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You are here: Home / Open Threads / She must take after her mom…

She must take after her mom…

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Maurene Comey, daughter of James, pens a good-bye note to colleagues after she was fired by Pam Bondi:

Maurene Comey’s farewell note to the SDNY after being fired by the Trump administration. Yet another warning.

[image or embed]

— David Corn (@davidcorn.bsky.social) July 17, 2025 at 11:53 AM

Good for her.

I know nothing about Ms. Comey except that her father is a self-aggrandizing jackass. His cathedral-sized ego — his insistence on inserting himself into a critical national election in its waning days rather than follow the clear rules of his job — is part of the reason we’re in this abominable pickle. And now, in addition to contributing to the destruction of the institutions Comey served, his child’s career is collateral damage.

But Maurene Comey isn’t the only daughter of a fool who still tries to do the right thing. I read somewhere that in the aftermath of the 2016 election, James Comey’s wife and daughters were furious with him for meddling. It sounds like they’re smarter than their spouse/father.

Also, it’s unclear to me why the Trump brain trust believes firing the woman who prosecuted Epstein and Maxwell will quiet the fury of the MAGA base. Just more flailing, I guess.

***

Speaking of flailing, the Bezos-degraded Washington Post offered a buy-out to one of its better columnists, Philip Bump, and he took it. A relevant excerpt (and gift link) from Bump’s last WaPo column:

When institutions crumble, strongmen step in
Trump wants to be the sole authority. With trust in institutions cratering, he sees his opportunity.

What would it take to put the swirling conspiracy theories about Jeffrey Epstein to bed? Nothing complicated; just an authoritative, trusted voice articulating the truth about what occurred and what is or isn’t still being kept under wraps. The sort of thing that might have come from an attorney general or a president a few decades ago and offered, if not a perfect defusing, at least a credible counternarrative.

But those days are very much over. The current attorney general and president did try to stamp out the rumors, but both because of their own personal track records and because of the decreased confidence that Americans have in their positions, it simply didn’t work. President Donald Trump has since attempted to strong-arm his supporters, demanding they accept his presentation of the case, but even that hasn’t worked — in part because he has spent the past decade doing everything in his power to erode the trust in authority that would really be useful for him now…

This is nonetheless more favorable terrain for Trump than for the American system. As New York Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan once wrote (here in The Post), “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”

Trump has for years stoked the idea that actually, having your own facts is fine. And even as his base chooses facts that he finds inconvenient in the moment, he’s still pushing toward the next phase: Everyone is entitled to the facts that Trump presents.

What institutions of power will be left to disagree?

Good question.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

73Comments

  1. 1.

    lowtechcyclist

    The WaPo continues to go down the tubes.  ETA: Jen Rubin, Ann Telnaes, Philip Bump – the best are being shown the door.  But like Krugman in his new venue, they’re freer to speak their minds now.

  2. 2.

    Old School

    My initial reaction was that Comey was fired because of her name rather than her connection to the Epstein case, but they didn’t give a reason, so conspiracy theories will flow.

  4. 4.

    lowtechcyclist

    Maurene Comey sounds like a class act.

    Unlike her dad, where the only thing to say is: fuck James Comey.  All he had to do was keep his mouth shut for another two weeks.

  5. 5.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Old School:

    My initial reaction was that Comey was fired because of her name rather than her connection to the Epstein case

    Why not both?

  8. 8.

    Elizabelle

    Fuck the fucking WaPost for driving out Philip Bump.  Jeff Bezos has a one inch dick.

  10. 10.

    New Deal democrat

    I just want to make one small but important correction:

    insistence on inserting himself into a critical national election in its waning days

    Actually, he inserted himself ***WHILE EARLY VOTING WAS ONGOING***

    How many thousands of people cast their votes over that weekend based on the Friday firestorm, not knowing that it would end up being a Monday nothingburger? Enough to tip several swing States?

  11. 11.

    Betty Cracker

    Speaking of crumbling institutions, Abe Vigoda-lookalike Emil Bove’s nomination to a lifetime judgeship moved out of committee. Dems walked out of the hearing after Grassley refused to let them speak.

    I’m not a lawyer, but if our democracy survives this plunge into fascism, it seems like we’re going to need a DeTrumpification program to root these people out. Maybe we need to expand the federal courts (including SCOTUS) AND impeach these corrupt toadies.

