Hysterical Slate: ‘Trump Wanted a Public Execution’ of Comey

May 10th, 2017 2:07 PM

Slate may win the award for most hyperbolic reaction to the firing of FBI Director James Comey. The hard-left website used this slimy headline: “Trump Wanted a Public Execution.” It’s hard to imagine liberal journalists using similar language for a presidential action by Barack Obama. Writer Phillip Carter, a professor at Georgetown University, repeated the accusation in the article: “The president wanted this to be a public execution of the sort Voltaire described in Candide as something ‘to encourage the others.’"

This over-the-top description came despite the fact that Carter conceded, “The Justice Department’s memorandum recommending Comey’s departure carries merit.” 

But, still, if it’s not a “public execution,” it’s probably like Richard Nixon’s so-called Saturday Night Massacre

The seniority of these officials, and their potential investigatory relationship to Trump, suggests the most apt comparison here is to the “Saturday Night Massacre” initiated in 1973 by President Richard Nixon to try and block the Watergate investigation.