It took Richard Nixon five months to fire the man investigating him. It took Donald Trump less than four. The difference is that Nixon did little to conceal his motive — to save his presidency. Mr Trump, on the other hand, says he fired James Comey for having mishandled last year’s email investigation into Hillary Clinton. Even by Mr Trump’s standards, this stretches credulity. Mr Trump is asking the US public to believe he “terminated and removed” the FBI director for having treated Mrs Clinton unfairly. This was the same opponent whom Mr Trump said should be locked up for mishandling her emails. Now, apparently, Mrs Clinton was the victim of an unprofessional probe and Mr Trump is setting things straight.
理查德?尼克松(Richard Nixon)花了5個月的時間炒掉了調查他的人。唐納德?特朗普(Donald Trump)花了不到4個月。兩者之間的區別是，尼克松沒怎么隱瞞自己的動機：保住他的總統寶座，而特朗普則稱，他炒掉詹姆斯?科米(James Comey)是因為后者對去年希拉里?克林頓(Hillary Clinton)“郵件門”的調查處理不當。即使以特朗普的標準，這也太把別人當傻子了。特朗普讓美國公眾相信，他“終止和免去（這位聯邦調查局(FBI)局長）的職務”是因為后者曾不公平地對待了希拉里。希拉里正是特朗普口中那個應為不當處置自己郵件被關進監獄的對手。如今看起來，希拉里曾是一項不專業調查的受害者，而特朗普正在伸張正義。