Jim Comey's scorching op Ed in the NYT

[nolabear]

He’s been waiting a long time to say this.

People have been asking me hard questions. What happened to the leaders in the Trump administration, especially the attorney general, Bill Barr, who I have said was due the benefit of the doubt?

How could Mr. Barr, a bright and accomplished lawyer, start channeling the president in using words like “no collusion” and F.B.I. “spying”? And downplaying acts of obstruction of justice as products of the president’s being “frustrated and angry,” something he would never say to justify the thousands of crimes prosecuted every day that are the product of frustration and anger?

How could he write and say things about the report by Robert Mueller, the special counsel, that were apparently so misleading that they prompted written protest from the special counsel himself?

How could Mr. Barr go before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday and downplay President Trump’s attempt to fire Mr. Mueller before he completed his work?

And how could Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, after the release of Mr. Mueller’s report that detailed Mr. Trump’s determined efforts to obstruct justice, give a speech quoting the president on the importance of the rule of law? Or on resigning, thank a president who relentlessly attacked both him and the Department of Justice he led for “the courtesy and humor you often display in our personal conversations”?

What happened to these people?

I don’t know for sure. People are complicated, so the answer is most likely complicated. But I have some idea from four months of working close to Mr. Trump and many more months of watching him shape others.

Amoral leaders have a way of revealing the character of those around them. Sometimes what they reveal is inspiring. For example, James Mattis, the former secretary of defense, resigned over principle, a concept so alien to Mr. Trump that it took days for the president to realize what had happened, before he could start lying about the man.

But more often, proximity to an amoral leader reveals something depressing. I think that’s at least part of what we’ve seen with Bill Barr and Rod Rosenstein. Accomplished people lacking inner strength can’t resist the compromises necessary to survive Mr. Trump and that adds up to something they will never recover from. It takes character like Mr. Mattis’s to avoid the damage, because Mr. Trump eats your soul in small bites.




https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/opinion/william-barr-testimony.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

[comradebillyboy]

1. For those of us who don't subscribe, a couple of paragraphs

would be informative.

[nolabear]

2. Added a bunch. It's eloquent. Read it all when you can.

[comradebillyboy]

4. Thanks, I appreciate it...

[Bernardo de La Paz]

39. Thanks. But please use the EXCERPT tags DU provides to set it off from YOUR comments.

I think I can tell what are your comments but I'm not sure.

[mr_lebowski]

64. Agree! (nt)

[PA Democrat]

5. Here is a short excerpt

But more often, proximity to an amoral leader reveals something depressing. I think that’s at least part of what we’ve seen with Bill Barr and Rod Rosenstein. Accomplished people lacking inner strength can’t resist the compromises necessary to survive Mr. Trump and that adds up to something they will never recover from. It takes character like Mr. Mattis’s to avoid the damage, because Mr. Trump eats your soul in small bites.

It starts with your sitting silent while he lies, both in public and private, making you complicit by your silence. In meetings with him, his assertions about what “everyone thinks” and what is “obviously true” wash over you, unchallenged, as they did at our private dinner on Jan. 27, 2017, because he’s the president and he rarely stops talking. As a result, Mr. Trump pulls all of those present into a silent circle of assent.

Speaking rapid-fire with no spot for others to jump into the conversation, Mr. Trump makes everyone a co-conspirator to his preferred set of facts, or delusions. I have felt it — this president building with his words a web of alternative reality and busily wrapping it around all of us in the room.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/opinion/william-barr-testimony.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

[lunatica]

21. This is a thing with people like Trump

He runs roughshod over people before they even know it.

It’s very good insight from Comey. But his speech regarding Hillary was before Trump allegedly won the vote. He needs to be just as analytical and insightful about why he did that.

[superpatriotman]

52. Unchallenged

Except by those with nothing to lose that he can take.

[LibFarmer]

72. Comey suddenly finds religion

after throwing the election to Trump.

However, I'll take anyone who is gunning at Trump at this point.