  12. 12.

    MattF

    Maurene Comey has seen whatever is in the Epstein files. And, apparently, disagrees with her boss… about… something. And, I guess, that’s all we know. I’d stay away from windows, if I were her.

  13. 13.

    azlib

    It is quite remarkable that the MOUs are so politically naive. They need to take a look at Russsian history and what happened to the oligarchs who supported Putin.

  14. 14.

    Butch

    Trump’s mental deterioration is becoming more obvious by the day, and one good example is the way he’s flailing with the Epstein affair.  I’m not as hopeless as I was.  I didn’t say hopeful, I said not as hopeless.

  15. 15.

    piratedan

    @azlib: just like we felt like with our Democratic institutions that “it can’t happen here”, they have the same blindness that they cannot believe that they will ever be overthrown.

    not sure how forgiving the masses tend to be once they’ve been forced to impose their will.

  16. 16.

    BlueGuitarist

    @Betty Cracker:

    Sheldon Whitehouse:
    “When are the Trump judges stalling the Bove contempt investigation going to lift their hold? After Bove is confirmed? Is this a plan?”

  17. 17.

    RaflW

    The Washington Post going from Watergate to fishwrap in less than my lifetime is a remarkable, stupid-sad arc.

    But this is the lame, dark and dreary  dead end Billionaires want, and the public could not manage to contain them nor curtail their political spending before the wrecking ball struck. Enshittification rolls on.

  18. 18.

    BellyCat

    @Belafon: Just fewer people will ever read them.

    Not necessarily. Given WaPo’s paywall, I am able to read Krugman WAY more often. (And he is KILLING it, now that he is unmuzzled). Good on Bump (and the rest of the WaPo expats). Strange new media world, for sure.

  21. 21.

    HeleninEire

    @Butch: I agree. I was never in the “oh he’s gonna die soon” camp, but over the last few months the deterioration, both mentally and physically, is remarkably obvious.

  22. 22.

    Belafon

    @BellyCat: How many people who read the major newspapers know where those writers go? And will they notice the disappearance of a writer that isn’t in there every day?

  23. 23.

    p.a.

    @Betty Cracker: … if our democracy survives this plunge into fascism, it seems like we’re going to need a DeTrumpification program to root these people out. Maybe we need to expand the federal courts (including SCOTUS) AND impeach these corrupt toadies.

     

     

    Well, they have provided us a “system” where this will be possible and easy.

    And any Dem pushing some kind of “look ahead not back” bullshit gets a knee to the nuts.  (And yes, if that is the idea I fully expect it to be males expressing it.)

  24. 24.

    trollhattan

    Terror comes home. This is maybe five miles away.

    A woman has reported her husband was taken Thursday morning by masked federal immigration agents from the parking lot of a Home Depot store in south Sacramento, the first high-profile enforcement raid in the county. The incident was reported about 8 a.m. at the Home Depot at 4641 Florin Road just west of Highway 99.

    Andrea Castillo said her husband — a U.S. citizen — was among several people taken into federal custody Thursday morning at the south Sacramento Home Depot. “He was just on his way to work. That’s all he was doing,” Castillo told The Sacramento Bee. “He wasn’t breaking the law.” Sgt. Amar Gandhi, a spokesperson for the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, said deputies received a call from Home Depot employees about a report of masked people in the store’s parking lot. He said deputies responded to the call and found a woman who waved them down and told them her husband had been taken.

    Shortly after, the Sheriff’s Office was notified by federal officials who confirmed immigration agents were in the Home Depot parking lot earlier Thursday morning had since left the area, Gandhi said. Initially, the agents seen in the store parking lot were believed to be from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE.

    Gandhi later said he’s received confirmation that the agents at the Home Depot were from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, also known as Border Patrol. The sheriff’s spokesperson said deputies “did not assist in any way” the federal agents in this apparent immigration enforcement operation in the Home Depot parking lot. The deputies stayed in the parking lot to speak to the woman reporting her husband was taken.

