Ethics Expert Norm Eisen: Trump's Excuse To Fire Comey Is “The Latest In The Trump Big Lie Strategy”

From the May 10 edition of CNN's CNN Newsroom

Video file

JOHN BERMAN (CO-HOST): It doesn't have to be mutually exclusive that James Comey acted inappropriately during the campaign and that his firing yesterday is extremely suspect. Your take on it? 

NORM EISEN: Well, whatever you may think of the campaign conduct, and there is a debate to be had about the rules, and there is some proper criticism. The timing of the firing and the frankly blatant, open pretextual nature that was because of Comey's conduct during the campaign that Trump and [Attorney General Jeff] Sessions had previously embraced, that's a lie. It's the latest in the Trump big lie strategy and the fact that there is a falsehood together with the timing just as these rumors of the -- and I was hearing them all day yesterday before CNN broke the story of the grand jury subpoenas, that suggests that something is afoot here, and I think the focus on Flynn is very important because the subpoenas suggest and we've been talking about this for a while, a tightening noose around Flynn. The danger is to Trump that Flynn will, as typically happens in these investigations, Flynn will flip. He's going to trade for immunity, whatever he has to say. His lawyer says he has a story to tell. That represents a danger to Trump. There's been recent allegations, more allegations, about Trump's possible financial ties with the journalists saying this weekend that Eric Trump told him they had $100 million in Russian financing. and there's a lot of other evidence that Trump may have had financial connections with Russia that explains the motive for his bizarre embrace of an attack on our democracy.

Previously:

CNN's Jeffrey Toobin: Trump's Firing Of FBI Director Comey Is “A Grotesque Abuse Of Power”

Former FBI Special Agent Clint Watts On Comey Firing: “When Trump Doesn't Get His Way, He Either Smears You Or Fires You”

On CNN, Presidential Historian Douglas Brinkley Says “Donald Trump Just Behaved Like A Tyrant”