[DENVERPOPS]

107. Comey did as much

Comey did as much, SINGLE HANDEDLY, to throw this election to Republicans and especially Trump, as any other single thing, in my opinion and he knew it.

For him to suddenly find religion and to speak up is a total farce.......

Again, I think Anything we can try to do at this stage is far to little, and far too late......

The Republican party has been playing three dimensional chess for decades, and the dems have been playing checkers......

[LibFarmer]

108. Yes

Comey was a big part of why Hillary lost.

[onit2day]

38. Spot on. Well put and accurate. Rapid fire dialogue is designed to prevent objections.

I've always seen this on Trump but am amazed that everyone doesn't see it as it is so obvious. An opinionated fraud and conman. He also uses emotional blackmail as in agree or suffer his rage and vindictiveness. How much longer must we tolerate this PINO?

[Hekate]

75. Rapid fire monologue, not dialogue. There can be only one, in Trump's world.

[struggle4progress]

3. How Trump Co-opts Leaders Like Bill Barr

Accomplished people lacking inner strength can’t resist the compromises necessary to survive this president.
By James Comey
May 1, 2019

... How could Mr. Barr, a bright and accomplished lawyer, start channeling the president in using words like “no collusion” and F.B.I. “spying”? And downplaying acts of obstruction of justice as products of the president’s being “frustrated and angry,” something he would never say to justify the thousands of crimes prosecuted every day that are the product of frustration and anger?

How could he write and say things about the report by Robert Mueller, the special counsel, that were apparently so misleading that they prompted written protest from the special counsel himself? ...

Amoral leaders have a way of revealing the character of those around them. Sometimes what they reveal is inspiring. For example, James Mattis, the former secretary of defense, resigned over principle, a concept so alien to Mr. Trump that it took days for the president to realize what had happened, before he could start lying about the man.

But more often, proximity to an amoral leader reveals something depressing. I think that’s at least part of what we’ve seen with Bill Barr and Rod Rosenstein. Accomplished people lacking inner strength can’t resist the compromises necessary to survive Mr. Trump and that adds up to something they will never recover from ... because Mr. Trump eats your soul in small bites ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/opinion/william-barr-testimony.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

[nolabear]

6. Thanks. I edited to add that. It's as on point and disturbing as I've seen.

[struggle4progress]

9. Thank you!

[WhiskeyWulf]

7. It's not complicated at all, Jim.

They're scumbags protecting a fellow scumbag.

[Duppers]

24. Exactly!

*Known* scumbags. We knew who Bill Barr was before he became AG !

[MarcA]

59. They may be "bright" and "accomplished' but they are bright and accomplished Scumbags. n/t

[uponit7771]

73. +1, Jim.... You're a bad judge of character ...

[highplainsdem]

8. Here's a small sample:

Amoral leaders have a way of revealing the character of those around them. Sometimes what they reveal is inspiring. For example, James Mattis, the former secretary of defense, resigned over principle, a concept so alien to Mr. Trump that it took days for the president to realize what had happened, before he could start lying about the man.

But more often, proximity to an amoral leader reveals something depressing. I think that’s at least part of what we’ve seen with Bill Barr and Rod Rosenstein. Accomplished people lacking inner strength can’t resist the compromises necessary to survive Mr. Trump and that adds up to something they will never recover from. It takes character like Mr. Mattis’s to avoid the damage, because Mr. Trump eats your soul in small bites.

-snipping a brilliant and damning but long description of the way Trump subverts and compromises those around him-

Of course, to stay, you must be seen as on his team, so you make further compromises. You use his language, praise his leadership, tout his commitment to values.

And then you are lost. He has eaten your soul.

[dem4decades]

10. The big question is, will Mueller let his soul be eaten?

The lesser question is, where can i get Lindsay Graham saying "Trump is a fucking idiot" as a ring tone?

[nolabear]

12. Oh I think we've seen the answer. That statement yesterday

was perfect.

