James Comey: “Yes, as usual, he called me a sleaze and scum and a dirty cop and said he likely would no longer be president if he hadn’t fired me. Although I still can’t follow the logic of that last bit, it doesn’t matter.”

“The important thing was what happened in the audience, where there were plenty of intelligent people of deep commitment to religious principle. They laughed and smiled and clapped as a president of the United States lied, bullied, cursed and belittled the faith of other leaders. That was the deeply disturbing part of the East Room moment, and should challenge us all.”

The Trump administration dismissed Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a key witness in the House impeachment hearings, and escorted him from the White House, CNN reports.

CNN: “Stored in devices seized from Lev Parnas by law enforcement, there’s a 34-second cell phone video of Rudy Giuliani relishing a bullfight. There are also photos of Donald Trump’s personal attorney posing with two matadors, a flamenco dancer twirling her skirt and an image of the father of Venezuela’s opposition leader beside a tray of hors d’oeuvres on the lawn of a Spanish castle.”

The best photo: Parnas wiping Giuliani’s face in London in 2019.

After President Trump said “bullshit” in a television appearance at the White House yesterday, NBC News searched the 132,480 records from the American Presidency Project and found six people had used the word before at public events.

One was songwriter Diane Warren, one was singer Kanye West and the rest were by Trump.

“The White House plans to transfer Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, whose testimony in the House impeachment hearings infuriated President Trump and his allies, out of the National Security Council staff as early as Friday,” the New York Times reports.

Trump essentially confirmed the move in brief comments with reporters: “I’m not happy with him.”

Steve Israel: “Pragmatism, compromise and even ideological agility have always been part of politics. But what is happening now is dangerous. The rationalizers aren’t just turning against their own principles; many are turning against fundamental norms of democracy. The constant rationalization has made them unrecognizable. Unlike the Republicans who were Trumpian even before Donald Trump, the rationalizers have forgotten that what they now believe they once made up.”

“So they will stick with Mr. Trump. No matter how damning the facts or clear the evidence, they will defend him.”

“For so many of them, the loyalty is, well, quite rational.”

“A federal appeals court threw out a lawsuit by more than 200 Democratic members of Congress that alleged President Trump was improperly profiting from his presidency,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled unanimously that the lawmakers didn’t have legal standing to proceed with their claims. The lawmakers couldn’t assert the institutional interests of the House or Senate against the president because the group didn’t constitute a majority in the legislature and couldn’t represent Congress as a whole.”