With a threat of tapes, Trump tells ousted FBI chief not to talk to media

Comey has a civic duty to leak all info about what happened between him and Trump and also to advise on how the Trump treason investigation is going and whether he needs to be tried as a traitor

@Bass:

He did show his taxes or his taxes were shown on Rachel Maddow's show and to her shock, he paid out over $35 million in taxes and other than that, everything seemed, how should I put it....normal.

Not quite. Two pages of what are undoubted voluminous returns are not "his taxes." The only information we got was the amount of taxes he paid on what income. To claim these two pages showed that "everything seemed . . . normal" is intellectually dishonest.

Sadly, if this were Clinton or anyone from the Democratic party in a similar situation, you'd be calling for impeachment hearings to be started as well as dozens of investigations in order to get to "the truth." 

No, because I always knew Clinton would never become president and second, I remember what the country went through with Bill and I learned, impeachments don't go down so well in this country.

Tell me, when does the hypocrisy with some Trump supporters like you stop with something like this?

I'm not a hypocrite, I despise both parties, it's just, the liberals and Dems are more unhinged in their fruitless hysteria, but make no mistake, I'll excoriate the GOP if there are valid reasons to do so.

But It's all the same, he paid almost $35 million in taxes, I'm sorry, how much more money do you want him to pay or what do you (besides his head on a spike?) want?

You are completely missing the point. People who are concerned about this want is to know WHERE some of his income is coming from (not what he paid). If he happens to have large amounts of money tied up in Russian enterprises, then that could signal a conflict of interest. Let us know if you don't see any possibility of a conflict of interest here and how it might affect some of his decisions (especially when it comes to dealing with Russian interests). One of the the best ways to help clear something like this up would be to release his full tax returns over the last decade. If he can't or won't do it, then he clearly has something to hide.

Sadly, if this were Clinton or anyone from the Democratic party in a similar situation, you'd be calling for impeachment hearings to be started as well as dozens of investigations in order to get to "the truth."

Tell me, when does the hypocrisy with some Trump supporters like you stop with something like this?

No, Bass, his taxes were NOT shown. What was revealed on Maddow 's show was a partial tax return from 2006. And it was leaked, not released.

In my day, we call that illegally obtained or street talk, we call it "stolen"

And it was most likely leaked by Trump himself.

Can you prove that?

But It's all the same, he paid almost $35 million in taxes, I'm sorry, how much more money do you want him to pay or what do you (besides his head on a spike?) want?

Trump absolutely MUST release his tax returns over the past 10 years to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that he has no conflicting interests as POTUS.

And if he doesn't, you guys gonna have a continued meltdown

That his supporter so blithely brush off his refusal to do something that has been a matter of course for the past 50 years for presidential candidates speaks volumes about their own questionable relationship with truth, ethics, and integrity.

So tell me, how will his tax returns enrich my life?

Prepare for impeachment when the republicans lose the congress next year. Actually, to avoid losing their seats, republicans will surely now start jumping ship.

How's that wall coming along, by the way? In the Comey dust storm everyone seems to have forgotten it already.

75% of Independent voters don't trust the media, the largest voting block, that's very significant and the media should take that seriously, but they haven't so far and until they do, expect Trump to tweet away.

And yet, even with their distrust of the media, they do not trust Trump more:

"Poll: More Americans Trust The Media Than Donald Trump"

http://www.forbes.com/sites/brettedkins/2017/02/23/poll-finds-that-more-americans-trust-the-media-than-donald-trump/

"Americans Trust the Media more than Donald Trump, Hate Both - Poll"

http://www.salon.com/2017/05/10/americans-trust-the-media-more-than-donald-trump-hate-both-poll/

"May 10, 2017 - U.S. Voters Send Trump Approval To Near Record Low; Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; No Winner In Media War, But Voters Trust Media More"

https://poll.qu.edu/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=2456

If one could imagine how much they distrust the media, can one imagine how much worse they distrust Trump?

Trump should take that very seriously

And what is a loyalty pledge?Sure.

Trump neither wants nor needs any loose canons in his administration.

Washington needs some integrity and discipline and getting rid of cowboys who can't adhere to their pledge of public service is way overdue.

Public officials pledge loyalty to the Constitution and to the Office, not to the man. A democratic system is a system of laws, not a system of men.

CEO businesses and autocratic governments pledge loyalty to their kings, because they are nothing without their kings - they would lose their positions.

But a democratic system is supposed to survive and continue on, no matter who the current Officials are.

Bass,

He did show his taxes or his taxes were shown

No, Bass, his taxes were NOT shown. What was revealed on Maddow 's show was a partial tax return from 2006. And it was leaked, not released. And it was most likely leaked by Trump himself.

Trump absolutely MUST release his tax returns over the past 10 years to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that he has no conflicting interests as POTUS. That his supporter so blithely brush off his refusal to do something that has been a matter of course for the past 50 years for presidential candidates speaks volumes about their own questionable relationship with truth, ethics, and integrity.

