Quote:
Originally Posted by Our House
IDK. Trump just leaves positions open until he finds a way to benefit him. FBI head is a biggie, and from Trump's PoV is all about Russia.
EDIT: To clarify, not an agent of Russia, one of Trump and/or the WH.
Not necessarily. Yes, Comey was fired because Trump wanted to end the Russia investigation. But you're forgetting or ignoring the political fallout of that decision. He couldn't keep his mouth shut about the reason for firing Comey and within 2 days admitted his real motive in the Lester Holt interview. He threatened Comey with tapes until Congress was like "Oh really? We'll need copies of those." which made him look like a liar and/or idiot. Real tapes are leaked of Trump telling Russia he fired that "nut job" Comey which relieved pressure on him because of the Russia investigation. Comey went public with the allegation that Trump had made suggestions to obstruct the Flynn investigation. All of this leads to the appointment of Mueller which severely reduces the benefit of putting a Trump slappy in the FBI position.
Also remember that Trump promised he would fill the position quickly, like within a week. He interviewed John Cornyn. Cornyn withdraws. Alice Fisher: withdrawn. Michael Garcia: withdrawn. Lieberman: withdrawn. Trey Gowdy: withdrawn. GOP Senators were like "Hey you should put Merrick Garland in there, he's well qualified and liberals can't complain about it" and Garland was like "lol no." The search for Comey's replacement was an absolute embarrassment. A week after Comey was fired, yeah, Trump was probably thinking of finding someone to stop the Russia investigation. By the time Wray was nominated he was probably just looking for a non-controversial pick to stop the bleeding.