Trump's Friday Night Massacre

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe

The current political landscape in America has such a surreal quality these days that the fictional political worlds depicted on TV shows like Netflix's House of Cards and HBO's VEEP look like tamer versions of reality in comparison.

After having a few drinks at my local on Friday night, the news that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had fired Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe just 26 hours before the 21-year FBI veteran was set to retire, left me floored.

Now Trump has done so many incredibly stupid things since being inaugurated, that ineptitude has become sort of a default mode for a chaotic White House that revolves around his narcissism, insecurity, ignorance and paranoia.

But his decision to order Sessions to fire McCabe late Friday night ranks as quite possibly one of the most vile, petty and monumentally-stupid actions ever undertaken by a sitting U.S. president.

Trump interfering in a federal agency's firing of a career employee over an internal disciplinary matter undermines the role of the FBI as a law enforcement body independent of partisan politics - though it has unfortunately been used that way in the past.

In a statement justifying McCabe's firing 26 hours before his previously-announced resignation would take effect, sanctimonious AG Jeff Sessions claimed that the FBI's internal disciplinary office and the Justice Department's Inspector General Michael Horowitz (both of whom Sessions oversees...) found "that Mr. McCabe had made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor - including under oath - on multiple occasions."

Remember, Sessions perjured himself under oath during Senate hearings by lying about multiple contacts he and other members of the Trump campaign staff had with Russian individuals before the election.

Dept. of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz

So he's got some cojones pointing his finger at anyone because they "lacked candor". 

Especially after firing someone late on a Friday night in a cowardly attempt to minimize the political fallout from a White House action that reeks of authoritarian overreach and vindictive pettiness.

There's something childish and trite about it that's beneath the presidency.

After all McCabe, who served as acting head of the FBI for three months last year after Trump fired James Comey, had already yielded to White House pressure and announced his resignation.

So Trump's action, essentially denying McCabe government pension benefits he earned over the course of a 21-year career at the FBI, comes off as overkill motivated by Trump's own petty personal political vendetta.

And is clearly part of Trump's desire to convince the public that he's the victim of a vast Democratic conspiracy and purge the top ranks of the FBI until he can appoint someone who will fire Robert Mueller to end the special investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections and collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.

But despite his quasi-delusional perception of the world, Trump's not a king or a CEO.

Not only has McCabe lawyered-up, as ABC News' Mike Levine reported on Saturday afternoon, an unnamed source says that the highly-intelligent former protege of former FBI Director James Comey (like his ex boss) kept detailed written memos of his meetings with Trump.

Memos which were turned over to the special investigation being headed up by Robert Mueller and could be potentially used to corroborate James Comey's testimony about Trump's efforts to obstruct justice by asking Comey to back off an investigation of former General Michael Flynn.

Despite having no idea of what kind of evidence Robert Mueller is sitting on, Trump woke up this morning and began spinning the baseless accusation that McCabe is lying about taking notes during meetings he had with 45 - who, predictably, is now calling them "fake memos".

Par for the course for America's "very stable genius."