope the multiple scandals suggest that there is evidence that the president may have committed the crime of obstruction of justice, an impeachable offense. While Democratic Party leaders want to tamp down talk about impeachment at this time, the concept is now discussed openly.

In 1973, fully 18 months before his eventual retirement President Richard Nixon was first condemned by a member of the young Congressional Black Caucus, when Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) called for his impeachment. Now, Texas Rep. Al Green (D-Tex.) became the first congress member to call for Mr. Trump’s impeachment from the floor of the House of Representatives.

President Nixon shaking hands with King Faisal of Saudi Arabia following talks at Riasa Palace, July 15, 1974. Photo: catalog.archives.gov

“I rise today, Mr. Speaker, to call for the impeachment of the president of the United States of America for obstruction of justice … I do it because, Mr. Speaker, there is a belief in this country that no one is above the law, and that includes the president of the United States of America.”

As a result, some of Mr. Trump’s rabid supporters threatened Mr. Green’s life. At a town hall meeting May 20, Rep. Green played a series of threatening voicemail messages he has received in response to his call for the president’s impeachment on the House floor. “You’ll be hanging from a tree,” one caller said. Many callers left derogatory messages with racial slurs, some even using the “n-word,” according to the Houston Chronicle.

“You ain’t going to impeach nobody. Try it and we will lynch all of you,” another caller said. Mr. Green appeared to be unfazed. “We are not going to be intimidated,” he said. “We are not going to allow this to cause us to deviate from what we believe to be the right thing to do and that is to proceed with the impeachment of President Trump.”

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