My Twitter feed was blowing up throughout the morning and afternoon with everything that was happening with James Comey’s Senate testimony. But Twitter saved the best for last when it came to Senator John McCain’s questioning. Somewhere along the line, McCain just completely lost the thread of everything. He seemed to argue that it was very unfair (??) that the FBI concluded their investigation into Hillary Clinton last July, and yet they hadn’t concluded their investigation into the Russian entanglement. When Comey was like “WTF?” McCain then seemed to say that Hillary Clinton might have been working with Russia – to torpedo her own campaign?? – and that needed to be investigated too, because that was only fair. McCain claimed that Comey had a “double standard” by continuing to investigate the Trump campaign but not the Clinton campaign. Here, watch an old man yell some nonsense at a cloud shaped like Jim Comey.
After Twitter freaked out (it was actually the most-tweeted moment of #ComeyDay), McCain issued a statement, saying:
“I get the sense from Twitter that my line of questioning today went over people’s heads. Maybe going forward I shouldn’t stay up late watching the Diamondbacks night games. What I was trying to get at was whether Mr. Comey believes that any of his interactions with the President rise to the level of obstruction of justice. In the case of Secretary Clinton’s emails, Mr. Comey was willing to step beyond his role as an investigator and state his belief about what ‘no reasonable prosecutor’ would conclude about the evidence. I wanted Mr. Comey to apply the same approach to the key question surrounding his interactions with President Trump — whether or not the President’s conduct constitutes obstruction of justice. While I missed an opportunity in today’s hearing, I still believe this question is important, and I intend to submit it in writing to Mr. Comey for the record.
Go back and watch the tape of their interaction and ask yourself if McCain was truly asking that. He was not.
I think what Sen McCain is saying is that FBI should investigate if Hillary Clinton colluded with the Russians to hurt her own campaign. OK.
— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 8, 2017
Some of you made this point. If I may paraphrase: McCain barely knew where he was, but he knew damn well he was a Republican.
— Cameron Steele (@Voyager19) June 8, 2017
#JohnMcCain: So did Hillary help OJ hijack the planes and attack Pearl Harbor?
Comey: What?
John McCain: I said do you know the muffin man?!— Catherine Santos (@6_la_Vie) June 8, 2017
Obviously not a great morning for McCain but some perspective: it was still better than the time he chose Sarah Palin for VP of the US.
— Andy Daly (@TVsAndyDaly) June 8, 2017
It isn't complicated. McCain couldn't stop his pathological need to protect Republicans and attack Democrats. That's it. That's always it.
— Wil Wheaton (@wilw) June 8, 2017
comey: can u repeat the question
mccain: https://t.co/iD693OUhbv
— BRANDON WARDELL (@BRANDONWARDELL) June 8, 2017
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Tell me – is he losing is mind, or did he play a very clever hand by conflating Clinton/Russia investigations and confusing/distracting constituents from Comey’s testimony?
I think you are being generous that he knew what he was doing. He didn’t. Kept confusing Comey with Trump. It was scary and sad to watch. Especially considering how he has been one of the few Republicans calling Trump out. It’s like he was brainwashed and was resisting it.
Like maybe he thinks his voters are pretty ignorant. But he also sounded quite confused
I don’t think it was calculated. I mean he called Comey “president”.
Twice.
I think it’s the first. Sounded to me like he was trying to make the point that because Comey said it was important that the Russians influenced the election, he should have been looking at both candidates and how they were influenced. I don’t think he’s crazy as a fox any more, just partisan, and befuddled.
Legit question. But to just about everyone who saw it, he came across as a doddering old man that was completely confused. And he certainly didn’t come across as the so-called”maverick” who puts country over party.
Clearly Mr. McCain has classic onset symptoms of dementia.
Yes. My father has it and it was like watching my dad discuss politics.
I do think that’s what he was attempting to do, but there’s no shortage of ways to do that without starting up speculation you’re suffering from dementia. Nothing explains away how out of it he was, and that undercuts any dog whistle’s he was trying to put out.
It seemed like a mix of memory loss and trying to play party partisan politics. He sounded completely unhinged.
However Harris was hitting Comey with the quickness during her 7 minutes
Harris for 2020
Yes. I actually wasn’t sad, I was angry because I think the mandate or his need to put party over everything else is what was probably tripping him up even more. I felt like he was twisting himself in knots to score a partisan victory and that’s the real root of the problem. Combine it with degenerating brain function (which is in itself sad and scary) and that’s what came out yesterday.
