Of all of the mistakes by President Donald Trump, from hiring Steve Bannon, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and Anthony Scaramucci to gaffes like "both sides," one of these stands out: The firing of James Comey and the subsequent interview that followed with NBC's Lester Holt revealing why he was fired.
According to MSNBC's Joy Reid and Jonathan Capehart, Trump's world began to unravel with the single decision to get rid of Comey, because there was a paper-trail revealing why the decision was made. However, Trump tied his own noose, stepped off the platform and hanged himself with the Holt interview.
"He made a recommendation," Trump said of deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein. "He is highly respected. Very good guy. Very smart guy. The Democrats like him. The Republicans like him. He made a recommendation, but regardless of recommendation I was going to fire Comey, knowing there was no good time to do it. And in fact, when I decided to just do it I said to myself, I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story. It's an excuse by the Democrats having lost an election that they should have won. And the reason they should have won it is, the electoral college is almost impossible for a Republican to win. Very hard. Because you start off at such a disadvantage. So, everybody was thinking they should have won the election. This was an excuse for having lost an election."
"That confession really does set in motion part two of the Russiagate investigation by [special counsel Robert] Mueller and track one is whether or not the Trump campaign colluded with Russia," said Joy Reid, who said up until that moment the White House had a "cover story" for why Comey was fired. "Did Donald Trump, himself, obstruct justice? Donald Trump seems to think, yes, he did."
Capehart agreed with Reid, noting it was "absolutely" the biggest mistake of the year.
"Just recently, the president even said what we just saw in the clip there which is a made-up story by the Democrats to explain why they lost the election," he said. "He wouldn't have to be saying those things had he not fired Comey. In a normal presidency, James Comey would be still the FBI director. A normal president would allow the FBI to conduct its investigation investigation, would say the proper things to get to the bottom of this, means something for the democracy, whatever the Russians did and fully cooperate and leave it at that."
Instead, according to Capehart, Trump decided he wanted to fight with the FBI instead of the Justice Department.
"And then keep fighting with everybody who keeps getting closer and closer to him," Capehart continued.
Watch the full discussion below:
