Latest news with #autocracy
CNN
2 days ago
- Politics
- CNN
Analysis: The bizarre and toxic feud between Trump and the Comeys will run and run
Once again, President Donald Trump was caught in a scandal and a Comey got fired. The strange and fateful entanglement between two powerful families jumped into a new generation this week when Maurene Comey got the sack from her job as one of New York's top prosecutors. And like her father, former FBI Director James Comey, who was ousted months into Trump's first term, she left with a dramatic warning about encroaching autocracy. 'Fear is the tool of the tyrant,' Comey said in a message to colleagues, obtained by CNN on Thursday, after losing her job at the US attorney's office in the Southern District of New York, where she took part in prosecutions including that of Jeffrey Epstein – who has returned to national attention of late. A controversy over unreleased Justice Department files over the late accused sex trafficker is estranging the president from some in his MAGA base, causing him to absurdly blame Democrats — and James Comey — for orchestrating some kind of 'hoax' Maurene Comey also prosecuted Sean 'Diddy' Combs and high-profile murder, drug and gang violence cases. She said she was let go without explanation. But the only surprise really is that it took so long. A person familiar with the situation said that being a Comey is untenable in this administration because the former FBI chief continues to criticize the president. It works both ways, however, with Trump frequently lambasting his first FBI chief, whom he fired on questionable grounds. This new front in the Trump/Comey feud is the latest dramatic twist in the politically charged story of the former FBI director, whose choices even before Trump stormed onto the scene meant he was sucked into toxic politics in a way that is unusual for a modern incumbent of his former job. After Trump took office in January 2017, Comey quickly became an early symbol of the president's attempts to bend the US government's legal agencies and instruments to his will. He is also one of the most prominent avatars for the conspiracies advanced by Trump and his MAGA crowd — which have escaped the president's capacity to control in the Epstein saga — that there is a pernicious 'deep state' inside the US government plotting to bring down the president and his supporters. Comey said that he was summoned to the White House for an uncomfortable one-on-one dinner with Trump a week into his first term and asked to pledge loyalty to the president, in a breach of the protocol by which FBI directors have sought distance from the Oval Office following the long and Machiavellian rule at the bureau of J. Edgar Hoover. Comey later testified to Congress he told Trump he would be honest but not politically loyal in that encounter, which started the slide to his dismissal in May 2017. In retrospect, and especially in light of the events of Trump's second term, that meeting was one of the first signs of Trump's intention to weaponize the Justice Department and the FBI. Attorney General Pamela Bondi, who is also embroiled in the Epstein storm, and FBI Director Kash Patel are Trump ultra-loyalists and won their jobs by becoming stars in MAGA world. And ironically, the cudgel of politicized justice that Comey refused to provide for Trump seems now to be turned against him. The FBI is investigating its former director and ex-CIA Director John Brennan for possible false statements to Congress relating to the issue that first dragged Comey into the president's bad books — the intelligence community assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin interfered in the 2016 election to try to help Trump win, CNN reported last week. Comey was also one of the first major public figures to sound the alarm about Trump's autocratic tendencies and a style of leadership that often appears to prioritize his own political and personal goals above a broad definition of the national interest. In a dramatic congressional hearing days after he was fired, Comey talked about contemporaneous memos he wrote after meeting Trump. He said he believed that the president was trying to get 'something in exchange' for allowing him to stay in his job. Later, in his searing book 'A Higher Loyalty,' Comey wrote that dealing with Trump reminded him of his days prosecuting mafia kingpins, with their 'silent circle of assent.' Trump's implication in an interview with NBC after firing Comey that his decision was partly to do with the Russia investigation only heightened concerns about the president's motives. The circumstances of Comey's dismissal were one of the factors that led to the appointment of another former FBI director, Robert Mueller, to head the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Ultimately, Mueller did not establish that members of the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia's election interference effort, but did say the president's team expected to benefit from it. Trump refers to the entire issue of Russian election interference as a hoax. Comey's tortured relationship with Trump began when he was among senior intelligence officials who went to Trump Tower to meet the incoming commander in chief two weeks before he was sworn in for the first