What we all just saw, in real time no less, is John McCain once again allowing his demons to shout down the better angels in his head.
He did it when he decided winning an election at any cost was ok. He’s doing it here because he DOES think Trump’s actions were wrong but has likely allowed his Party to bully him into this pathetic piece of theater. McCain wont go so far as to ask questions that help Trump, but he has no problem muddying the waters for him by attacking Clinton again. My only hope is he realizes everyone, on both sides, knows he’s just a tired old sellout now.
I wonder if he was threatened in a way that actually spooked him.
Otherwise, there could be medical reasons, even as simple as medication problems. Back in grad school, the doctor prescribed a first-generation antihistamine for me at the same dose my dissertation adviser used (he was three times my weight). I tried to teach a physics problems session and was having trouble remembering that force equals mass times acceleration (F = ma). That’s like not remembering how to blink your eyes to a physicist. Actually I was having trouble remembering my name and how exactly to talk in general… McCain made a lot more sense than I did until it wore off!
Given his age and his history of torture/trauma, I’d guess that he’s probably losing it.
Maybe he had really explosive questions, was stupid enough to tell someone and they then decided to drug him. Now he’s intimidated obviously.
Maybe I should write mystery stories 😉
I don’t know Meghan, I’d buy that theory.
McCain is pushing up against eighty years old. Time to retire.
Definitely confused, but he was also jetlagged. He had been in Vietnam and Singapore, trying (yet again) to soothe the worries of some allies. I think he had been back in DC for about 48 hours – at 80, it takes longer than that to get over that kind of travel.
And I suspect that at this point he would prefer having President Comey to President Trump.
LOL – as I was watching this live yesterday I honestly thought that it was ‘over my head’ because I couldn’t understand what the hell he was talking about! Poor guy. He was just terribly confused.
If this didn’t make it clear, it’s time for him to retire.
Also, did anyone else notice that Cindy McCain is up for a post in the Trump administration? The McCains are bought and paid for. That’s what the loyalty to Trump is about all of a sudden.
Ah. I didn’t see that about Cindy, but yes, that does explain it now.
Bingo.
Figures. Orangino throws out scraps to get people to comply and to stop complaining. I wonder what that butthole gave Lindsey Graham?
I saw it live.
He looked old and mean as as snake. I still can’t tell if he was confused or trying to confuse the right base that clinton should also be investigated for Russia. When it backfired one of his minions issued a statement.
At best he is party guy trying to deflect at worse he is senile and his minions are doing the work.
Yeah, he seemed so defiant even as he couldn’t make a coherent point to save his life. Kinda like Trump, just less bombastic.
Nope, no sympathy for this party over country fool.
I thought I was misunderstanding what he was blabbering about yesterday. Hillary didn’t work with the Russians! Jeez, did he think Hillary planned her loss with the Russians? If the Republicans don’t mind having a guy who doesn’t know the difference between an email case and Trumps Russian case, that’s pretty bad.
He showed why there should be a term limit and an age limit. An 80 year old guy shouldn’t be in the government
So McCain stayed up too late the night before a hearing about whether or not the president of the United States committed a crime and may be a traitor. I really don’t want to hear another word from him. Ever.
I know, right? Not that anyone believes the stupid baseball games excuse, but even if it were true.. so, you stayed up to watch BASEBALL right before an event that is of critical importance to your job and the country, and it impacted your performance.. how is that acceptable?
As soon as he came on yesterday my husband turned to me and said something is wrong with him. Like, medically. It was actually really concerning!
Russians feeding him something?
A lot of Twitter comments were asking if he was stroking out during the hearing.
I actually wondered if it was a stroke or he’d been drugged somehow. It was that bizarre
It sounded like he is sun-setting. It’s quite common as people age
His statement is also garbled and confusing. I still don’t understand what point he’s trying to make. And I hate the first sentence where he states it’s everyone else who’s confused even though he was the one who was unclear and making a broad nonsensical statement tying Comey’s actions re: Hillary’s emails investigation to baby fists’ Russian ties investigation.
But then ever since I watched the Anita Hill hearings I realized how intellectually sub-par a lot of these elected officials really are.
I was periodically following twitter comments on the hearing yesterday while working on several things and suddenly the Twitter feed turned to “McCain WTF” over and over and over as my co-worker, who was listening to the testimony in her office, shouted: “McCain WTF!” It was quite a moment for American history.
Republicans love to blame anyone but themselves for embarrassing fuck ups like this. This one was the Diamondbacks fault.
Time to retire McCain
Seriously, ugh. I know I should have felt sorry for him but I was just pissed.
This is exactly what happened when he committed to Sarah Palin as his running mate.
Honestly I thought for a second he was having a stroke. WTF.
You know, McCain is the object of alot of hate. He’s hated by Trump’s hardcore cultist base due to his support for comprehensive immigration reform back in the day (there is nothing they hate more than illegal immigrants), he’s hated by the establishment Republicans because of his issues with W in 2000/2004 and he’s hated by the Democrats for bringing the deeply loathed Sarah Palin out of Alaska and on to the national stage. I’m not even sure how popular he is in Arizona and how much his re-election was just some sort of incumbency effect. Like does anyone other than Lindsay Graham even *like* John McCain? His lame attempts to carry water for Trump aren’t going to help him politically with Republicans and his occasional half-assed feeble, non-consequential snark about Trump isn’t going to help him politically with Democrats.
The “Maverick” needs to retire.
The only plus I’ll give McCain is that he takes the Russian interference seriously and he’s one of the *only* Republicans that does. He has Putin’s number and always has. Putin seems to be a genius manipulator because he has seduced and then burned so many American politicians. W thought he could see into Vlad’s soul. Obama tried a re-set and got screwed. A lot of folks on the alt left seem enamored of him. SMDH. Don’t even get me started on Trump.
I think he’s one of several who are hanging on too long. His centipede shoe-drop analogy is getting old.
As for blaming late night game watching, that illustrates lack of judgment. The game (which could be recorded) was more important than being rested for such an anticipated hearing?
It does illustrate lack of judgement, it’s the first thing I thought when I read his statement. But I don’t think for a second he was up watching the game. I’d venture to guess he’s tucked in bed by 8:00 every night. What if there hadn’t been a game in town, I wonder who’d be the scapegoat, lol.
ITA that *if* he was up late it shows his judgment is off but I’m with @Esmom That’s a lame excuse. McCain needs to retire. I hope the DNC focuses on Arizona and tries to build up the party there. I don’t think they can flip it anytime soon but there’s potential with changing demographics and independents being turned off by Trump’s GOP.
There were pics of him at the game though: http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/john-mccain-james-comey-diamondbacks-strange-questions-060817
I’m not saying that’s a viable excuse but he WAS there. I don’t know what to say about McCain. Well I do and I said it yesterday (“f*ck McCain”) but if he is truly suffering from early onset dementia I feel obligated to back off. My grandma died of Alzheimer’s and it was absolutely devastating to watch her slip into the depths of that terrible disease.
I do agree with the Tweet above though that aside from his apparent memory lapse during the hearing, he never once forgot that he is a Republican.
Kitten, Oh, oops, I stand corrected, thanks. Clearly the guy shouldn’t stay up past bedtime on a regular basis, though!
Fake maverick is a good argument for Congressional term limits.
Not sad at all. He should not have had a seat at that table and I am glad he and the GOP got embarrassed and it was that public.
Remember yesterday McConnell and 12 other GOP are trying to pass that death sentence without public opinion and the House passed to revoke Dodd Frank. Get on the phone to your senators. Apparently calls have died down. Blow up all lines of communications to this people.
No, it didn’t “go over everyone’s heads” you arrogant old fool. You were incoherent.
This line is what is going to carry me through the rest of the day:
“Here, watch an old man yell some nonsense at a cloud shaped like Jim Comey.”
OMG. I can’t stop laughing. Kaiser, when are you going to write a book?
http://i.imgur.com/91sn32Q.jpg
Classic grandpa Simpson.
It impressed me that Comey stayed calm with McCain making these nonsense, wrong,foolish comments and questions. I probably would have totally lost it, stood up and screamed at McCain
FBI is known to have pokerfaces. Seriously who do these politicians think they are? They think they can make a FBI employee cower?
I think it was at this point I finally “got” Comey. What he left unsaid, which he had every right to say yet held his tongue, was “we went where the evidence took us”.
because that would be classified information, and he did not want to jeopardize Mueller’s investigation.
Just my thoughts, of course. Comey proved in that moment that trump made the most colossal error in not recognizing the integrity in Comey, and that it will be his undoing. trump really does not read people well at all, which is a no brainer but damn.
Trump is completely unfamiliar with integrity, and is thus incapable of recognizing it.
