Lots of reviews of Comey’s book tonight (Daily Beast, Politico, WaPo, MSNBC)…“scathing indictment of T…” Well, that’s what we thought was going to be said.
This from Mother Jones
"Trump was two weeks away from being sworn in as president. He was just informed that the US national security establishment had confirmed its assessment that Vladimir Putin had covertly attacked American democracy and that this assault was designed to affect the results of the election. And Trump responded with no interest in any aspect of this unprecedented intervention other than its political implications—for him. In front of the leaders of the intelligence community—two of whom would continue to work for him—Trump did not even bother to feign concern. He went straight to what mattered most: What does this mean for me?
The president-to-be was engaging in a profound dereliction of duty. His number one job is to defend the United States from foreign attack. And he didn’t give a damn. He was kicking off his presidency with an action—or inaction—that could be seen as a betrayal of the nation he was supposed to serve.
As Isikoff and I point out, after this meeting, Trump tweeted, “Intelligence stated very strongly there was absolutely no evidence that hacking affected the election results.” This was not true. The report did not say that. And Clapper, according to Comey, had explicitly spelled this out for Trump. Still, Trump lied—and Priebus and Spicer went along.
This anecdote from Comey’s book certainly raises a question of Trump’s fitness for office. It also presents what might be an uncomfortable question for Comey, Brennan, Clapper, and Rogers. They saw an incoming president demonstrate he was unable—or unwilling—to meet his primary obligation. They did not share this with the rest of us. (Rogers still works for Trump, but he is expected to retire soon.)
Comey’s portrayal of Trump as vain, erratic, ignorant, and dismissive of the important norms of government and law enforcement is not a surprise."
Daily Beast
Politico
Excerpt
-Trump asked Comey to look into allegations in the so-called Trump-Russia dossier
"The former FBI director writes in his book that the president asked him to look into the uncorroborated allegations from the dossier compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele that Trump hired prostitutes to urinate in front of him in a Moscow hotel room where President Barack Obama had stayed, according to a copy obtained by the New York Post. Trump, according to the report, expressed interest in digging into the claims out of concern that his wife, first lady Melania Trump, might believe them.
“He brought up what he called the ‘golden showers thing’ … adding that it bothered him if there was ‘even a 1 percent chance’ his wife, Melania, thought it was true,” Comey reportedly writes in “A Higher Loyalty.”
He added: “He just rolled on, unprompted, explaining why it couldn’t possibly be true, ending by saying he was thinking of asking me to investigate the allegation to prove it was a lie. I said it was up to him.”
-Comey calls Trump ‘untethered to truth,’ depicts his leadership as mafia-esque
In his forthcoming book, Comey hammers the president’s ethics and leadership, calling him “untethered to truth” and his management “ego driven and about personal loyalty,” according to The Associated Press.
And more on this
Washington Post - concerns over the lewd section of the Christopher Steele dossier…for Melania’s sanity, let’s wipe this disgusting reference out, per T to Comey."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/james-comeys-memoir-trump-fixates-on-proving-lewd-dossier-allegations-false/2018/04/12/64493866-3ce2-11e8-974f-aacd97698cef_story.html?utm_term=.bfbcc4c33553