    The Sheriff’s Office on Thursday received another call for help from a resident in a neighborhood on A Parkway, a residential street just a few blocks south of the Home Depot. Gandhi said the resident told sheriff’s officials they were asked to call 911 after a masked man reportedly went into their neighbor’s house. Gandhi said federal officials have confirmed the call from A Parkway was referring to an enforcement operation conducted by Border Patrol agents. But he said sheriff’s officials are unsure if the resident was reporting federal agents on A Parkway or reporting an incident that happened somewhere else.

    Castillo remained at the Home Depot parking lot fighting back tears as she used her cell phone to call family and friends to tell them what happened to her husband. She told The Bee she got a call from her husband at roughly 7:50 a.m. that he saw masked men in the parking lot. He had arrived at the store that day to pick up materials for work. He works for a heating and air conditioning company in Sacramento, Castillo said.

    His company van titled “Authority HVAC” remains in the parking lot. She lives nearby and drove to the Home Depot. When she arrived, Castillo said she saw a group of immigration agents chasing her husband across the parking lot.

    sacbee.com/news/local/article310863270.html#storylink=cpy

    Two brief comments:
    Probably aimed at Newsom but the leg. isn’t even in session.
    Just outside city limits and sheriffs are less likely than city cops to have a quick response to a call.

  26. 26.

    Geminid

    @Belafon: What may happen is the writers will be cited on social media platforms like BlueSky and Twitter and word will get out that way. That’s how I encounter a lot of op-ed writers these days, as well as good reporters. There is a lot of good reporting now from non-traditional media sites. There’s a lot of crap too, but that’s another story.

  27. 27.

    WTFGhost

    Some days I’m slow. “Must take after her mom…” ah, right, because her dad can’t keep four words in his head.

    Traitor Comey even said that there was a reason he felt he had to speak up. If he didn’t, Congressional Republicans, he feared, would….

    And right there, his daughter could stop him. “Without fear, or favor. If Republicans start to pull crap, you stand up and say they threatened to pull this crap, to try to scare you into being their lapdog.”

  28. 28.

    Bokonon

    I worked for Pat Moynihan, so I approve of using this quote of his early and often.

    The fact that Philip Bump is using this quote in his farewell column is a double-edged sword.  Sure, it addresses Trump and MAGA’s disregard for objective truth.  But it also suggests that Bump was told by the managing editors to trim his sails and to tone down his editorials, and be more politic about how he talked about the atrocities underway.  And that Bump is being pushed out because he refused to do that.

  32. 32.

    Belafon

    @Geminid: How many Americans are on social media? Both the NYT and WaPo have millions of subscribers still, and the reason for that is they don’t hear – or read – what we do.

  35. 35.

    trollhattan

    Der Fuhrer has spoken. Do my bidding, or else.

    “President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to turn away a challenge to his sweeping tariffs, telling the justices they should let the legal fight develop before getting involved,” Bloomberg reports.

    I see nothing wrong with this at all. Business as usual. Nothing to see here.

  36. 36.

    NobodySpecial

    Pretty words after the damage is long done? Nah. Pentagon Papers all the dirt and maybe I’ll care what happens to members of our better class.

  38. 38.

    cmorenc

    @trollhattan: if you are a US citizen picked up by ICE, when and how do you get the opportunity to prove that before you get moved to a detention facility, possibly in a different far-away state?  What if Castillo had not had the chance to call his wife before ICE detained him?  He could have been whisked away without his wife knowing anything was amiss for many hours.  Do detainees get to make phone calls?

  40. 40.

    J.

    @Betty Cracker: One problem with expanding the courts: What if we have another Trump as president and he installs even more fascists/right wingers/grifters than we currently have, who have lifetime appointments?

  41. 41.

    Bill Arnold

    @Betty Cracker:

    if our democracy survives this plunge into fascism, it seems like we’re going to need a DeTrumpification program to root these people out

    I want a total Federal personnel purge of all MAGA and suspected MAGA. If SCOTUS objects, then a “wall and a ditch”. (h/t Ken White)

  42. 42.

    J.

    I cancelled my subscription to the WaPo a while ago, but my current subscription runs through early September, so I’ve still been skimming/reading it. Didn’t know that Petri had left until recently. (Thought she was on maternity leave.) And didn’t know about Bump. Seems only a matter of time until it becomes the print version of Fox News.

  43. 43.

