Horowitz: Trump Incompetently Abuses Power

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Rob Horowitz, GoLocalWorcester MINDSETTER™

Rob Horowitz

In his ham-handed firing of FBI Director James Comey last week, President Trump managed to combine a spectacular level of incompetence with what Republican Strategist Steve Schmidt, accurately termed “an enormous abuse of power.”

From the moment Comey was fired it was all too obvious that the main reason was his ramping up of the FBI investigation into possible collusion between Russia and Trump Associates during the 2016 election campaign. Contrary to efforts by the President and his surrogates to dismiss or downplay the investigation, chalking it up to Democratic sour grapes. Andrew B McCabe, the acting Director of the FBI called the investigation "highly significant” when he testified in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee in Comey’s place this past Thursday.

The threadbare cover story sanctioned by the President and advanced by the Vice-President and hapless Administration Spokespeople, Sean Spicer and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, that Comey was fired on Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s recommendation based on the FBI Director’s overreaching and inappropriate public pronouncements during the Hillary Clinton investigation was immediately greeted with the skepticism it deserved This skepticism was enhanced by Trump inserting in his letter to Comey outlining his rationale for firing him that the FBI director had told him three times that he was not under investigation—a highly unlikely occurrence. Leaks from with-in the White House and from the Justice Department soon credibly established that the memo was done at the President’s request and that he had already indicated he wanted to fire Comey.

President Trump confirmed that the Russian investigation was very much on his mind when he decided to fire Comey in his interview with NBC Nightly News Anchor, Lester Holt. To put it simply, he sanctioned a false cover story, had his spokespeople go out and tell it to the American public, and then abandoned it when it fell apart.

But if this wasn’t bad enough, President Trump then upped the ante, personally attacking Comey and even implying in a pathetic attempt to intimidate the former FBI Director that he taped their conversations. In a situation in which the parallels to Nixon and Watergate were already gaining media traction, actually raising the specter of a taping system in the White House was the equivalent of putting gasoline on a raging fire.

By the end of the week, after dutifully repeating the false White House talking points, which the President himself blew out of the water, Trump’s allies in the media attempted to define the problem as one of communication and attribute much of it to his communications staff. But this was a problem created by the President who was once again willing to tell the American people something that just wasn’t true and that he knew wasn’t true. As former Republican Congressman and current host of Morning Joe on MSNBC, Joe Scarborough pungently put it, “A fish rots from the head first.” President Trump already is viewed by a substantial majority of the American public as dishonest- a reputation he has well-earned through his telling of repeated falsehoods, Last weeks serial set of untruths will harden and expand this perception.

Most importantly, President Trump abused his power by firing the person who was leading an investigation into his campaign. FBI Directors have 10-year terms to insulate them from politics and preserve their independence. Trump violated that spirit and whether or not his actions meet the legal standard for obstruction of justice, impeding the investigation is precisely what he was attempting to accomplish in firing Comey.

Showing that there just may be karma in the universe, Trump’s combination of mendacity and incompetence probably ensures that the investigation will continue unimpeded and with increased public scrutiny and interest.

Rob Horowitz is a strategic and communications consultant who provides general consulting, public relations, direct mail services and polling for national and state issue organizations, various non-profits and elected officials and candidates. He is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island.