He finds the concept to be a weakness.
I’m guessing Comey stuck just to his facts because he doesn’t want to muddy the waters for Mueller’s investigation. Mueller also added to his team a legal expert in money laundering and the mob, so they know where they want to go with their investigation.
It’s been said over and over, even here, that ultimately what will bring down Orangino is conduct (obstruction of justice) not what everyone can see but may be harder to prove (Russia gate). Nixon got screwed over with conduct. Don’t forget that.
What makes this even more of a head scratcher is the fact that McCain was the one who dropped the Steele Dossier on Trump with Comey. What on earth is going on with the doddering thing? Did he just forget what he did 6 months ago?
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/03/how-the-explosive-russian-dossier-was-compiled-christopher-steele
I cannot stop laughing at the muffin man tweet.
Me too!
Over here tearing up trying not to laugh too loud and disturb the ppl around me. 😂
It was so weird, i was watching it live and at one point i really thought he could be having a stroke. I kind of feel guilty for laughing at this old man that could be showing early signs of dementia. Or maybe he played dumb to defend his party.
Whatever the case, if anyone expected McCain to be the voice of reason within the republican party, that ship sailed yesterday.
McCain has his own Russian ties, starting in 2006. I just mentioned this in another post. He is no innocent. His 2008 campaign manager was Rick Davis–business partner of Paul Manafort. Manafort introduced McCain to Deripaska, a Russian oligarch and Putin friend. McCain celebrated his 70th birthday at a party thrown by Deripaska on his yacht in the Adriatic. I believe that Putin has long been working via Manafort and many others to cultivate ties with U.S. politicians who may rise to presidential level. The Citizens United decision left us open to attack via dark money pouring in from foreign interests. Putin is not new at this. McCain has to know that. He may well be against Putin now, because he knows how he was manipulated and resents it. He has spoken out against Putin recently. However, his confused and weak blather at the Comey hearing was useless to our country’s defense. He has to go. Long overdue.
McCain has aggressively spoken out about Putin for years. It’s not a new thing.
RE: Deripaska To be fair, every Russian oligarch is tied to Putin. Every.single.one. McCain met Derispaka through his 2008 campaign manager Rick Davis and later that night Derispaka was on the yacht where people were celebrating McCain’s 70th birthday. To me that suggests McCain is a hypocrite, not necessarily that he’s a pro-Putin stooge. I’m more bothered by the fact Rick Davis, was previously partners with Paul Manafort. If nothing else that shows incredibly bad judgment (and hypocrisy) on McCain’s part. But by 2008 McCain seems to have thrown away his standards in order to win. (For example, the W campaign engaged in some dirty tricks against McCain in 2004 but then McCain turned around and hired lots of W people for his 2008 campaign)
I think claiming McCain has “Russian ties” sounds like a Trumpist talking point: I know you’re not a troll but this is the type of thing they do to try to make Trump’s ties seem normal and a product of the so-called “fake media”. While I agree with you that Putin has been courting US politicians for years the only politician comparable to Trump in terms of sheer volume, breadth and depth of ties (as well as engaging in pro Putin activity) is Dana Rohrabacher.
Somewhere Ronnie Reagan is spinning in his grave. Ugh these Republicans are nothing like the ones I saw growing up.
I respect John McCain as the elder statesman, but yesterday his incoherent questioning of James Comey reminds me that we need term limits in the Senate.
Not everybody gets dementia, although the risk goes up significantly with age. My neighbor remained sharp past 100. A friend quit free-lance scientific translating just before he turned 80 because he had some other writing projects he wanted to get to…. he’s well into his 90s now. Mind still ok, body a bit of a bother. So you can’t assume that everybody in their 80s is hopelessly past it. Some are but others aren’t.
Bernie Sanders is in his mid-seventies. Should we boot him out of the Senate?
Russia is currently PUSHED media-wise as the enemy of the USA. Of course McCain couldn’t resist pushing this against Hillary, too.
Hillary had done some shady things (emails, donations to the Clinton foundation) so that investigation was justified.
I think McCain is cosying up to Trump. Going for the trough to put in his snout.
I’ve spoken with McCain a number of times. I think he’s getting older and was probably tired. I was surprised he ran last time. My father’s about his age and couldn’t handle the stress of being a senator… and would have moments like this. I hope it’s not dementia. No matter your politics, he’s served his country in ways most of us (thankfully) will never understand. I hope the best for him!