    RaflW

    @cmorenc: Not even six months in and we have American citizens being snatched, and we can’t really have any confidence that they won’t be sent to domestic – or even foreign – concentration camps.

    And the courts are making a terrible hash of due process, habeas and such.

  45. 45.

    RaflW

    @J.:

    One debacle after another has engulfed The Washington Post since veteran newspaper executive Will Lewis became CEO and publisher a year ago this month

    Is this about Bump? No it was written six months ago! Lewis is doing what Bezos wants, but no one else is buying it.

  46. 46.

    WTFGhost

    @cmorenc: Do they get a phone call?

    Do you mean, will the judge, who oversees their case, castigate the Trump administration for not allowing the detainee a phone call, and force them to allow the detainee contact with the outside world? No, they don’t get any right to judicial oversight, because, although it’s plainly, facially, unlawful, and contrary to the plain language of the Constitution, the SCOTUS hasn’t rendered a decision saying what level of due process they get, so, until that time, Trump can deport people without due process.

    Except those who can afford a lawyer and can sue, before said detainee is deported.

     

    @J.: Nothing; if the people vote fascism in, over and over, they’ll eventually get it. One problem with being the good guys, is, the bad guys have to do a lot of damage, to a lot of people, to make it clear and obvious that they’re the bad guys, and only then, is there a *chance* that they’ll be shut out of government for a while.

  48. 48.

    Juju

    @HeleninEire: My mother has dementia. Her mental and physical decline has been very apparent, but she’s still chugging along at age 92. The only hope here is that Trump’s mental decline will become as obvious as my mother is, and can’t be ignored or worked around in any way.

  49. 49.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Geminid: I’ve added lots of balloon juice recommended writers and journalists to my blue sky following. I’ve even started a list- that’s a function there- of journalists I want to read. I learned it from baud, by seeing his news list.

    it’s been useful, easy to find preferre$ sources with less scrolling

  50. 50.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Baud: insufficiency, baby. We could co write some prose poetry full of conjecture and pointed language..

  51. 51.

    Miss Bianca

    @Bokonon: Right now, one of my freelance gigs is doing a newsletter for our community radio station. Today was the second or third time I’ve been taken to task for linking to news stories that apparently trouble the beautiful minds of a bunch of whiners among the subscribers who are unhappy about the fact that I’m including fucking NEWS in a fucking NEWSLETTER. One of the Board members actually shared their FUCKING LIST of articles that people were upset about.

    First we couldn’t use the words “Trump administration” in any of our headlines, because *that* was enough to trigger these little darlings. Now we can’t even link to anything that describes what the Trump Administration is doing, period. Shiny happy hyperlocal pieces! Hey, Miss Bianca, do more puff throwaways like that one about your time at the bluegrass festival! People *love* THAT shit!

    Christ, I wish I didn’t need the money so I could just say, “fuck this” and walk out. Giving a nice little middle finger to the whiners on my way.

  52. 52.

    Geminid

    @Baud: Huh. I wonder why the White House is announcing this now. They don’t have to. Maybe it’s an excuse for Trump to cut back his schedule and rest more.

    I think he needs to. Trump looks like crap and sounds whiny and exhausted, with low energy. Sad!

  53. 53.

    Belafon

    @Miss Bianca: Reword them. Instead of putting in articles that talk about how tariffs are going to raise prices, talk about how people are going to be doing more with less. Instead of talking about how people aren’t going to be able to get vaccines or medications, talk about the people who will discover they’re naturally immune to some diseases.

  54. 54.

    Martin

    @WTFGhost: They are entitled to phone access. No promises an alligator didn’t eat it though.

    Pretty sure this should be a requirement for those being sent to other countries as well, but USSC isn’t in the business of thinking ahead on a problem, so they’re going to wait until a detainee with no legal access brings a case to them to sort that out.

  55. 55.

    Geminid

    @Belafon: I don’t know how many people are on social media (but I suspect this was a rhetorical question anyway).

    I just know that a lot of good reporters and news sites I follow, from this country and from the Middle East, post a lot on Twitter. I gather from this that they at least think there is a broad audience there. And these seem like very aware people.

