Giving Trump the benefit of the doubt on Comey

Playing devil’s advocate, is it possible that President Trump didn’t just clumsily admit to something in his move to fire FBI Director James Comey?

Let’s try real hard to give the guy the benefit of the doubt here.

OK, you’re President Trump. (You’ve got one really, really long hair, orange-tinted.)

You’ve decided you need to fire Comey, who has done enough to justify getting canned, honestly.

You know, for example, publicly discussing an ongoing investigation involving a presidential candidate. Might be familiar with that one.

Then reopening that investigation 11 days before the election, based on the discovery of emails on a laptop computer that might have offered something, but, well, yeah, we know that there was nothing there.

Her opponent, you might remember, took advantage of Comey’s missteps to lead chants at campaign rallies to “lock her up.”

Played a big role in him winning.

(Heh-heh.)

Then Comey doubled down just this week, mischaracterizing the investigation to Congress, prompting a flurry of clarifications from the FBI.

This guy, loose cannon, playing politics, dangerous to democracy. Gotta go.

OK, sure, there’s the delicate matter of how you, remember, you’re President Trump here, praised Comey for being brave enough to go public with the investigation stuff.

All of those public comments, tweets, the rest, will be fodder for the Fake News when you fire him.

But, come on, nobody believes the Fake News anymore. They just go out of their way to look for reasons to play Trump.

A ratings monster, that Trump.

And when you think about it, the Fake News has been blasting Comey ever since he went public last summer with the investigation stuff.

The Fake News … and Democrats. Both hate Comey with a passion. You fire the guy, and you’re their hero.

This is a slam dunk. You’re doing everybody a u-u-u-ge favor.

Now, yes, the timing, might not look good. That Sally Yates just testified in Congress about the Russia stuff, and Comey was scheduled to go back on Thursday, and God knows what he would end up saying.

You can’t fire Sally Yates again, unfortunately. (Maybe try to bring her back for a season of “Celebrity DOJ” and fire her Week One. Hey, somebody write that down about doing a “Celebrity DOJ” and call Mark Burnett. That’s ratings gold.)

Comey needed to go. So the timing doesn’t look good. Makes it look to the Fake News that you were trying to keep him from spilling whatever beans he thinks he has to Congress.

Seriously, that “Celebrity DOJ” is a hit. Trump, you still got it.

It’s all going to work out. You’ve talked to Jared, and he seems to think he has the Middle East peace thing just about ready to go.

This FBI will be a piece of cake.

Column by Chris Graham