[stopwastingmymoney]

16. Lol I want to know the answer to your lesser question too, nt

[redwitch]

26. Did he really say That? In public?

I want that ringtone too!

[dem4decades]

30. He was quoting someone, but who cares, he said it.

[dem4decades]

85. They made a song.

[link:

Link to tweet

|

[Pluvious]

11. KnR - thanks for posting

[Paladin]

13. MUST-READ MATERIAL.

Comey provides the complete and utter verbal evisceration of trump and his administration toadies that is so long overdue. These words are going to be turning up in history books for decades to come.

[pangaia]

45. I sure hope so.

But even more, I hope those words are spread all over the US of A right now!!!!

[gratuitous]

14. Ah, pious James Comey re-emerges

So nice to hear him scold others for their shortcomings (and they are legion), but once again he completely misses anything he might have done. He blames their proximity to Trump for the failures of Barr, and Rosenstein and Mattis, but Comey popped out of his burrow just before the 2016 election to impugn Hillary Clinton one last time and he doesn't even have the bad excuse of being in thrall to Trump for that little episode.

Those fingers you're pointing look awfully dirty, Mr. Comey. Unsurprisingly, it's the New York Times letting him use their valuable media real estate to toss his cherry bombs.

[GeorgeGist]

37. +1

Fuck Comey.

[LisaM]

43. Plus a million.

I can't even hear his name without my blood pressure rising.

[3catwoman3]

54. And, and...

...AND - unless he has changed his tune, he says...he would not do anything differently if he had the chance at a do-over before the "election."

So, FU, Mr. Comey.

[cwydro]

61. Screw Comey.

He’s nobody’s hero.

[mr_lebowski]

66. Convenient thing everyone forgets who wants to hate on Comey ...

Is that if he'd withheld the information about investigating the Weiner laptop from Congress, after having specifically pledged to Congress to keep them informed if any potentially new evidence in the Email Probe came to light, and especially if it had turned out that there WAS something incriminating on the laptop ... it would've caused an absolute political shitstorm.

Fact it, many people (esp. Congressional Repubs) would've accused him of trying to sway the election in the other direction, and he'd likely have been found to have been in Contempt of Congress for not fulfilling his obligation.

Basically the guy was forced into a no-win situation by the Hillary Haters at the NY FBI field office, Guiliani's cronies, who he knew would leverage the whole thing for even MORE benefit to Trump ... had he failed to report to Congress as he was obliged to.

He had no reason to believe in advance that the media would blow this story up the way they did, to just plaster the airwaves with hand-wringing and speculation that this meant that ZOMG TEH HILLARY EMAIL INVESTIGATION IS NOT OVER!!?!1!!.

I blame FBI NY first, then the fucking media, and then the lying GOP Congress that ran to them in the first place, falsely hyping what the letter suggested ... all more than Comey, and I always will.

[gratuitous]

68. Gosh, if only the director of the FBI could have told his underlings to get stuffed

The poor guy! How could Comey or anyone know that his innocent little letter would be seized upon by people of ill will? That would require a memory going back hours or even days, and nobody can possibly do that!

Two words for that: Puh. Leeze.

[Skittles]

69. I agree

he was very much a part of what gave us Trump

[diverdownjt]

93. I think history will put him in the same category as...

Benedict fucking Arnold

[JHB]

15. I think Comey has a wrong metaphore...

Saying "Mr. Trump eats your soul in small bites" gives Trump too much credit.

After all, as he said just one paragraph before, Trump's just "revealing the character of those around" him.

The only thing Trump's doing to their souls is stripping the carefully-cultivated varnish of respectability off "respectable Republicans". The rot was there from the start.

[lunatica]

25. In the end the truth will out

Everyone has a veneer of respectability and decency. The true tests in life will eventually show what’s behind that veneer. Everyone in this Administration and Congress is being exposed.

[Wawannabe]

95. Big sad problem is

I doubt any will do as much time as Martha Stewart did for any of their criminal acts - while “representing” the Constitution.