time. Comey pulled Trump aside and told him about a dossier of allegations against him that also detailed interactions between his aides and Russians. The dossier later became the centerpiece of Trump's allegations that the intelligence agencies plotted against him. It reinforced the view of many supporters that there is a shady secret government that runs the United States — a conspiracy theory that helps explain the resonance of the story around Epstein, who MAGA activists claim was murdered in prison and kept a list of famous clients. Comey's dealings with Trump were not the first time he was pulled into the country's treacherous politics. In a move that Democrats claim cost their nominee the White House in 2016, he sensationally sent a letter to Congress announcing he was reopening the Hillary Clinton State Department email probe only 11 days before the election. He has since described the episode as a nightmare, but at the time he maintained he'd had no choice to tell the public about new evidence, because if he didn't do so he'd have been accused of covering it up and potentially helping Clinton win. This episode reinforced claims by critics on both sides of the aisle that Comey is sometimes a grandstander and has a rather too finely developed sense of his own integrity that leads him into tricky political situations. Americans first saw the moral certainty Comey brought to his professional life during the George W. Bush administration. As deputy attorney general, he rushed to a Washington hospital to thwart an attempt by White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and White House Chief of Staff Andy Card to get a seriously ill Attorney General John Ashcroft to reauthorize a surveillance program. The sense that Comey sees himself as a guardian of some of America's most fundamental democratic values has surrounded his public moves ever since. And the message his daughter released after her dismissal suggests the apple didn't fall far from the tree. 'If a career prosecutor can be fired without reason, fear may seep into the decisions of those who remain,' she wrote to her colleagues. 'Do not let that happen.' Maurene Comey's dismissal occurred two months after the previous bizarre development in the Comey-Trump melodrama. Her father was interview by Secret Service Agents over a photograph he posted to social media showing shells on a beach spelling out '86 47' — a code for removing Trump from the presidency. Some senior Trump officials accused Comey of calling for the president's assassination. Comey said he had no idea that some people associated the code with violence. But the feud between Trump and Comey is as bitter as ever, and there are surely new chapters to come — which might not be out of place in the legal thrillers the former FBI chief has taken to writing in his retirement.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Hungary opposition figures urge Democrats to organize against autocratic takeover by Trump
Democrats must organize urgently for the 2026 midterm elections and avoid a 'it can't happen here' mentality to stop Donald Trump from staging a full-scale autocratic takeover, a Hungarian opposition parliamentarian has said. Katalin Cseh, a critic of Hungary's strongman prime minister, Viktor Orbán, told a forum on authoritarianism that the central European country's experience held vital lessons for Trump's opponents in their attempts to resist his assaults on US institutions and democratic norms since his return to the White House. Hungary was important because Trump and his 'Make America great again' (Maga) movement have used Orbán and his ruling Fidesz party as a role model, she said. 'I invite everybody to study the processes that happened [in Hungary] and elsewhere, because autocratic learning is real,' said Cseh, a member of Hungary's opposition Momentum Movement. 'Backsliding just went by us like a train, without anybody realizing how far it had gotten. So it's very important to pay attention from the very beginning … [and] to mobilize.' Hungary, a European Union and Nato member, is often cited as an example of a formerly liberal democracy devolving into a competitive autocracy. Orbán – who has trumpeted his belief in 'illiberal democracy' – has cemented his power over the courts, the media and universities during 15 years in office and four consecutive election victories. Addressing a webinar organized by the Center for American Progress, a Washington-based thinktank, Cseh warned US voters against believing their country was immune to such developments. 'I do believe that many Americans think this is something that also only happens to others, and I think that mindset has to be fought,' she said. 'Start preparing for the midterms like yesterday. Go to every protest, go to every march, stand right beside everybody who is being attacked, no matter if it is a group you belong to, or something that you do not share personally. You have to stand side by side [with] each other and help and support those who might feel isolated and alone.' She urged Democrats and activists to form a widely inclusive 'movement' and find 'candidates for the midterms or any election that is coming your way who can get people excited – not necessarily the same old faces they have been seeing all the time that they don't really trust that much, but visionary leaders … who are part of a community, who are being persecuted.' Leaders such as Trump and Orbán could only be effectively opposed, she said, by ditching a 'legalistic, technical, technocratic approach' in favor of 'something for the electorate to be excited about'. 