The Angle

The Angle: Comey Fallout Edition

Slate’s daily newsletter on the Celtics’ Isaiah Thomas, conservatives in liberal media, and the firing of James Comey.

A copy of the termination letter to FBI Director James Comey from President Donald Trump.

Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Time to act: James Comey’s firing is it, Yashcha Mounk writes—the event that needs to galvanize the GOP to stand up and say “No.” But will Republicans resist? Jamelle Bouie doubts it.

Get rational: Republicans chiding Democrats for their dismay at the ouster of the man who mishandled the Hillary Clinton investigation are completely missing the point, writes Michelle Goldberg.

Then and now: Trump’s firing of Comey is like Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre in some ways, says Nixon biographer John A. Farrell in an interview with Isaac Chotiner. One difference: Back in 1973, Washington was much less cynical.

Why the rush? Centrist media giants—the New York Times, the Washington Post, MSNBC—have been on a strange hiring binge, acquiring conservative columnists and broadcasters. Will Oremus has five plausible explanations for the trend.

Little and quick: The Celtics’ Isaiah Thomas (not that one) is tiny, and he doesn’t play on one of the two teams that will probably make it to the NBA finals. But, Jack Hamilton writes, Thomas owns the playoffs, and Boston loves him for it.

For fun: Aziz Ansari and Jimmy Fallon do bad Yelp reviews.

Giving Fallon a temporary pass because I need the laugh,

Rebecca