CNN Hysteria: Pundit Suggests Comey Firing a ‘Coup’

Condemnation of President Donald Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey was swift and severe on CNN on Tuesday, with one political analyst even likening it to the illegitimate overthrow of a government.

Gloria Borger noted that the firing came after Trump consulted with Attorney General Jeff Session and Deputy Director Rod Rosenstein and alluded to Comey’s confirmation of a FBI investigation into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian agents in meddling in the 2016 election.

“I think the question you also have to ask [is] was this a coup or a firing?”

“I think the question you also have to ask [is] was this a coup or a firing?” she asked. “Or both? Because it seems to me that there was a lot of consultation here.”

CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin blasted Trump, comparing the move to the so-called “Saturday Night Massacre,” when then-President Richard Nixon fired Watergate-era special prosecutor Archibald Cox.

“It is a grotesque abuse of power by the president of the United States,” said Toobin. “This is the kind of thing that goes on in non-democracies, that when there is an investigation that reaches near the president of the United States, or the leader of a non-democracy, they fire the people who are in charge of the investigation.”

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He added: “This is not normal. This is not politics as usual. This is something that is completely outside how American law is supposed to work.”

The Constitution, however, vests all executive power in the president. That means that the president is the boss of everyone who works in the executive branch. Aside from career employees protected by civil service laws, the president can hire and fire anyone in the executive branch he pleases.

Political appointees, like the FBI director, serve at the pleasure of the president — as Toobin was forced to admit.

“He certainly does. He absolutely does. Bill Clinton fired William Sessions early in President Clinton’s term,” he said. “There is no question that the president has the legal authority to do what he he’s done. But that is not by any means the end of the inquiry … What kind of country is this?”

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Rosenstein cited Comey’s handling of the investigation of 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s alleged misuse of classified information. Comey on July 5, 2016, violated Justice Department policy by holding a news conference about the end of the probe and issued derogatory information about Clinton, according to Rosenstein.

Ironically, Democrats have complained bitterly about Comey’s conduct on that very matter.

CNN just Tuesday aired a story questioning the veracity of Comey’s Senate testimony this week. The cable network reported that Comey overstated the number of Clinton emails that her aide, Huma Abedin, forwarded to the computer of her husband, former Rep. Anthony Weiner.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said he was surprised but withheld judgment.

“To call it a massacre, I don’t think you do that,” he told CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer.