A fair and transparent election process is at the core of the democratic process. It must exist at every level of government, and it especially cannot be threatened by foreign leaders.
For our international opponents, who claim to be democratic but put forth only single candidates in elections, discrediting the American model is an appealing goal. Americans have to know to what extent the Russians attempted to skew the 2016 presidential election, and whether any Americans were a part of that effort.
President Donald Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey makes that investigation that much more difficult. Whether you support Comey’s pre-election announcement of the FBI’s investigations into Hillary Clinton’s emails or not, or his blunt rejection of the president’s claim that his office building had been bugged by the outgoing president, he is an individual of some stature and candor.
While the president claims it was Comey’s actions regarding Clinton’s emails that led to his firing – to return credibility to the FBI, the president says – it looks more as though Trump was wary of Comey. Given past behavior, Comey would likely have been forthright in his statements to the Senate committee which has been tasked with determining the degree of Russian involvement in the 2016 election, and Comey might have kept talking, publicly. That does not suit Trump’s requirement for subserviency from those whose positions he controls.
Trump’s firing of Comey has tipped the answer to the question of whether to name a special prosecutor to head an investigation into these elements of the election to the “yes” column. The president’s meddling – if firing an FBI director with a 10-year term which is designed to insulate the position from political ups and downs can be called meddling – now requires a higher level of investigation.
Too many individuals who supported the president’s election have been shown to have had contacts with the Russians, while some have denied it until they were shown that the truth was known.
No fire, but a lot of smoke.
Last week, American computer experts working with the French helped deflect Russian efforts to influence the French presidential election. There is no reason to expect the Russians will stop there.
With his uncertain arguments for his action, and a terrible sense of timing – if he felt as he did about Comey, it would have been more understandable to fire him months ago – the president has now unwittingly set the bar much higher for a thorough investigation into the events which led up to his election.