I have no faith - too many actors in this grand old party scheme.

[diva77]

65. Agree 100% !! Also, rethugs operate out of either fear or greed. There is more to it than

Dump's rapid-fire soliloquies. Let's hear about it.

[uponit7771]

74. THANK YOU !!!

[underpants]

17. I'll tell you.

In 2006 the Republicans were at best in shambles. The war had not only been horribly miss run but it was clearly a lie. Katrina exposes them as careless and uncaring. They had fallen apart. THEN all their rhetoric and policies lead to the biggest financial and economic collapse in history.

They survived because the media needed them. No one will watch a one horse race. Slowly they climbed back. First with a split in their party orchestrated to divert attention from recent disastrous history. The lines were blurred as to who did what before the collapse.

Right now they know this is their last chance to avoid obliteration. If Trump goes down, if he’s charged or kicked out of office they will be in the wilderness for years. And they know it.

Answer: this is survival mode and the preservation of the two party system as we’ve known it. And they know it.

[Turbineguy]

18. ".... eat your soul....."

In my interaction with malignant narcissists that's been my observation. They suck life out of those around them to feed their needs.

Of course..... you don't have to put up with it. This is where your family and friends can be of help, reminding you that you are not born to be Dracula's next meal.

[saidsimplesimon]

33. thanks Turbineguy

"you don't have to put up with it"

Resist in any way you can is my motto for sanity in these times that try my strength to do so.

[stopwastingmymoney]

19. K n R

This is an important one

I think we’ll remember ‘Trump eats your soul’

He repeats it in the last line too, in the past tense ‘He has eaten your soul’

[renate]

29. I think so too

It sounds kind of Harry Potter-y and it's such a succinct description of what Trump does. I wonder how he does it; he's so unlikeable but somehow he gets people to do what he wants. I can't wait until these people are free to write tell-all books (if they're not in prison).

[Mme. Defarge]

20. It reads like a lost Screwtape Letter.

[TygrBright]

23. Thank you. I wish I could rec this reply... n/t

[lunatica]

28. I looked it up and it turns out to be a book

Could you at least give a summary of the plot and why you are referencing it? Thanks.

[Mme. Defarge]

35. Plot overview

The Screwtape Letters comprises 31 letters written by a senior demon named Screwtape to his nephew, Wormwood (named after a star in Revelation), a younger and less experienced demon, charged with guiding a man (called "the patient&quot toward "Our Father Below" (Devil / Satan) from "the Enemy" (Jesus).

After the second letter, the Patient converts to Christianity, and Wormwood is chastised for allowing this. A striking contrast is formed between Wormwood and Screwtape during the rest of the book, wherein Wormwood is depicted through Screwtape's letters as anxious to tempt his patient into extravagantly wicked and deplorable sins, often recklessly, while Screwtape takes a more subtle stance, as in Letter XII wherein he remarks: "... the safest road to hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts".

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Screwtape_Letters

It may not be your cup of tea, but it is very sly and funny.

[lunatica]

46. Thanks.

It sounds like a condemning analogy to human weakness.

My interest is piqued.

[Mme. Defarge]

47. It's both brilliant and entertaining.

I should reread it myself.

[TygrBright]

22. "...because he's the President and he rarely stops talking"... oooo, OUCH!!

PRIMO snark.

No brief for Comey, who I hope has some sleepless moments about his role in fucking up the 2016 election, and an occasional gastric twinge over his own pious hypocrisy.

But he's not a dummy, and I do believe he doesn't want the nation to go down in a tarpit of sleazy, corrupt expediency.

And this op-ed is a real scorcher and a pleasure to read.

interestedly,
Bright

[Duppers]

27. Soothing your guilty conscience, Mr. Comey?

I will not forgive your coffin nail in Hillary's chances of election.

[Nuggets]

32. These guys should win Oscars.

Straight arrows

[peggysue2]

31. Whoosh!

These are words that need to be repeated until toady Republicans begin to feel a modicum of shame. Until an inflection point is met, the GOP will continue with its ranting, lying and rationalizations about Trump, his hideous acts and the alt-right propaganda spew.

