Trump’s Rage at Jim Comey Backfires as Case Against Him Goes Off Rails

THE DAILY BLAST with Greg Sargent

The New Republic

News, Politics

4.4 • 800 Ratings

🗓️ 30 April 2026

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Donald Trump’s use of state power to persecute his enemies is escalating. The Justice Department indicted James Comey for allegedly threatening Trump with a social media post of seashells spelling “86 47.” Officials are also threatening to punish more media companies for angering the despot. The Comey case is already backfiring: Now that the details have been released, legal experts have mercilessly picked it apart from numerous angles. Even Fox News is quoting experts dismantling it. And Trump himself made it look even more absurd by claiming he knows “86” means “kill” because he saw it...in a gangster movie. When these efforts fizzle, the MAGA base will see the mighty Trump failing once again. We talked to former Federal prosecutor Barbara McQuade, author of The Fix: Saving America from the Corruption of a Mob-Style Government. She explains the deep flaws in the Comey indictment, how Trump’s prosecutors are committing flagrant violations themselves, and what accountability for Trump’s accomplices could look like later. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the Daily Blast from the New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.
0:16.4	I'm your host, Greg Sargent.
0:32.5	Donald Trump's corrupt use of state power to persecute his enemies is dramatically ramping up.
0:39.2	The Justice Department just indicted former FBI director James Comey on laughably thin charges,
0:44.7	and the Federal Communications Commission Chief is escalating his war against ABC due to Trump's rage at Jimmy Kimmel.
0:48.5	These are heinous abuses of power, but we also think they're likely to backfire on Trump in a major way.
0:55.8	If and when they fizzle, the result will be that they don't even energize the MAGA base for the
1:01.4	midterms, and if anything, will likely drive votes against the GOP.
1:07.3	We're digging through all this today with former federal prosecutor Barb McQuaid, author of a new book, The Fix, Saving America from the Corruption of a Mob Style Government, which is certainly an apt title given these latest developments.
1:21.3	Barb, good to have you on.
1:23.3	Thanks, Greg.
1:24.0	Great to be here.
1:24.8	You know, when I first came up with that title like a year and a half ago,
1:35.1	it felt very novel. And now it feels very obvious. It's perfect. You were prescient there.
1:41.0	Well done. So let's start with James Comey. Trump's effort to prosecute him the first time failed.
1:45.9	Now they're starting again. James Comey's been indicted for an image he put on Instagram last spring, showing seashells arranged to depict the numbers 86-47.
1:53.3	Barb, can you walk us through what prosecutors are trying to do here and why it's such a joke?
1:59.4	Yeah, you know, it's hard to get into the head of what's happening
2:02.5	at DOJ right now because it's so far afield from what I saw in my 20 years as a federal
2:08.6	prosecutor. You know, we saw the effort to convict James Comey of a crime in the fall, fizzle.
2:15.3	And so now here we are with this charge, based on events that
2:18.9	occurred almost a year ago, if this were really such a serious charge, you know, what on earth
	...

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