Dem
47
GOP
53
Sigh. We really don't want to write about this story, but it was all over the place yesterday. We suppose readers may want to know about it, just in case it comes up again. Say, in every speech Donald Trump makes for the next 6 months.
The long, and the short, of it is that former FBI Director James Comey—who, of course, has a history with Trump—decided to get frisky on social media yesterday. So, he posted this image to Instagram, along with the comment: "Cool shell formation on my beach walk":
In case you don't immediately get it, "86" is slang for "get rid of" and Trump is president #47.
After Comey posted the message, it caught fire online, and within hours there was much gnashing of teeth and rending of garments from right-wingers, both within the White House and without, with the notion being that Comey was calling for Trump to be assassinated. This is a pretty grim reading of things, especially since "86" does not usually refer to literal killing. In fact, it comes from the restaurant industry, where it refers to taking something off the menu because the restaurant has run out of the day's supply of item. And even if you think Comey WAS thinking about assassination (and note that he promptly apologized and deleted the message once that connotation was pointed out to him), he's not exactly in a position to make that happen.
We would guess that you're seeing three dynamics in play here, in roughly equal measure. First, Trump is very much persuaded that he is a victim, always, and this story plays into that narrative. Second, when Trump or one of his underlings hints at violence against an opponent (say, Hillary Clinton), then that's just "politics," but when the shoe is on the other foot, it's an offense on par with the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Third, between the QatAir Force One fiasco, and the wrangling over the budget, it's not been a great week for the administration or the GOP, and this Comey business is an excellent distraction.
And so, the former director is now being investigated by the Department of Homeland Security, at the behest of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. We assume nothing will come of this, though given who is leading the charge, we suppose it's at least possible that Comey ends up in a Salvadoran prison, or maybe that Noem takes him behind the barn and... well, you know how she rolls. (Z)