Donald Trump is selling books this morning. His twitter rants will be good for sales of James Comey’s “A Higher Loyalty” and good for ratings tonight when the former F.B.I. Director appears on a special ABC News 20/20 at 10 pm eastern. You can bet ABC has not given us the best of the “soundbites” from a five-hour interview.
I never asked Comey for Personal Loyalty. I hardly even knew this guy. Just another of his many lies. His “memos” are self serving and FAKE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15, 2018
Is this the “Revenge of the Feds?” From Mike Allen of Axios:
- “Back in December, President Trump tweeted: “After years of Comey, with the phony and dishonest Clinton investigation (and more), running the FBI, its reputation is in Tatters – worst in History! But fear not, we will bring it back to greatness.”
- The state of play: Now, the FBI is getting its revenge. All at once, Trump is being pounded by the bureau and its alumni, with a three-pronged threat.
- One outside ally of the White House told me: “He picked fights with the two institutions that have the ability to find information people want hidden — a serious miscalculation about the relative power arrangements of the pieces of the executive branch.”
This week will be all about Comey, and no doubt more tweets from Trump. Comey’s media blitz will begin tonight but he will be everywhere all week from “The View,” to “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” to “The Rachel Maddow Show.” From The Hill:
“It’s going to be the media equivalent of the carpet bombing of Tokyo,” said Jon Levine, media reporter for The Wrap, an online publication covering entertainment and media. “It has the potential to eclipse everything we saw from Michael Wolff. Provoking Trump into additional responses on Twitter and elsewhere is now part of the equation.”
And to add to the circus, this:
Michael Avenatti tells CNN that Stormy Daniels will attend Michael Cohen’s court hearing on Monday at 2 p.m. in New York.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 15, 2018