It’s difficult to keep up with every political story that breaks every minute of every day of this hellish administration, and it’s even more difficult to remember all of that sh-t a day later. So I keep forgetting and then re-remembering that James Comey A) has a book coming out called A Higher Loyalty and B) has given an exclusive interview to ABC News about his book and Donald Trump and the FBI and everything else. Comey was fired by Donald Trump a year ago. Trump admitted to Lester Holt, days after the Comey firing, that he did it because he didn’t like that Comey had greenlighted the Russia investigation. Which is obstruction of justice. All of this continues to be obstruction of justice. Anyway, here’s the promo for Comey’s ABC interview:
"Was President Trump obstructing justice?”
Former FBI Director James @Comey sits down with @ABC's @GStephanopoulos for an exclusive interview airing Sunday night at 10/9c on ABC. https://t.co/IE4XwxvIih #Comey pic.twitter.com/WygOAoVQzN
— ABC News (@ABC) April 11, 2018
There just had to be a Hillary question. I’m surprised George Stephanopoulos didn’t say “But what about her emails!?” But the rest of it is good. It’s fine. I mean, James Comey was never going to be our white f–king knight. People are always like “but wait, isn’t Robert Mueller a gigantic Republican too?” But Bobby Mueller is our white knight, I have to f–king believe that. That’s what I hold on to. But James Comey? He’s no folk hero. He’s not the Resistance’s Zaddy. Still, his book tour and this interview is going to be fun to watch. Here’s some other pieces of James Comey gossip:
On Sunday, James Comey's interview with ABC News will air.
It has already been taped and will be a bombshell I am told:
– Interview left people in the room "stunned"
– Many on hand described it as "surreal"
– Trump should be VERY afraid I am told.
— Brian Krassenstein🐬 (@krassenstein) April 11, 2018
The RNC reportedly has a battle plan to take on Comey, branding him as "Lyin' Comey" through a website, digital advertising and talking points to be sent to Republicans across the country. https://t.co/zSBazROt4x
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 12, 2018
Photos courtesy of Getty.
The answer is “very.”
I for one am very much looking forward to this interview! My DVR is already set. While I have no love for Comey, I am looking forward to how much this will piss off the Orange Cheetolini. I hope it induces a stroke (and honestly, I would never intentionally want to harm anyone, but hand to God, I just can’t with Dump. He is a true threat to our country and our democracy).
We don’t have cable. I’d love to watch this in a sports bar.
Yeah…Comey is one of the reasons we have trump in the first place so I have zero interest in his book or what he has to say
Jim Comey can jump up my ass. His emails press conference 11 days before the election did untold damage that the ENTIRE WORLD now has to live with. And this book tour will doubtlessly cause Trump to be even more unhinged than usual. Thanks for your service, asshole.
I so agree with both of you. I can’t stand him. He IS responsible for Trump being in the white house.
But…I hear his sitdown with Stephanopoulos is explosive. If nothing else, the Cheetoh’s reaction should be popcorn worthy.
He’s no hero (other than in his own mind), but at least the firing brought us Bobby and an investigation. And the inevitable meltdown may provide more stream of consciousness admissions of obstruction.
When Comey first signed the book deal he said it wouldn’t be a tell-all. I’m not getting excited until I see what is in the book.
If the book is a big nothingburger the coordinated smear campaign is going to look extra crazy.
I agree that Comey’s forced hand statement that they were re-opening the investigation so close to the election that was the coup de grace for Hillary ( Russia cannot take all of the credit )- however, the real problem there was Guiliani’s influence over the partisan NY FBI agents who fell in so viciously with Guiliani against Hillary. IIRC, Comey testified that he made that statement because he expected a leak from those agents. Why aren’t they being investigated? Why isn’t Giuliani for using whatever tools he did to sway/indoctrinate/bribe those agents? Who hasn’t seen Rudy’s public hatred for HRC?
All of that notwithstanding, Comey’s interview and book do not deserve such scorn based on the above. Any information is useful to take the orange turd out of the OO is now worthy of analysis.
TLDR? Come can be both scrutinized for his part in Giuliani’s/ NYCFBI partisan damage campaign against HRC *and* a valuable witness against Trump. It’s not a binary issue.
