Former FBI Director James Comey. Image here.
Truth has only one story; lying, many narratives.
The firing of now-former FBI Director James Comey was the suggestion of the Attorney General’s office, until it wasn’t and became President Donald J. Trump’s idea.
It was the result of Comey’s handling of the Hillary Clinton emails and then his “grandstanding” personality until it became clear it was really all about the FBI investigation into possible collusion between team Trump and the Russkies. (The firing was oh-so-conveniently – and oh-so-suspiciously – wedged between former acting Attorney General Sally Yates’ Senate testimony regarding former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s lying about his Russian connections – lots of formers here – and Trump’s tone-deaf meeting with Russian officials.)
Trump either did or did not demand an oath of loyalty from Comey at a dinner that was or was not taped. Comey did or did not tell the president he is not under investigation. The dinner was delicious – or maybe not. Who knows what to believe?
The Trumpettes keep saying that the Dems should make up their hypocritical minds. Isn’t this what they wanted after Comey exposed Hillary’s emails? Maybe then. But this is now. And anyway, this is a story that is as much about the how as the why, for in the how lie the seeds of the why.
When you fire someone, you do it personally in a face-saving way. You don’t make a fool of the guy by letting him and his employees find out on TV and then keep kicking him when he’s down by saying how terrible he was.
That’s not what a strong person does. No, that’s the work of a weak person who mistakenly thinks he can do what he wants with impunity and the world will love him for it.
A strong person is also transparent. He tells the truth – and lets the chips fall where they may. But we’re not dealing with a strong person here. We’re dealing with an egotist who is not only the star in his own life but the hero in everyone else’s, a person who is not content merely to win but one who must also see you lose.
It is the quintessence of cruelty and selfishness.
“Do not let your hearts be troubled,” Jesus says in the Gospel reading for this past Sunday. “In my Father’s house there are many mansions. If that were not so, would I have told you I was going ahead to prepare a place for you?”
Trump is a house with many mansions – and all of them occupied by himself and his ever-changing narrative.