Never forget, never forgive what's been done here. Nearly all Republicans turned in their credentials as 'the loyal opposition.' Their behavior is treasonous and unAmerican. May they all rot in Hell!

[Nuggets]

34. Republicans appear to have

been whittled down to a party of extremely narcissistic sociopaths, shame is not something they will feel...ever

The only way through this is to oust them in elections. Begin to recognize others like them and keep them out of positions of authority.

The cable news networks will continue to help them as the executives are cut from the same cloth a.k.a. the powers that be.

[LiberalArkie]

36. I think a lot of the good people doing bad things will slow up now that the NSA is shutting down

the wiretapping of everyone.

[erronis]

70. Wow! The NSA shutting down? Next the CIA? (I think you meant NRA.)

Not that I believe a word the NRA says. They may no longer be a funds-transfer mechanism between the russkis and the repuglicons but they are still there and evil.

[LiberalArkie]

71. They are shutting down the system that Wikileaks had the data on. The Snowden papers.

It is my belief that each party when they were in office gathered all the phone and email data on the other side. Why, because they could. Now all the older party members are afraid to say or do anything, only the young ones can, no interest on them yet.

[erronis]

77. ...bangs head on table... - Thanks, I didn't read carefully enough.

Yes - I see your point. Thanks!

[WA-03 Democrat]

40. Jim Comey

Is a lying Repuke

Pasties for thoughts will

[dalton99a]

41. It is a good article

But yeah, no Comey memo, no President Trump

[pangaia]

42. Holy shit, Batman !!!

"Accomplished people lacking inner strength can’t resist the compromises necessary to survive Mr. Trump and that adds up to something they will never recover from. It takes character like Mr. Mattis’s to avoid the damage, because Mr. Trump eats your soul in small bites. "

[calimary]

44. Nice. But this doesn't absolve him.

He didn’t have to run his yap in the months - AND in the DAYS - before the 2016 election, which I still feel strongly contributed to a critical mass of voters in three targeted states to have second thoughts about HRC. Especially since he had to come back on the record about the second time, in late Octiber, to concede that the second cache of Hillary’s emails were nothing new. Of course it was too late by then. His earlier “discovery” that he portrayed as suspicious had already seeped in and taken root.

Comey, your DAMNED big mouth helped doom our democracy, you fucking jerk! NOTHING - repeat - NOTHING YOU CAN SAY OR DO NOW - can cleanse your conscience OR rehabilitate your own now-infamous place in history, for helping this monster steal our election.

Your “timing” was “perfect.” And if not deeply suspect, then pathetically reckless AND shamefully naive.

[Danascot]

91. FBI director reportedly went against attorney general's recommendation in sending bombshell letter

From an article in the Business Insider that appeared after the Comey letter and before the election.

The decision made by the FBI director to alert Congress that the agency was reviewing new emails related to its investigation into Hillary Clinton's private server was contrary to the recommendation of the attorney general, according to two reports published on Saturday.

The New Yorker and Washington Post reported Attorney General Loretta Lynch had expressed to FBI Director James Comey her view that the law enforcement agency should follow the longstanding practice of not commenting on ongoing investigations — especially with less than two weeks to go until Election Day.

Speaking to The New Yorker, current and former federal legal officials characterized the action as a striking break with DOJ policies — one that officials feel could potentially affect the outcome of the presidential and congressional elections in less than two weeks.

"You don't do this," one former senior DOJ official exclaimed to The New Yorker. "It's aberrational. It violates decades of practice ... it impugns the integrity and reputation of the candidate, even though there's no finding by a court, or in this instance even an indictment."

https://www.businessinsider.com/james-comey-fbi-loretta-lynch-hillary-clinton-emails-2016-10

[calimary]

101. All he ever has to do to determine who's responsible for all this shit since then - is to look

in the MIRROR.

