text: An interesting development since then: last night in an NBC interview the president contradicted his own officials, vice president and several spokespeople who had all said that the firing of Comey was a direct result of the recommendation by Rosenstein. Trump went on to explicitly say what they had repeatedly and vociferously denied: that he would have fired Comey regardless of whether he had gotten that little memo. 
  
  The Donald is fond of saying that his favorite past president is Andrew Jackson. That he would so admire a genocidal maniac and perhaps the worst authoritarian ever to inhabit the white house is not, as he seems to think, flattering however: it's gravely concerning and rather vindicating to the left.
  Nearly 2 years ago, as the republican party was just starting I warned here that Trump was likely to be the nominee - and was told by conservative DM readers that there was no chance. Conservatives were not racist they said. 
  
  Never before had I so badly wished I was wrong.