Trump, Comey, Russia editorial: We need special prosecutor
The ignoble irony is that the man who brands his adversaries "Fake News," "Lying' Ted" and "Crooked Hillary" has shown himself yet again to be woefully casual about the truth.
There's no other way to put it. Well, let's just say there's no nicer way to put it.
On Tuesday, when President Donald J. Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, he said he was acting in response to the recommendations of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein to remove Comey because of his presumed mishandling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. This explanation, that the Comey ouster came as a result of Trump being upset that Clinton was treated unfairly, is so far-fetched that it is an insult to the intelligence of the American people. By Thursday, Trump was contradicting himself completely in an interview with NBC's Lester Holt, saying he long had planned to fire Comey no matter what Sessions and Rosenstein recommended and calling Comey a "showboat."
Not only did the president seem oblivious to how he was exposing his own untruths but also to the added irony that Trump of all people would disparage someone as a "showboat."
Supporters of the president seem fixated on the irrelevant criticism of Comey that Democrats expressed last October. Those defenders miss the important larger point: The preponderance of evidence suggests Trump fired Comey because of the FBI director's persistence in investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 election and whether anyone in Trump's campaign collaborated in that interference.
The president's obsessive frustrations with the Russian-Trump suspicions and even his own words unmask his true motives.
According to him, he asked Comey whether he was under investigation - in the midst of a conversation in which he says Comey expressed interest in staying on as FBI director!
If it is true - as it appears to be - that Trump fired Comey because he couldn't trust his "loyalty" in the Russia investigation, the president has very possibly obstructed justice.
That is why this is a big deal.
We warned before the election that Trump's autocratic impulses could endanger the republic.
That is why this is a big deal.
It is why Republicans as well as Democrats must put country first and call the president on this.
It is why a special prosecutor is necessary to ensure that the Russia matter is fully investigated.
In reality, a special prosecutor is now a necessary protection for the president, too. After the Comey fiasco, it is the only way the public will put faith in the outcome.
We don't know whether anyone in the Trump campaign collaborated with Russia. We don't say the campaign did.
What we do know is we can't take the president's word for it that the campaign didn't.