@Burning Bush:

Trump neither wants nor needs any loose canons in his administration.

Because he doesn't want competition for this behavior.

Washington needs some integrity and discipline and getting rid of cowboys who can't adhere to their pledge of public service is way overdue.

Which is why Trump is unfit for the job. He lacks the ability to be honest and has zero morals. Being disciplined is something that escapes him; he cannot even stay on message for more than 20 minutes.

DTS.

Instead of turning it into a cesspool, which is what Trump has, and continues to do.

This whole Russia issue is such a load of bull, and i really dislike Trump.

Hardcore Trump supporters will stay loyal to the bitter end & even if the man is impeached; it will all be down to HRC/liberal establishment/loony leftists/lizard people etc.

I feel sorry for the voters who voted Trump because they were disillusioned with what they saw as institutionalised corruption and successive administrations they felt ignored by.

Trump is saying that if he leaks lies he can produce an audio tape of the conversation?

I'm quite confident there are no "tapes".

It seems to me that Trump is simply delusional. When he feels attacked, he spews out something that he wishes were true (e.g. inauguration crowds were the largest in history, Obama ordered him to be wiretapped, millions voted illegally, dinner with Comey was recorded), but none of which can be substantiated. Trump feels threatened by what Comey might say about him, and is pretending that he has recordings that will bury Comey. This is what young children do; they live in a world that's partly real and partly fantasy. When adults live like this, they need counseling. The other day, in an interview with The Economist, Trump claimed to have invented the phrase "priming the pump" (BTW, that is not "fake news").

That this man is POTUS is preposterous enough, but it's beyond comprehension that anyone can see Trump's eccentricities as signs of strong leadership. This is not going to end well.

Hang on a minute. So, is Trump really warning Comey that there are tapes of their conversations where Comey assured Trump that he was not under investigation, or is Trump bluffing? If the latter, then is he bluffing Comey, or the nation, or both? This sounds like smoke-and-mirror rule by innuendo.

Actually, the left has left this planet a very long time ago.

Not even sure what that means but if it's referring to the Democrats; it's a bit of a stretch to refer to them as "left". They are a centerist party and I imagine it would have been business as usual (with a few concessions to the marginalised and poor) thrown into the mix if HRC had got in.

Still, anything would be better than the current dictator and alleged sexual predator in charge.

"James Comey better hope that there are 'no tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!"

The Don has spoken.

Actually, I was thinking about it more. Maybe Trump is warning against Comey leaking, and with that he is implying that the leaks will be lies, but Trump is saying that if he leaks lies he can produce an audio tape of the conversation?

most of them would do anything to get this president out of office. They are so overly fixated with Trump and the hate that they ooze from their bodies that they have now blurred the lines between ethics and journalism, their goals are NOT to inform people, their goals is to get Trump out of office and that has never been or should ever be the role of an independent journalist.

Very stirring. Replace 'Trump' with 'Obama', change the tense, and you have just delivered a withering attack on the trash right MSM you defend, quote and respect as a counterweight to other elements of the MSM you don't care for.

I hope you tell your rightist friends in the media to uphold these standards too.

Keep fighting the good fight.

"As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!" Trump said. "Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future 'press briefings' and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy???"

No, the best thing for you to do is stop tweeting. You are not a Kardashian, you are the president of the United States! It is expected that there will be errors with info trickling down every so often. But this seems to be almost a daily occurance. Heck, Trump changes his own stance so much, even in the same day, that it may not be anyone else's fault but his.

I still really don't get the message:

"James Comey better hope that there are no 'tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!"

Obviously he doesn't want Comey to leak anything to the press. But the threat, at least to me, is that Trump has something Comey has said on 'tape' (Trump uses quotes so he can later change out the word with a different meaning) and he will use that against Comey if Comey leaks anything?

That's my best guess. As in, "If you leak anything these recordings will bite you in the rear."

Can Trump fans give us a clue?

Crazy Joe, maybe not in humor but I saw that FBI agents are replacing their profile pic with Comey's face, a cool gesture to let us know whose side they are on.

The real humor is the Trump fanboys: He can't release the last decade of his tax returns because he's under audit. But Rachel Maddow got ahold of two pages from 12 years ago so it's all cool. So whaddabout (fill in any combination of the letters L, F, O and R).

So the President is publicly threatening a former FBI Director, whom he fired under suspicious circumstances. Lovely.

Wonder if there is an 18½ minute gap in one of them. I try to be at least a little funny in my posts, but it's getting harder and harder to find any humor given the fact that the president of the United States is a raving lunatic.

Methinks Donald has something to hide!

You're off in outer space. 

Actually, the left has left this planet a very long time ago.

Just stop with the spin. It's not about left or right, dems or reps. Stop spinning everything in that direction. 

If it's not about left or right then the left should be happy that Comey is gone, I know Hillary is and Maxine Waters would be were Hillary the president, but she's not, so now she's against it. WTH....

