This TrumpWorld Grab-Bag is Full of Nut Jobs!

It just keeps on coming back to the Russians, doesn't it? For a scandal that Trump and his supporters have tried to blow off as being "fake news" or, weirder still, as an excuse Democrats are using to explain Clinton's loss (yeah--an investigation that started roughly May 2016 is not being used as an excuse for the election results that happened months later!), Trump can't seem to act in any way like allegations of something being up between his campaign and Russian involvement aren't completely true.

It was just a few days ago that we found out that Trump blabbed classified information to Lavrov and Kislyak while they met with him in the Oval Office. Now, courtesy of The New York Times, we are hearing that President Trump also told his Russian guests that he had fired FBI Director Comey because of the Russian investigation:

“I just fired the head of the F.B.I. He was crazy, a real nut job,” Mr. Trump said, according to the document, which was read to The New York Times by an American official. “I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.”

Mr. Trump added, “I’m not under investigation.”

This isn't exactly news--no one could have believed that Comey was fired over the handling of Hillary Clinton's email server investigation, and Trump said as much himself in his interview with Lester Holt. But why is he saying this to them? (And in "pot calling the kettle" terms, if Trump calling Comey a "showboat" was risible, calling him a "nut job" is a patella-shaking knee-slapper.) The White House statement doesn't even try to deny this is what he said, they only suggest it was  something he said for leverage. Or maybe, as I've been assuming, he brags about inappropriate things because he thinks it makes him look like a badass.

Of course, it doesn't make him look like a badass in a country where we think laws matter, and it comes even closer to looking like an attempt to obstruct justice. And while Trump personally might not be being investigated (as yet), there does appear to be a "person of interest" described in Washington Post's reporting as a senior White House adviser close to Trump. Following on that, some reporters maintain the person of interest is likely his own son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Which makes sense, in a way--who, after all, didn't report tons of money in loans and contacts that he had with folks in Russia? Jared  Kushner. (Who were some people hoping would "moderate" Donald Trump's views? Jared and Ivanka!)

But that doesn't leave Mike Flynn off the hook--after all, the Russians were caught bragging that they would have influence over Trump through Flynn.  If that sounds like crisis averted due to Flynn's firing (and all the odd stories we've heard about that, as well), the sad thing is, Trump might not understand even now why it had to happen, and wants him back.

That might sound a bit like Trump is the actual "nut job", vacillating over a firing that took place both long ago (in Trump-time) and too late. But we will be hearing from that other fired "nut job", Jim Comey, publically and soonish. I'm sure he has other interesting details from his memos. I wonder if there will be a Kindle version someday?