Jeff Sessions refused to answer that question.

He refused to say No. Under oath.

and it was obstruction of justice and claiming Trump cannot commit obstruction of justice by firing Comey, because Comey worked under him is nothing more than a bs right wing talking point. Yeah Archibald Cox worked under Nixon too and it was absolutely obstruction of justice when Nixon fired him. Robert Mueller technically works under Trump too and when and if Trump fires him it will be obstruction of justice.

“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” Mr. Trump told Mr. Comey, according to the memo. “He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”


assuming it is found that donnie made this statement, an obstruction case would center on whether this was an "order" with any kind of threat implied or more of just idle wondering out loud.



as for serving at the pleasure of the president, that doesn't mean the president isn't committing a crime when firing someone. any boss can fire an employee-at-will for stupid or arbitrary reasons, but can't do so based on race, e.g.

similarly, a president could still be committing a crime in firing or even just threatening to fire someone if that's being done to obstruct justice.

directed to his base?

This isn't some down-at-the-heels skell waiting for a trip to Riker's Island, this is the President of the United States. What he says or tweets is the official policy of the United States of America. Whether he actually believes what he's saying doesn't matter as far as being held accountable for it. He doesn't have the out of "Hey, I was just gaslighting my dumbass base; you can't hold me responsible for the bullshit I'm feeding those idiots."

If he is actively delusional I think it would have a big impact on the country.

It's beginning to sound like the latter. There have been a number of reports about how Trump's staff and his lawyers have been "managing" him and feeding him inaccurate information about the status of the investigation to keep him from flying off the handle and doing God knows what crazy shit. I think he is so wrapped up in his narcissistic view of himself that he really does think he did nothing wrong (he never does anything wrong); that Mueller et al. are out to get him and discredit his presidency, which is the best ever and which he totally deserves because he really did win the popular vote; he didn't "collude" with the Russians but only worked with them in a reasonable way so Putin would be his friend and the oligarchs wouldn't call his loans, which is perfectly OK because he deserves to be rich; and the American people, almost all of them except for a few losers like the Democrats and Hillary, totally love and support him, as evidenced by his yuge rallies that are attended by millions.

I really think he believes that crap. His narcissism demands it.

And you have to be nice to him all morning and not say V-E-T and "you wanna go for a car ride! Oh, you love car rides! I'll roll down the windows for you! At'sagood boy! Such a good boy!"

"OKAY, HE'S IN LOCK IT DOWN!"

I can only hope 45's expression of utter betrayal smushed against the back vehicle window is as comical as the dog's on the way to the vet.

I guess that's about right. "OK, Mr. President, here's your Big Mac and your Filet-O-Fish. Don't you love your Big Mac? Can I turn on Fox News for you? You like Fox News, don't you? There's that nice Sean Hannity; he always has something good to say about you. As soon as you've finished your dinner I'll bring you your two scoops of ice cream and your beautiful chocolate cake!"

(OK, he's all settled down. Don't mention Ob-bay Ueller-may until he's bloated like a tick from his dinner. If we're lucky he'll go to sleep. Be sure to grab his phone.)

He probably does believe it.

many of his lawyers were told the truth by trump.

How do you admit to treason? To money laundering? You only admit that to your mobster lawyer or "the family".

...but are doing this to pad their own resume's, speaking gigs, book deals, etc.

He is an admitted sexual predator. He has various mafia ties. He as defrauded literally thousands of investors and contractors and "students". He has been involved in international money laundering. His "modeling agency" was bringing in under age girls on falsified documents, and used as sexual favors. He was best buddies with convicted pedo Jeffery Epestein, and Trump is accused of raping and beating a 13 year old girl. And this is just a few of the high points.

And what the investigation was really after:
Trump Jr, Kushner, and Manafort, the top execs of Trump's presidential campaign entered into a conspiracy with representative of the Russian government to exchange dropping sanctions against Russian Oligarchs in trade for private information stolen from a US political party and candidate through electronic espionage by the Russian government. This is not "fake news" this is just some of the real and actual felonies committed by the Trump campaign, and publicly admitted to by Junior.

Of course I am sure that control freak Donald sr knew nothing about any of this.....