[ismnotwasm]

48. That is actually very good

I get the feeling he could have gone on a lot longer, edit to add Comey has his own moral
To Ineptitude deal With

[LiberalLovinLug]

49. Sadly, those words could apply to Comey himself

As Colin Powell, too little too late. Although I appreciate him penning this opposed to remaining silent.

He was desperate to not be looked down on by his own party, and projecting the "inevitable" Hillary Clinton win, he did not want to be accused of NOT turning over every possible pebble of damaging information on the Democratic candidate, after the fact. While at the same time withholding information on the extent of Russia's interference and that they were working to help the Republican candidate.

But understanding that its difficult to find a completely non-hypocritical Republican, he gets my respect for this.

[zipplewrath]

55. Colin Powell

Yup, I've thought of that too. People want to be as close to power as they can get so they do everything they can to get there. And they don't notice when they've gone too far. No one will show you ahead of time. You have to know enough to see it when it is happening. It's the old "emperor has no clothes" moment. You have to know what is right so that you know that it is wrong. Too many people in power got there by telling their bosses that they were right, even if they didn't know.

[colorado_ufo]

50. Comey knows he did wrong; he made a grievous error which helped install this man into the WH.

He is working hard to redeem his integrity and his conscience.

The memory of what he did to Clinton is painful, but we need all the support we can muster now to remove this person from the WH before he inflicts any further damage, both seen and unseen, to our country.

[Brainstormy]

51. Comey is a traitor

I don't give a shit what he has to say.

[Hamlette]

53. Silly, at least as applied to Barr who came into office with no soul to eat

Comey makes it sound like it is a condition that takes place over time. by tiny bites. Did we ever see Barr when he was not doing all those thing Comey implies come after a time?

He was a flunky from day one....and before.

[delisen]

56. Condensed:Don't go to work for a Komodo dragon.

[SunSeeker]

57. Comey, it was your bullshit 10/28/16 letter that gave us Trump.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-comey-letter-probably-cost-clinton-the-election/

The time for you to tell America about Trump was before November 2016. But you clammed up when it came to Trump. Instead, you kept beating the dead horse of Hillary's emails.

You should be worried about your own soul, Comey.

[Firestorm49]

58. Wow. I read the entire editorial, and again, a respected public figure is screaming "red flag."

[California_Republic]

60. That's going to sting!

[Wounded Bear]

62. Gaslighting 101...

Now, what about you knee-capping Hillary and getting Trump elected? Do you have a comment on that?

[orangecrush]

63. K&R

[Hekate]

67. "Mr. Trump eats your soul in small bites"

Ouch

[Pepsidog]

76. Comey is the ultimate enigma. Capable of profound observations like this op-ed and equally profound

miscalculations and self introspection.

[Hekate]

78. My gods. More...

Speaking rapid-fire with no spot for others to jump into the conversation, Mr. Trump makes everyone a co-conspirator to his preferred set of facts, or delusions. I have felt it — this president building with his words a web of alternative reality and busily wrapping it around all of us in the room.

I must have agreed that he had the largest inauguration crowd in history because I didn’t challenge that. Everyone must agree that he has been treated very unfairly. The web building never stops.

From the private circle of assent, it moves to public displays of personal fealty at places like cabinet meetings. While the entire world is watching, you do what everyone else around the table does — you talk about how amazing the leader is and what an honor it is to be associated with him.

Sure, you notice that Mr. Mattis never actually praises the president, always speaking instead of the honor of representing the men and women of our military. But he’s a special case, right? Former Marine general and all. No way the rest of us could get away with that. So you praise, while the world watches, and the web gets tighter.

[Hekate]

79. My gods. The rest...

Next comes Mr. Trump attacking institutions and values you hold dear — things you have always said must be protected and which you criticized past leaders for not supporting strongly enough. Yet you are silent. Because, after all, what are you supposed to say? He’s the president of the United States.