It is obvious now that comparing the potentially new emails to what they already had examined was very low priority because the FBI (especially McCabe and Comey) doubted there would be anything damning in them. So it could wait until after the election to avoid influencing it. That is standard FBI protocol, to tread carefully for the two months before a general election.
Then Giuliani and Trump were practically wetting their pants in anticipation of Giuliani’s pet FBI agents in New York leaking the information with an anti-Hillary spin. The confidential letter Comey sent to Congress was obviously written to get ahead of that. He was trying to point out that it could be nothing new but they would need to do a comparison to be sure. What was planned on the schedule for after the election suddenly had to be done right away, and under the publicity engendered by the Republican blabbermouths with their ridiculous spin. Hillary did not act at all worried and just asked the FBI to do their examination quickly – hardly the response of a guilty person.
I think Comey did the best he could to avoid influencing the election. Blame the Republicans for this. Comey was trying to put out the fire that they started. Think about it: Do you really believe Comey wanted Trump to be President? He so obviously found the guy to be highly disturbing. He had thoroughly investigated Hillary, on the other hand, and believed that she was truthful to the FBI. She was cleared. Comey is such a Boy Scout, he would never have done that unless he really believed she had not done anything to be charged. He thought she had acted unwisely in not switching to the new procedure, but so does she by now…. As for the 33,000 missing e-mails – I delete that much every few months. And there is recovery software, so since she didn’t take a hammer to the hard disk, I would assume the FBI recovered enough to see she (and the lawyers she hired to double check before deletion) was right that they were not work-related. She did properly archive the rest and dealt with anything marked classified on the State Department server. Comey thought that a handful of emails should have been marked confidential but weren’t, but that was disputed by the issuing agencies.
I’m getting in on my iPad as soon as it comes out.
If he were on fire…I don’t now if I would get him water…Comey infiltrated the past POTUS elections as MUCH as Russia did…and for a far more petty and trifling reason…I sit Shiva for him a LONG time ago!
I am not interested in a Comey book tour. I would rather see him in a witness chair for the prosecution of the Trumpkins–and soon. I’m not thrilled about all of the books being written about our plight. Stop fighting Trump in the TV and entertainment arena, where he has an advantage. Less analysis, more action! Get this corrupt administration out of power!!
Comey’s a private citizen now. This is the only way he can work, and he’s provided materials to Mueller’s investigation. The key now is to keep Mueller, Rosenstein et al. in place so the investigation not only has a smart, seasoned prosecutor at the helm, but also the Administration does not limit its scope and ability to procure subpoenas, etc.
I don’t want anyone who is in anyway responsible for this administration to profit from it. I won’t buy anything from anyone proclaiming to spill the beans on the hellscape they unleashed.
A HIGHER LOYALTY is a sanctimonious BS of a title, isn’t it?
Sooooo sanctimonious. He’s so terribly full of himself.
Yeah, I am gonna watch.
Why get on my high horse about it. I know his hand in 2016, but he and it still interest me.
I hold Comey partly responsible for the dotard being president. However, he’s not the only one I hold responsible. I hold Putin and the people who voted for the dotard responsible. I also hold lots of the media both main stream and cable responsible when they were fawning all over him by giving him air time whenever he wanted. Morning joe was one of the main ones who gave him soft ball questions, laughed and not hold him responsible for his lies while holding Hillary responsible for Bill’s misdeeds, now they are against him. To be honest, I don’t believe Hillary would have stand a snowball in hell to be elected there were so many people working against her. To this day they are still talking about emails, Benghazi ect. The deck were stacked against her from the beginning.
He was overly aggressive prosecuting Martha Stewart and he helped win the election for Trump. I don’t think he’s as honorable as he thinks he is.
I’m going to watch it and read the book. Comey is really a conflicted character in this whole saga. I can never really get over how he reopened Email gate days away from the election but after knowing that Rudy G whipped the NY FBI agents into a frenzy, he really had no choice. It is really rock and hard place. If we are all going in on fingerpointing, those rogue NY agents should be exposed as well. I blame them for forcing Comey’s hand.
