Rahm Predicts Comey Firing Will Derail Republicans: It's 'Going To Be Like 3rd-Grade Soccer'

By Rachel Cromidas in News on May 11, 2017 6:37PM

Mayor Rahm Emanuel, ever the optimist, is predicting that President Donald Trump's surprising firing of FBI Director James Comey this week will derail Congressional Republicans' agenda.

Emanuel, who spoke on the subject this morning in a radio appearance, according to the Tribune, said his opinion is informed by his years in Washington, first as a senior adviser to former President Bill Clinton, and next as former President Barack Obama's chief of staff. "Congress is a one-ball juggler, they can only handle one thing," Emanuel said. "This is now going to be like third-grade soccer, they're all going to run to the ball."

That ball, he added, is now going to be the FBI investigation into the Trump camp's ties to Russia's government. Emanuel has been a vocal supporter of Hillary Clinton, who lost the presidential election to Trump, and a vocal opponent of many of Trump's policies before and after he came into office. He is also among Democrats calling for an independent prosecutor to lead the investigation into Trump's potential Russian ties.

Many found Comey's unexpected firing troubling, especially in the wake of the unveiling of a new GOP healthcare plan meant to replace the Affordable Care Act, which could allow insurance companies to penalize people with preexisting conditions. Emanuel says he sees the GOP plan falling to the wayside now that more attention is focused on Comey's firing and what it could mean for the future of the FBI investigation.
As the Tribune quotes him saying:

"Health care, taxes, infrastructure — watch it. Those things are going to go to slow motion, and then there will be all this energy around this thing called Russia," Emanuel said. "The very thing [Trump] wanted to stymie is going to mushroom and grow and blossom with a lot of smell associated with it, mark my words."