The discussion over President Trump's conflicting statements on why his administration fired FBI director James Comey this week, appears to have settled on the view that he was intentionally trying to put the brakes on the bureau's investigation over his possible connections with Russia.
Blasting News wrote about the President's tweet-threat to the press via Twitter, where he said he might cancel daily press briefings after his aides were trying to provide cover for his decision, by saying he acted on the recommendation by the Department of Justice.
Publicly admitting his guilt
The President was very adamant in his interview with Lester Holt on NBC News that he was the one who had the final say-so and admitted that he already wanted to fire the FBI director. But his admittance of this points toward the reasons he wanted to fire him, which were because James Comey was investigating him, or at the very least, his campaign.
One report by CNN titled: "Isolated and agitated, Trump rattles White House from within," says that White House aides are indeed rattled with the President's unannounced decision to fire Comey and trying to find a way to stay on message after his NBC News interview. Through conversations with multiple advisers and others under the condition on anonymity, they said that even the Vice President was somewhat rattled.
Not staying on message isn't new for the White House, as they frequently throw "wrenches" into the media machine to confuse the narrative. But the threshold between what the White House says and does and the other functions of government such as the FBI says have been exposed with Comey's firing. Trump has said that James Comey was too focused on the investigation as did deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who said that the FBI have other functions and the administration was simply helping them get passed it by firing the FBI director.
This can easily be interpreted as obstruction of justice even with claims that the FBIi is still conducting the investigation without him.
One week of isolation
Isolated and agitated, President Trump rattles the White House from within https://t.co/0fIaV25S8g pic.twitter.com/ESmKc2Q8XB
— CNN International (@cnni) May 13, 2017
The article also says that the President had isolated himself for a week since the prior Thursday, which the White House says was already planned.
But with the conversations CNN has had with officials, they've confirmed that they weren't prepared to explain why the President fired the head of the bureau.
At this point in the presidency, one could likely accept that White House staff have gotten used to the way the President works; more seasoned aides describe him as "the hurry up" president. But the article asserts that because they're seeing more risk from the fallout, that they're more conflicted than before and that the risk is more apparent now. One White House aide said, however, that they still have Friday to look forward to.