You feel this happening. It bothers you, at least to some extent. But his outrageous conduct convinces you that you simply must stay, to preserve and protect the people and institutions and values you hold dear. Along with Republican members of Congress, you tell yourself you are too important for this nation to lose, especially now.

You can’t say this out loud — maybe not even to your family — but in a time of emergency, with the nation led by a deeply unethical person, this will be your contribution, your personal sacrifice for America. You are smarter than Donald Trump, and you are playing a long game for your country, so you can pull it off where lesser leaders have failed and gotten fired by tweet.

Of course, to stay, you must be seen as on his team, so you make further compromises. You use his language, praise his leadership, tout his commitment to values.

And then you are lost. He has eaten your soul.

[Perseus]

80. I think it is a very sad essay

To accept that the buffoon is eating your soul, knowing he is doing it, and not because he is smart, he is just being him, and for you to allow it? Bull! When you have strong principles you get up and leave, then when the media asks you why you left the room you tell them that you refuse to work for a corrupt imbecile, and that your recommendation to all is to get him out of office for the good of the country.

He is not eating your soul, you are eating your soul by allowing yourself to have no balls, to leave your principles behind, to fail to understand that you are complicit to the demise of your country, of the things you love, that you are being a traitor to your family and your country.

Bullshit! I would have walked away and exposed the buffoon, otherwise why are you here for? By getting up and exposing the bastard it may have encouraged everyone else to find their courage.

A very sad essay by Comey.

[UniteFightBack]

81. Comey was one of the few people who outright said NO to this corrosive fake prezident. nt

[McCamy Taylor]

82. Barr is going the way of Alberto Gonzales

[JohnZSmith]

84. People with spines and integrity are immune to Trump.

He only exploits weakness and corruption where it already existed, though sometimes hidden.

[druidity33]

83. TrumpSoul Eater... true. K&R, nt.

[spanone]

86. K&R...👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍

[lindysalsagal]

87. "because Mr. Trump eats your soul in small bites. "

That's a confession.

[C Moon]

88. In simple terms, I believe they are enthralled with the thought of leading a dictorship.

[highplainsdem]

89. Don Lemon is reading this right now on CNN.

[DeminPennswoods]

90. David Frum made this same point recently, too

Frum said that Trump has a genius to find even the tiniest flaw in a person's morals/ethics and work it until it cracks open and then owns that person.

[Hekate]

92. Thanks for reminding me it was Frum. He's earned a lot of respect from me these past three years.nt

[DeminPennswoods]

98. Frum is the most thoughtful conservative on TV

despite still believing all that Republican economic mumbo jumbo.

[SHRED]

94. Comey gave us Trump

Fuck him.

[MarianJack]

96. While we're asking "how can..." questions,...

...how can YOU have decided to interfere in a national ejection for the benefit if Donald Trump eleven days before voting? Hmmm?

RESIST!

[rainy]

97. Mr. Trump eats your soul in small bites.

Mr. Trump eats your soul in small bites.

And then you are lost. He has eaten your soul.

[debsy]

99. William Barr is and has a history of being an apologist for criminal behavior...

...of administration officials. Let us not forget: it was his idea to pardon all the convicted criminals after the Iran-Contra mess.

[ehrnst]

102. What Comey report? (nt)

[niyad]

103. JIm, you are in part responsible for the disaster we are facing, and some of us will NEVER

forget this.

[niyad]

104. jim got something wrong-- the tangerine traitor does not eat souls--people who willingly work

for him at such levels have none to begin with.

[elleng]

105. 'Accomplished people lacking inner strength can't resist the compromises necessary

to survive Mr. Trump and that adds up to something they will never recover from. It takes character like Mr. Mattis’s to avoid the damage, because Mr. Trump eats your soul in small bites.'

[hotrod0808]

106. Comey can go fuck himself

Barr showed who he was during his first period in this position. He carried water for GOP criminals for decades. If Comey thinks that Barr is a respectable man, then that says a lot about Comey's actions over the last three or four years. He can eat shit.