Trump After Dark: ‘Untruthful slime ball’ edition

The following article by Henry C. Jackson was posted on the Politico website April 13, 2018:

The James Comey media tour hadn’t even started, really, before President Donald Trump responded with anger and indignation.

Then the revelations started to leak out.

“He is a weak and untruthful slime ball who was, as time has proven, a terrible Director of the FBI. His handling of the Crooked Hillary Clinton case, and the events surrounding it, will go down as one of the worst ‘botch jobs’ of history. It was my great honor to fire James Comey!” Trump wrote in one of a series of tweets.

On a day chock full of news, even by the standards of the Trump administration, the president’s explosive anger toward Comey and another fired former FBI official, deputy director Andrew McCabe, stood out, POLITICO’s Matthew Nussbaum, Andrew Restuccia and Nancy Cook report.

“The presidential missives were triggered by the release of a Justice Department inspector general report to the Hill critical of McCabe’s conduct. The report seemed only to further irritate the already amped-up president, who began the day tweeting about Comey, calling the longtime civil servant “a weak and untruthful slime ball.”

The presidential anger made for a potent mix today that included a surprise pardon today for former Dick Cheney aide Scooter Libby, fresh revelations about Trump’s interactions with his personal lawyer Michael Cohen and a new scandal involving Cohen and a top RNC fundraiser.

“GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy has stepped down as Republican National Committee deputy finance chair, according to three people familiar with the matter,” POLITICO’s Alex Isenstadt reports. “The departure followed reports on Friday afternoon that in 2017, President Donald Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen had negotiated a $1.6 million payment on Broidy’s behalf to a Playboy Playmate who said that Broidy had impregnated her.”