Trump has violated the office of president pure and simple.

How? The FBI director serves at the pleasure of the president and if the president is not pleased with his services, the director can be replaced. You think Hillary would have kept Comey had she'd been president?

He's disrespected left and right. No need to spin. And he still hasn't made his taxes public.

Comey did disrespect both sides, he became a liability for both, so we both agree, he needed to go. By the way, forget the taxes, Maddow already showed them, it's over, time to move on.

*I understand why Russians want Trump in power, but the only Americans I can see wanting him to remain in power and doing what he has been are those who are blindly loyal - and a-principled.*

Wow!!!! So you know something that Comey, the CIA and the NSA don't?? Oh, please elaborate as you are now the best source of all this speculation.

Trump still not releasing his taxes--presumably because they'll show some shady connections and transactions;

He did show his taxes or his taxes were shown on Rachel Maddow's show and to her shock, he paid out over $35 million in taxes and other than that, everything seemed, how should I put it....normal.

asking the FBI director three times if he was under investigation; now saying he personally isn't under investigation, but he's not saying anything about campaigns or his staff; then firing the man investigating him. There's definitely smoke.

Now Trump is threatening Comey. Wow! Is this presidential or dictatorial behavior?

Oh, please! We can turn that around, Comey was way out of line telling Trump he wasn't under investigation, that's not his place to tell him that as an independent investigator. So it all comes down to who do you believe, Comey for lying to the president for not being honest and telling him that he was not under investigation or Trump for firing him and supposedly asking him for his loyalty? I think at this point, both sides are a bit shady and it's now a "he said, she said" deal.

What exactly does the "dishonest" media have to do with Trump threatening James Comey with tapes? Nothing.

Everything, I work in the media and have a lot of friends in this business and believe me when I tell you, most of them would do anything to get this president out of office. They are so overly fixated with Trump and the hate that they ooze from their bodies that they have now blurred the lines between ethics and journalism, their goals are NOT to inform people, their goals is to get Trump out of office and that has never been or should ever be the role of an independent journalist. Leave your personal and emotional opinions at the front door.

For someone who supposedly has nothing to hide, its a rather inexplicable threat to make.

If that did happen.

I also find it curious how Trump thinks its acceptable to peovide the media with innaccurate information, but heaven forbid the media make an honest mistake.

How do you know it wasn't the other way around?

Lastly, I'm curious about your statistic that 75% of independents don't trust the press. Where does it come from?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/james-comey-latest-us-voters-fbi-director-disapprove-poll-ratings-donald-trump-wiretap-hillary-a7644101.html

TTapes were Nixon's undoing as well

JJT fix your editor on mobile!!

Leaks during an open investigation are bad for everyone, except the newspapers.

Here's hoping the newpapers win. I don't trust the press ever since they stopped reporting just the facts, BTW. When they start adding opinions, I know it isn't valid.

I doubt any FBI director would leak, anything, prematurely. Those guys aren't idiots.

@Bass:

What exactly does the "dishonest" media have to do with Trump threatening James Comey with tapes? Nothing. For someone who supposedly has nothing to hide, its a rather inexplicable threat to make.

I also find it curious how Trump thinks its acceptable to peovide the media with innaccurate information, but heaven forbid the media make an honest mistake.

Lastly, I'm curious about your statistic that 75% of independents don't trust the press. Where does it come from?

Superlib, here's your translation: "Someday, and that day may never come, I'll call upon you to do a service for me. "

their pledge of public service

The US is not Russia - yet. I don't know what 'pledge of public service' means in Russia, but I think it might mean a pledge of allegiance to Putin. Integrity in the US used to mean staying true to principles, not blindly obeying the man in charge.

I understand why Russians want Trump in power, but the only Americans I can see wanting him to remain in power and doing what he has been are those who are blindly loyal - and a-principled.

Discipline? Getting rid of? As in disappearing? Putin's been a master at that, hasn't he. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_Russia

And if they're not disappeared, they can be dioxin-ated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko

Every day, every day you wake up and think it cannot possibly be getting worse - and then it does.

How am I supposed to get any work done.... with this slow-motion car crash going on?

Based on Comey's history, you never know what he would do, a person with that big of an ego, you never know. I don't want to speculate because I wasn't there and I don't know the nature or the details of the conversation. I'll let the looney left get overly excited and come to sporadic emotional conclusions.

@nostromo

I disagree. As long as the MSM is not willing to give Trump a fair shake and stop pouncing on him every single time the guy sneezes, he wouldn't have the need to use it, but they don't, so Trump shouldn't stop either. 75% of Independent voters don't trust the media, the largest voting block, that's very significant and the media should take that seriously, but they haven't so far and until they do, expect Trump to tweet away.

if Trump spent less time on twitter and more time doing what he was elected for, we would all be better off.... on second thoughts, maybe we wouldn't....

Can any Trump fans translate that tweet for us? And what is a loyalty pledge?