'Autocrats are not always good in governing. So cost of living, crisis of healthcare, education – if the focus is shifted to these areas, and not only technical descriptions of what's going on in the courts, this is something that people can relate to more.' The parallels with Hungary came as opinion polls show Orbán on course to lose next year's general election to the opposition Tisza party, led by Péter Magyar, a former member of the prime minister's party. Related: Tens of thousands defy Hungary's ban on Pride in protest against Orbán In a striking sign of Orbán's declining authority, his government's attempt to ban last month's annual Pride march in Budapest backfired when an estimated 100,000 people took to the streets in defiance. Previous such events have been attended by a few thousand LGBTQ+ activists. Szabolcs Panyi, a journalist with the Hungarian website Direkt36, said Trump's approach to the media drew on a playbook used by Orbán, who deployed a range of measures to curtail journalists' independence. These included banishing established outlets from briefings in favor of friendly journalists and 'propagandists', an approach emulated by the White House, which has excluded journalists from the Associated Press and invited representatives from rightwing organizations and social media influencers. 'What particularly rings out is how certain large media outlets or owners or large conglomerates try to appease Donald Trump by settling lawsuits or by firing journalists [or] editors,' he said. 'It really resembles what happened in Hungary in the 2010s.' Paramount Global, the owners of CBS, reached a $16m settlement with Trump this month after he lodged a $10bn suit over the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris, his 2024 Democratic presidential opponent. ABC agreed to pay Trump $15m last December after he sued over an inaccurate characterization of his conviction over sexual assault allegations brought by the writer E Jean Carroll. Panyi said Trump's attempts to slash funding for public broadcasters such as PBS and Voice of America were also inspired by Orbán. '[Orbán] went after public radio, public TV, and in a matter of a couple of months, it was already transformed into propaganda,' he said. 'It's scary to see similar things happening in the United States. Solidarity is especially important, so whenever there are similar things happening, there should be protests. Journalists should support their colleagues and tell readers that if it happens to one outlet, it can happen to others as well.' Ceylan Akçe, a member of Turkey's pro-Kurdish People's Equality and Democracy party, said more than two decades of rule under the country's authoritarian president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, had demonstrated that political opponents should not 'wait for the storm to pass'. 'It's going to continue to rain,' she said. 'If you wait for it to stop, it won't, and while you're in the eye of the storm, you have to continue to mobilize and never be discouraged.' Tamara Tripic, an opposition parliamentarian in Serbia, where Aleksandar Vučić, the president, is accused of instituting an autocracy that has provoked waves of opposition protests, warned that modern authoritarians camouflaged their actions behind a cloak of legality. 'We have to be aware that they are using [tools that] are usually legal but misused, institutional but hollowed out, democratic in appearance but authoritarian in essence,' she said. 'It doesn't look like dictatorship, but it's functioning like one. Our problem, especially if you are progressive, is that … usually people are afraid of the freedom we are offering. They are willing to trade some … freedom for the illusion of order, identity and security.'
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Hungary opposition figures urge Democrats to organize against autocratic takeover by Trump
Democrats must organize urgently for the 2026 midterm elections and avoid a 'it can't happen here' mentality to stop Donald Trump from staging a full-scale autocratic takeover, a Hungarian opposition parliamentarian has said. Katalin Cseh, a critic of Hungary's strongman prime minister, Viktor Orbán, told a forum on authoritarianism that the central European country's experience held vital lessons for Trump's opponents in their attempts to resist his assaults on US institutions and democratic norms since his return to the White House. Hungary was important because Trump and his 'Make America great again' (Maga) movement have used Orbán and his ruling Fidesz party as a role model, she said. 'I invite everybody to study the processes that happened [in Hungary] and elsewhere, because autocratic learning is real,' said Cseh, a member of Hungary's opposition Momentum Movement. 