RNC – so stinking pathetic. Don’t you have some elections you need to bolster? Why are they doing this idiot’s bidding?
The role of the NYC FBI Field Office is a sidenote that needs to be remembered and explored. I hope it is. It sounded as if Comey had all hard choices in front of him at the time, but also that he was naieve to think his memo wouldn’t have had the impact it did.
I would add you don’t get to director of the FBI without learning how to deal with internal conflicts or rogue agents. A true leader would not have had his hand forced by Giuliani.
It seems more likely to me that Comey has an anti-woman bias. Unconscious, I’m sure. But Stewart and Clinton are two of the most high profile women in America and he’s acted against both of them.
Great points. I’m deeply ambivalent about him and his handling of the situation. I hope that his actions going forward can help redeem his interference.
I think they had not tracked down the rogue agents Giuliani was working with at the time. The rogues undoubtedly had already passed on all the info to Giuliani. It was going to come out very soon no matter what Comey did.
Read his confidential letter to Congress – he was not hyping it as earthshaking, he was trying to make them realize it was just a routine check they had to do. The Republicans publicized a confidential letter and put their own crazy spin on it, not Comey. He had promised to keep Congress informed if new evidence surfaced, but obviously McCabe and Comey were going to wait until after the election before dealing with it because they knew it wasn’t urgent. The Trumpies forced them to deal with it at a time not of their choosing.
I was angry with Comey at first also until I learned more about the situation and Comey himself. He’s an honest man and clearly not a Trumpy. Trump is a pathological liar and I’m sure Comey recognized that. There is simply no way that a man like Comey wanted Trump to be President. He was put in an extremely difficult position but I am quite sure his intent was not to sabotage Hillary Clinton. He was trying to follow the rules and be fair. I can’t really see what else he could have done. He couldn’t be partisan in his work, so he couldn’t say what we can say about the idiot Republicans and Trump. He had to stay very matter of fact.
Banga – Martha Stewart lied to the FBI, which is a felony. She learned the hard way that whatever you do – don’t lie to the FBI. Look at the indictments of Trump’s men – lying to the FBI is one of the charges. Trump’s lawyer’s are falling all over themselves to keep him from talking to Mueller because they know he (a man) will lie and that’s a crime.
Prosecuting Martha Stewart was not an anti-woman move. Investigating (and clearing) Hillary Clinton was not an anti-woman move. It’s called “doing your job”.
I have no idea if he’s “anti-woman” or what not but he is the linchpin of this whole Russian debacle and I have him to thank for being the dynamite that brought us Mueller. Imagine how different today would be if Orangino did not take Dickless Ken’s advice and kept Comey? No Mueller and certainly no way to take down this turd and his band of thieves.
I feel like some posters above: Comey’s actions contributed to trump’s election, but I cannot wait for the unhinged meltdown & inadvertent admissions to follow. Whatever they throw at him, Comey can defend himself.
He has as much reponsibility in this mess as the Russians do, I am not interested in his book. Incredible by the way that the media reaction to this BOOK is so positive when people were having heart attacks because of HRC’s book about the election. Shouldn’t he go knitting as well?
Knitting is for ladies, kate. He needs a manlier past time to fill his hours, and complaining about how the world has done him wrong is about the manliest hobby there is.
Pointing out that you’ve been treated unfairly, much like politics, is just for men. On account of how they don’t get all hysterical and emotional like us womenfolk.
I strongly believe he was the single biggest factor in trump getting elected. But I also believe his firing is the strongest evidence in the obstruction case. Can’t wait to hear what he has to say.
Why would anyone believe anything this man has to say after he knowingly and admittedly lied about Hillary not breaking the law and then saying that she did but didn’t mean to so it’s all ok? This book will be trash, just like his decision NOT to prosecute Hilary for lying to the FBI, the CIA and obstructing justice and destroying evidence in an active investigation. Lying bastard.
??? Hillary didn’t lie to the FBI. She also didn’t mishandle classified materials. She wasn’t charged because there was nothing to charge her for.
You really need to start listening to more reliable sources than Fox News, InfoWars, and Breitbart. До свидания.