First He Came for the FBI. What's Next?

Taken by itself and out of context, President Donald Trump’s decision to fire FBI Director James Comey was hardly unreasonable. Hillary Clinton might have done the same thing. No one should doubt that Comey is an honorable man.1494447982107 But fairly or unfairly, he had lost the trust of the American people, largely because of his controversial choices with respect to the investigation of Clinton’s emails and Russia’s role in the presidential election. In a highly polarized period, when so many decisions are regarded suspiciously, trust is an essential commodity, especially for the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In these circumstances, it is important to avoid hysteria or comparisons to President Richard Nixon’s disgraceful discharge of special prosecutor Archibald Cox during the Watergate affair. (Cox had not lost the nation’s trust; his only sin was to threaten Nixon.) But for Americans of every political stripe, Trump’s decision has to set off alarm bells, because of the possibility that he will try to undermine some essential safeguards against the awesome power of the president -- and succeed in doing so.