We begin today’s roundup with Stephen Collinson at CNN and his analysis of the Comey memos:
If House Republicans thought they were helping President Donald Trump by forcing the release of James Comey's memos, they might want to think again.
The documents written by the then-FBI director, detailing his interactions with Trump, present a contemporaneous and deeply unflattering view of a President throwing his weight around in his first days in the White House -- that at the very least seems highly inappropriate.Paul Waldman at The Week writes about the pending constitutional crisis:
[M]any of the people Trump trusts and relies on most are telling him that the Mueller probe must be shut down by any means necessary. Who's on the other side of that argument? Most of the media, any respectable person in Washington, and some of Trump's old antagonists in the GOP like Lindsey Graham. In other words, a bunch of people the president can't stand.
If they're battling for Trump's heart and mind, it doesn't seem like a fair fight.
There's another message in what Trump's most ardent fans are doing, beyond "Fire Mueller!" Their recent actions tell him that if he does finally go ahead with his own Saturday Night Massacre, they'll have his back. There will be Republicans rushing to defend him, cable news programs that will tell his loyalists why he had no choice, and an amen chorus to counter the condemnation that will inevitably come his way from the establishment's nattering nabobs.