Tracking Trump: president cries 'liar' as Comey testimony grips the nation
This week in Trumpland: the president got off to a rocky start amid a spat with the London mayor, followed by a damning testimony from his former FBI chief
It was supposed to be infrastructure week. Trump had mapped out the days to try to make it look as much as possible like he was simply getting on with the job and would not be blown off course by the fact that James Comey, the former FBI director, was getting ready to give evidence to the Senate intelligence committee about his firing by the president and the FBI investigation into possible links between Trump’s campaign and findings of Russian interference in last year’s election. Unfortunately for Trump, you can lead the press and public to a number of vague proposals about air traffic control and dams, but you can’t make them stop thinking about the idea their president might have tried to obstruct justice in a case involving one of his key advisers and a foreign power.
Last weekend
Trump’s response to the terrorist attack on London Bridge on Saturday night was widely criticised. Shortly after the first news of the attack started coming in, he retweeted an unconfirmed story from the conservative news website the Drudge Report, and he then used the incident, in which eight people were killed by terrorists, to argue that his ban should be reinstated on travellers from six Muslim-majority countries entering the US. The next morning, he upped the ante by quoting the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, out of context. Khan had said that Londoners should not be alarmed by an increased police presence on the streets. Trump implied that Khan had been telling Londoners not to be alarmed by the attack itself. Meanwhile, in an interview in St Petersburg, Vladimir Putin denied to NBC News that he had any compromising material about Trump, as the notorious unverified dossier of material collected by the former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele alleges.
Monday
Trump began the working week with a barrage of intemperate tweets on a range of topics, leading some to suggest he was attempting to distract the country from Comey’s forthcoming testimony. In a statement some said might undermine his attempt to persuade the supreme court to reinstate his immigration order, he insisted he would call it “what it is, a TRAVEL BAN” and criticised the justice department for withdrawing the original ban and introducing a “watered down, politically correct version” instead (Trump signed the revised travel ban and is in charge of the justice department). He also claimed “EXTREME VETTING” was already in place at the border, and renewed his attack on the London mayor, accusing him of making a “pathetic excuse” in responding to Trump’s comments the day before. Khan said Trump’s invitation to Britain for a state visit should be rescinded, but the British foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, whose government has been cozying up to Trump as it prepares to quit the EU, rejected that idea.
Tuesday
Trump waded in to an even more complex international controversy, appearing to take credit (or blame) for the diplomatic and economic blockade imposed on Qatar by its neighbours in the worst crisis to hit the Gulf states in 30 years, saying evidence pointed to the state funding terrorism. Qatar is an ally of the US and hosts 10,000 US troops in an airbase crucial to the war on Isis in Syria and Iraq. The country has been criticised for promoting an austere form of Islam and backing extremist groups, but so has Saudi Arabia, which Trump seemed keen to side with in the dispute after having been greatly impressed by the kingdom on his recent visit. Some suggested Trump may not have fully appreciated the strategic importance of Qatar before getting involved in the row. As if that were not complicated enough, it later emerged that the FBI believed one of the sparks for the dispute between Qatar and its neighbours was a Russian hack of Qatar’s state news agency. Trump either did not know this when he tweeted, or knew it and decided to disregard it in his keenness to back Saudi Arabia. Looking ahead to Comey’s testimony on Thursday, Trump said: “I wish him good luck.”
Wednesday
Trump woke up ready at last to name his choice to replace Comey as the head of the FBI. The winning candidate was Christopher Wray, a former justice department official who represented the New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, during the investigation into the George Washington Bridge lane-closing case. Trump got his nomination in just in time before the Senate intelligence committee swept it off the front pages with the release of sensational written testimony by Comey. In a gripping seven-page document, the former FBI chief backed up media reports that Trump had put pressure on him to shut down the investigation into the former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s ties to Russia. In what may come to be seen as the most significant statement yet by the president amid the constant swirl of Russia-related accusations, the president allegedly told Comey: “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go.” The former FBI chief also backed up media reports that Trump had told him: “I need loyalty,” and asked what Comey could do to “lift the cloud” of the Russia investigation.
Thursday
Comey told the whole story in person to the Senate committee. As political junkies – and even some normal people – stopped to watch around the country, Comey branded Trump a liar, said he believed he had been sacked because of the FBI’s Russia investigation, and revealed that he had given the story about Trump putting pressure on him to the New York Times – in order to prompt the appointment of a special counsel, which had duly happened the next day. This machiavellian move, coupled with Comey’s authoritative demeanour and the fact he had kept contemporaneous notes of his interactions with Trump, suggested the president may have made a formidable enemy. Republicans on the committee quibbled with some of the details, but none suggested Comey – who was speaking under oath – was not telling the truth. By contrast, immediately after the Senate session, Trump’s lawyer flatly denied two of Comey’s key claims – that the president put pressure on Comey over Flynn and that he demanded Comey’s loyalty – and attacked him for the admission he had leaked a story.
Friday
Trump broke a two-day Twitter silence to attack the former FBI chief as a “leaker” and claim “total and complete vindication” despite Comey’s “many false statements and lies”. Trump’s legal team was confirmed to be preparing to file a complaint against Comey for sharing his memos with the New York Times. At a press conference with the visiting Romanian president, Klaus Iohannis, Trump said he was “100%” willing to testify under oath that he did not ask Comey for loyalty or pressure him over Flynn, and refused to say whether recordings existed of their conversation. “I’ll tell you about that maybe sometime in the near future,” he said. “You’re going to be very disappointed when you hear the answer.” We’ll be the judge of that ...
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