'Backsliding just went by us like a train, without anybody realizing how far it had gotten. So it's very important to pay attention from the very beginning … [and] to mobilize.' Hungary, a European Union and Nato member, is often cited as an example of a formerly liberal democracy devolving into a competitive autocracy. Orbán – who has trumpeted his belief in 'illiberal democracy' – has cemented his power over the courts, the media and universities during 15 years in office and four consecutive election victories. Addressing a webinar organized by the Center for American Progress, a Washington-based thinktank, Cseh warned US voters against believing their country was immune to such developments. 'I do believe that many Americans that think this is something that also only happens to others, and I think that mindset has to be fought,' she said. 'Start preparing for the midterms like yesterday. Go to every protest, go to every march, stand right beside everybody who is being attacked, no matter if it is a group you belong to, or something that you do not share personally. You have to stand side by side [with] each other and help and support those who might feel isolated and alone.' She urged Democrats and activists to form a widely inclusive 'movement' and find 'candidates for the midterms or any election that is coming your way who can get people excited – not necessarily the same old faces they have been seeing all the time that they don't really trust that much, but visionary leaders … who are part of a community, who are being persecuted.' Leaders such as Trump and Orbán could only be effectively opposed, she said, by ditching a 'legalistic, technical, technocratic approach' in favor of 'something for the electorate to be excited about'. 'Autocrats are not always good in governing. So cost of living, crisis of healthcare, education – if the focus is shifted to these areas, and not only technical descriptions of what's going on in the courts, this is something that people can relate to more.' The parallels with Hungary came as opinion polls show Orbán on course to lose next year's general election to the opposition Tisza party, led by Péter Magyar, a former member of the prime minister's party. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion In a striking sign of Orbán's declining authority, his government's attempt to ban last month's annual Pride march in Budapest backfired when an estimated 100,000 people took to the streets in defiance. Previous such events have been attended by a few thousand LGBTQ+ activists. Szabolcs Panyi, a journalist with the Hungarian website Direkt36, said Trump's approach to the media drew on a playbook used by Orbán, who deployed a range of measures to curtail journalists' independence. These included banishing established outlets from briefings in favor of friendly journalists and 'propagandists', an approach emulated by the White House, which has excluded journalists from the Associated Press and invited representatives from rightwing organizations and social media influencers. 'What particularly rings out is how certain large media outlets or owners or large conglomerates try to appease Donald Trump by settling lawsuits or by firing journalists [or] editors,' he said. 'It really resembles what happened in Hungary in the 2010s.' Paramount Global, the owners of CBS, reached a $16m settlement with Trump this month after he lodged a $10bn suit over the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris, his 2024 Democratic presidential opponent. ABC agreed to pay Trump $15m last December after he sued over an inaccurate characterization of his conviction over sexual assault allegations brought by the writer E Jean Carroll. Panyi said Trump's attempts to slash funding for public broadcasters such as PBS and Voice of America were also inspired by Orbán. '[Orbán] went after public radio, public TV, and in a matter of a couple of months, it was already transformed into propaganda,' he said. 'It's scary to see similar things happening in the United States. Solidarity is especially important, so whenever there are similar things happening, there should be protests. Journalists should support their colleagues and tell readers that if it happens to one outlet, it can happen to others as well.' Ceylan Akçe, a member of Turkey's pro-Kurdish People's Equality and Democracy party, said more than two decades of rule under the country's authoritarian president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, had demonstrated that political opponents should not 'wait for the storm to pass'. 'It's going to continue to rain,' she said. 'If you wait for it to stop, it won't, and while you're in the eye of the storm, you have to continue to mobilize and never be discouraged.' Tamara Tripic, an opposition parliamentarian in Serbia, where Aleksandar Vučić, the president, is accused of instituting an autocracy that has provoked waves of opposition protests, warned that modern authoritarians camouflaged their actions behind a cloak of legality. 'We have to be aware that they are using [tools that] are usually legal but misused, institutional but hollowed out, democratic in appearance but authoritarian in essence,' she said. 'It doesn't look like dictatorship, but it's functioning like one. Our problem, especially if you are progressive, is that … usually people are afraid of the freedom we are offering. They are willing to trade some … freedom for the illusion of order, identity and security.'
