Claptrap

Former director of national intelligence James Clapper has accused Donald Trump of placing American democratic institutions “under assault” following the sacking of James Comey.

[...]

“I think in many ways our institutions are under assault,” Clapper told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday. “Both externally, and that’s the big news here, is Russian interference in our election system. And I think as well our institutions are under assault internally.”

When asked to clarify if the internal assault came from the president directly, the former spy chief added: “Exactly.”

  Guardian

Too bad Clapper has disgraced himself and made anything he says unreliable by lying to Congress about NSA surveillance of Americans.

The bleak assessment came days after Trump claimed on Twitter that Clapper had determined “there is no collusion” with reference to his presidential campaign and Russia, a characterization that Clapper has refuted

The former national intelligence director, who served under the Obama administration from 2010 until Trump’s inauguration, said during a March interview that he had no knowledge of any collusion between the Republican’s campaign and Russian operatives. He has since clarified that during his time in office he was also unaware of an FBI investigation into such collusion, adding on Sunday: “I don’t know if there was collusion... And I don’t know of any evidence to it so I can’t refute it and I can’t confirm it.”

[...]

In a later interview on ABC news, Clapper added that “the Russians have to consider this [Comey’s sacking] as another victory on the scoreboard for them”.

Politics as team sports. Will humans ever evolve beyond male teenage mentality?

On Saturday at least eight candidates for the vacant position met with Sessions and deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein at the justice department. The list included the acting FBI director Andrew McCabe, Alice Fisher, a high-ranking justice department official in the George W Bush administration, Texas Republican senator John Cornyn, and former Republican congressman Mike Rogers, who is also a former FBI agent.

[...]

Senate democrats are discussing the possibility of blocking Trump’s eventual nominee to replace Comey until a special prosecutor is appointed.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.