  57. 57.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Miss Bianca: oh gosh. Wonder if you could get away with

    in these times, in this climate, big waves make ripples that reach even our hyper local area… changes, troubling events of concern…

    vague, multiple meanings, mild. Not subtle enough?

  58. 58.

    Jackie

    @Baud: So does Brianna Keilar:

    CNN’s Brianna Keilar didn’t take the diagnosis at face value.

    She asked a medical expert how the president’s age, lack of cardiovascular activity, and other lifestyle factors could worsen the diagnosis.

    “So, it appears that the White House physicians were also concerned about more than meets the eye,” said cardiologist Dr. Bernard Ashby, before mentioning the additional tests performed by Trump’s doctors, including an echocardiogram and lower extremity ultrasounds.

    “Essentially, they were covering all their bases, meaning that they were screening him for heart failure, which is a common cause of lower extremity swelling. In addition to that, they were concerned with increased pressure in his heart.”

    “Now, taking a step back, looking at the entire case, the president is obese, he is older. And I don’t know if he has hypertension, but that’s very…common in his age group, particularly with his body habitus. So, when you do have a condition like lower extremity swelling, bilateral, and a diagnosis of venous insufficiency, the question is, is it intrinsic to the veins? Meaning, does the venous insufficiency that he has, is it related to bad valves, or is it related to increased pressure coming from the heart?”

    Ashby continued, “Even though he’s diagnosed with a benign condition, venous insufficiency by itself doesn’t necessarily mean it’s benign. The question is, what’s causing the venous insufficiency? But I wouldn’t take the benign diagnosis on its face.”

    rawstory.com/trump-health-2673346107/

  60. 60.

    Jackie

    Heh, Mike Pence joins the fray:

    Former Vice President Mike Pence joined the chorus of Republicans calling on the Trump administration to release the files about Jeffrey Epstein, CBS News reports.
    “The time has come” for transparency while emphasizing that the names of victims should be protected.

    “I think the time has come for the administration to release all of the files regarding Jeffrey Epstein’s investigation and prosecution,” Pence said in an interview with CBS News chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett. “It’s important that we protect the names of the victims. They should be excluded from any disclosure.”

  61. 61.

    brendancalling

    Apparently I have been blocked by Phil. I must have said something mean about his former employer and my decision to not renew my subscription. Probably when he was still begging people to keep reading.

    Oh well. Glad he left that rag.

  62. 62.

    Martin

    Comey could have done the funniest thing and fueled the conspiracy in her letter. First letter of every line spells out ‘Trump is on the list’ or some shit.

  64. 64.

    Betty

    @Baud: People are guessing some sort of heart condition. That would be consistent with the ankle swelling that has been reported. There is a mystery about the bruises on his hand. Some suggest it is the site of  an I. V.

  65. 65.

    danielx

    @Geminid:

    Considering the amount of his schedule devoted to “executive time” and golfing already, I’m not sure how much more time he can devote to resting.

    Definitely the laziest (as well as most malevolent) president EVAR.

    And yes, I am quite sure there’s a bot somewhere monitoring everything on this blog along with many others,

  66. 66.

    Bokonon

    @Miss Bianca:Right now, one of my freelance gigs is doing a newsletter for our community radio station. Today was the second or third time I’ve been taken to task for linking to news stories that apparently trouble the beautiful minds of a bunch of whiners among the subscribers who are unhappy about the fact that I’m including fucking NEWS in a fucking NEWSLETTER. One of the Board members actually shared their FUCKING LIST of articles that people were upset about.

    Whining like that is a dishonest, weasel-like way of exerting political power (and one that is hard to defend against, since you are dealing with tyranny of people’s FEELINGS as opposed to objective power moves or principled objections).  When you are on the receiving end, you are boxed into a responding to changing your actions, so you don’t give further offense to those FEELINGS.  And the typical move of management is to shrug and give in.

    Typical.  Absolutely typical.  I am sorry this is going on. I deal with it too at my job.

  68. 68.

    Miss Bianca

    @Geminid: I am not sure, but I suspect at least some of them are. And that some of them are donors, so of course…whatever the donor class wants, the donor class must get.

  70. 70.

    Geminid

    @Miss Bianca: Donors to the platform you write for? I guess they think you work for them.

    But I’m glad you are carrying on anyway. I think local journalism has never been as important as it is now.

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