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Gavin Newsom's Press Office Calls Stephen Miller A 'Fascist Cuck' Amid Rumors About His Wife And Elon Musk
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom's official press account called President Donald Trump's top immigration adviser Stephen Miller a 'fascist cuck' on Friday, possibly alluding to rumors that Miller's wife had a sexual relationship with billionaire Elon Musk. The online feud Friday sparked when Miller called U.S. District Court Judge Maame E. Frimpong a 'communist' on X after she ordered the Trump administration to stop conducting indiscriminate immigration stops and arrests. The ruling has just been issued. A communist judge in LA has ordered ICE to report directly to her and radical left NGOs — not the president. This is another act of insurrection against the United States and its sovereign people. — Stephen Miller (@StephenM) July 12, 2025 'This is another act of insurrection against the United States and its sovereign people,' Miller wrote. In response to Miller's statement, Newsom's press office called the White House deputy chief of staff a different 'c' word. 'This fascist cuck in DC continues his assault on democracy and the Constitution, and his attempt to replace the sovereignty of the people with autocracy,' the office wrote on X. This fascist cuck in DC continues his assault on democracy and the Constitution, and his attempt to replace the sovereignty of the people with the Constitution hurt your feelings, harder. — Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) July 12, 2025 The term 'cuck,' which derives from the word 'cuckold,' is used to describe a person whose spouse is engaging in sexual activity with another person. It's also used as a more general insult towards men, suggesting weakness. The comments were a possible reference to unsubstantiated online rumors that Miller's wife, Katie Miller — who Musk selected as a Department of Government Efficiency official — had become romantically involved with the billionaire during his time as a special government employee. When Musk stepped down from DOGE, Katie Miller also left, opting to take a new job at Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI. Around the time his wife left DOGE, Miller posted on X defending Trump's so-called 'Big, Beautiful Bill,' which had been slammed heavily by Musk. The official X account for the Democratic party reacted to this by posting an image known as the 'cuck chair' meme, which is meant to represent a hotel room chair where a person would sit while watching their partner have sex with someone else. .@StephenM: — Democrats (@TheDemocrats) May 30, 2025 On Friday, Newsom cheered on Frimpong's ruling, saying 'justice prevailed' and that 'California stands with the law and the Constitution,' calling on the 'Trump Administration to do the same.' 'Sorry the Constitution hurt your feelings, Stephen,' his press office wrote on Friday. 'Cry harder.' OOPS!! Stephen Miller's Fox News Glitch Goes Viral For Most Poetic Reason Elon Musk's AI Just Called Itself 'MechaHitler.' Soon It's Coming To Cars Near You. Gavin Newsom Says 'Justice Prevailed' After Judge Blocks Indiscriminate Immigration Stops
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Gavin Newsom's Press Office Calls Stephen Miller A 'Fascist Cuck' Amid Rumors About His Wife And Elon Musk
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom's official press account called President Donald Trump's top immigration adviser Stephen Miller a 'fascist cuck' on Friday, possibly alluding to rumors that Miller's wife had a sexual relationship with billionaire Elon Musk. The online feud Friday sparked when Miller called U.S. District Court Judge Maame E. Frimpong a 'communist' on X after she ordered the Trump administration to stop conducting indiscriminate immigration stops and arrests. The ruling has just been issued. A communist judge in LA has ordered ICE to report directly to her and radical left NGOs — not the president. This is another act of insurrection against the United States and its sovereign people. — Stephen Miller (@StephenM) July 12, 2025 'This is another act of insurrection against the United States and its sovereign people,' Miller wrote. In response to Miller's statement, Newsom's press office called the White House deputy chief of staff a different 'c' word. 'This fascist cuck in DC continues his assault on democracy and the Constitution, and his attempt to replace the sovereignty of the people with autocracy,' the office wrote on X. This fascist cuck in DC continues his assault on democracy and the Constitution, and his attempt to replace the sovereignty of the people with the Constitution hurt your feelings, harder. — Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) July 12, 2025 The term 'cuck,' which derives from the word 'cuckold,' is used to describe a person whose spouse is engaging in sexual activity with another person. It's also used as a more general insult towards men, suggesting weakness. The comments were a possible reference to unsubstantiated online rumors that Miller's wife, Katie Miller — who Musk selected as a Department of Government Efficiency official — had become romantically involved with the billionaire during his time as a special government employee. When Musk stepped down from DOGE, Katie Miller also left, opting to take a new job at Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI. Around the time his wife left DOGE, Miller posted on X defending Trump's so-called 'Big, Beautiful Bill,' which had been slammed heavily by Musk. The official X account for the Democratic party reacted to this by posting an image known as the 'cuck chair' meme, which is meant to represent a hotel room chair where a person would sit while watching their partner have sex with someone else. .@StephenM: — Democrats (@TheDemocrats) May 30, 2025 On Friday, Newsom cheered on Frimpong's ruling, saying 'justice prevailed' and that 'California stands with the law and the Constitution,' calling on the 'Trump Administration to do the same.' 'Sorry the Constitution hurt your feelings, Stephen,' his press office wrote on Friday. 'Cry harder.' OOPS!! Stephen Miller's Fox News Glitch Goes Viral For Most Poetic Reason Elon Musk's AI Just Called Itself 'MechaHitler.' Soon It's Coming To Cars Near You. Gavin Newsom Says 'Justice Prevailed' After Judge Blocks Indiscriminate Immigration Stops
