This all sounds too familiar, Mr President

By John Damellos

The Greek Courier

A day after he called 92-year old magician Henry Kissinger to the White House for advice on Syria, Russia and the entanglements of power, Donald Trump suggested that there may be ‘tapes’ of his private conversations with fired FBI director James Comey, sending a direct message to him with a Tweet: "James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!" 

Is this an attempt to threaten Comey? Is this obstruction of justice? The Washington Post was quick to suggest that "Trump's tweet drew immediate comparisons to President Richard Nixon's practice of taping his private conversations in the Oval Office". 

Alas, it's like a political "Matrix Revisited" in Washington these days, but there is no Hunter S. Thompson anymore to boo the culprits. Instead, there are Russians,  the least expected visitors in these stressful times, with whom President Trump met in the Oval Office on Wednesday, behind closed doors. Trump barred U.S. Press, not Russia’s. But, don't worry. Kissinger was nearby, like a Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother to telepathically mentor the Emperor... 

So Nixon did not fire his FBI Director like Trump did, but on October 20, 1973, during the Saturday Night Massacre (special episode of the Watergate scandal and not SNL), he gave the order to fire independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox, which led to the resignations of Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus. Then all hell broke loose.

Less than a week after the Massacre, an Oliver Quayle poll for NBC News showed that, for the first time, a plurality of U.S. citizens supported impeaching Nixon, with 44% in favor, 43% opposed, and 13% undecided.

In the days that followed, numerous resolutions of impeachment against the president were introduced in Congress, but the House Judiciary Committee did not approve its first article of impeachment until July 27th the following year – more than nine months after the Saturday Night Massacre – when it charged Nixon with obstruction of justice.

Two more articles of impeachment quickly followed.

Nixon resigned less than two weeks later, on Aug. 8, 1974.

Back in our times,  as the Washington Post points out,

"since President Trump fired Comey on May 9, the explanations for the dismissal have been getting "murkier" and now Trump has tweeted a threat to cancel press briefings and a suggestion about "tapes" of his private conversations with Comey ... In his tweet, Trump appears to suggest that he may have recordings of his communications with Comey. It is unclear if such tapes exist. Trump's tweet about Comey was likely a reaction to a New York Times report, published Thursday night, detailing a one-on-one dinner Trump had with Comey shortly after the inauguration. The report said that Comey has told associates that Trump twice asked Comey during their conversation to pledge his loyalty to him, something the FBI director declined to do."

And then Comey was Trumped...