I was going to do a follow-up piece to “Conservatism: My Explanation & Justification,” but these past two weeks have been so bogged down by controversy that I thought it would be more beneficial to construct a timeline. Although I’m going to focus only on the Comey scandal, there was a lot more than happened this week policy-wise.

To kick things off, we need to start with the firing of James Comey on May 9th under the recommendation of Rosenstein and Sessions. Then, the following transpired:

1) May 10th: Mitch McConnell rejects the call for a special persecutor

2) May 10th: Trump meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak

3) Mat 11th: Lester Hold interviews Donald Trump, where Trump seemingly admits to firing Comey on the basis of the Russia investigation, which he decided to do before Rosenstein and Sessions suggested it

4) May 12th: Trump threatens Comey by insinuating he taped their conversations

5) May 15th: We learn that Trump told the Russian Ambassador and Foreign Minister classified information that could have compromised sources on the ground

6) May 16th: Trump doubles down on the assertion that he shared classified information by saying, “I have the absolute right to do” so

7) May 16th: A Comey Memo is revealed, stating Trump asked Comey to end the investigation into Flynn

8) May 17th: DOJ appoints a special counsel, Robert Mueller, to the investigation of Trump-Russia campaign collusion

9) May 17th: We learned Trump knew Flynn was under federal Investigation prior to taking the National Security Advisor job

10) May 18th: Report shows that Trump’s campaign had at least 18 calls and emails with the Russians during the last seven months of the 2016 presidential election

What a couple of weeks! Based on the optics alone, this has been the most scandalous week in recent American history. Yet, we still have a lot of conservative media outlets either covering these events through the lens of liberal outrage or a conspiracy to take down Donald Trump. Either way, facts alone are what saves or sinks the recent headlines. A strong gamble is being played by conservatives to stick with the presidential candidate they didn’t even want. So far, no one has decided to be vocal except former Republican Presidential Candidate and POW, John McCain, which has gotten him a lot of backlash in the conservative media world. Maybe they should heed the warning of the once-prominent face of the Republican Party.

GOP members are taking a huge gamble by doubling down on defending Trump, raising the stakes for the 2018 election. If nothing is resolved by then, this will create contested runoff elections in their home districts within their party, and/or make it harder to retain/gain gubernatorial and congressional elections. This is all good news if you’re a Democrat, because in the totality of the events, this looks like a loser’s gamble. It is reasonable for an innocent person to protest investigations into their actions. Partisan investigations are a great example; they’re used to attack and discredit instead of shed light on the truth, which is what happened to Hillary Clinton. However, special prosecutors and counsels operate out of the limelight, providing a more objective view of the facts. To oppose this is odd in and of itself. But to consistently contradict yourself, to more or less incriminate yourself, and put yourself into the center of all this mayhem is idiotic. For Trump to fire Comey on May 9th, meet with Russian officials on May 10th, and then say he fired Comey because of the Russian investigation on May 11th is crazy. Never mind that Sessions was not supposed to have any input in this decision because he recused himself of any and all Russian investigations. For Trump to threaten Comey on May 12th via Twitter looks tyrannical. And of course, on May 15th, news broke that the day after Comey was fired for looking into the Russian investigation, Trump shared classified information with the Russians (unknowingly, allegedly), under the argument that he can, as explained on May 16th via Twitter — again. (Also, never mind that Trump railed against Hillary Clinton for a much less serious offense.) On that same day — May 16th — we learned via a memo (being subpoenaed), that Comey had been asked by Trump to stop investigating Michael Flynn, the former National Security Advisor. The next day, it was reported that Trump knew all along Flynn was under investigation for being a paid foreign lobbyist. May 18th, another breaking news story revealed that Trump’s campaign was in contact with Russian officials during the last seven months of his presidential campaign. String this all together and Trump fired the man who was looking into his National Security Advisor’s connection with Russia a day before meeting with Russians, in which he divulged classified information from Israel. In the same breath, he admitting to firing him over the investigation and threatened him to stay quiet. All the while, more and more information was released linking his campaign to Russia. Even while writing this piece, several breaking news stories have popped up about another White House official close to Trump who is under investigation (Kushner), and White House officials are starting to look into the impeachment process.

The way I see it, there are three possibilities that should be considered just based on the optics. First, there is something nefarious going on. Trump and his cabinet are hiding information, purposefully avoiding investigations, and firing people that are skeptical of the president. Second, which is worse from a national security perspective (arguably), Trump is really this stupid. To grandiosely reveal information to the Russians, then self-implicate yourself as the catalyst for firing Comey on national television screams stupidity — not strategy. But this leads to the third option, which is that Trump is at the peak of his narcissism. He needs to implicate himself in order to have a sense of importance and authority, even if that means possibly breaking the law. We already have reports saying that Trump likes to have his name in as many memos as possible, and that he purposefully scans documents for his name before reading them. There is a fourth option, all of these are true. He’s a powerful idiot, trying to hide information from the FBI and the public, and bragging on television about doing so. His narcissism brings a level of psychoanalysis which makes his movements difficult to understand and follow. He could very well be innocent but being the narcissist that he sees all these headlines are a perfect opportunity to steal limelight and bring more attention to himself. His innocence is not to say that everyone in his cabinet is. Something is obviously going on that his cabinet feels compelled to cover-up, what that might be — from embezzlement to monumental ignorance — is still hard to say. Either way, the American people are the ones that lose.