5 Big Takeaways
From Comey's Big ABC News Interview
ByBen Shapiro
@benshapiro
On Sunday evening, former FBI director James Comey sat
down for a two-hour interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos to talk about
his new book, A Higher Loyalty. The interview was chock-filled with
quotable moments; already, the media are going haywire over it. President Trump
has signaled his own displeasure on Twitter.
So, here’s what was important.
1. Comey’s A Political Actor. Over and over again,
Comey suggested that he allowed political considerations to impact his legal
work. He says he decided to announce Hillary’s non-indictment in order to avoid
allowing the FBI to look like a tool of the Department of Justice after Loretta
Lynch’s tarmac meeting with President Clinton. He said that he took the polls
into consideration when determining whether or not to inform the public about
the re-opening of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
2. Comey Hates Trump. Either he hated Trump before
the election or learned to hate him afterward. But he didn’t quit — he was
fired. Despite all of his nasty words about Trump, at no point did he walk away
from his job in protest, and simply say everything on his mind. Instead, he
waited to be fired after refusing to say publicly what he was telling Trump
privately: that Trump wasn’t under investigation. Nonetheless, Comey spent the
interview ripping Trump as a crime boss, tore into Trump’s physical appearance,
called Trump a “forest fire,” and suggested that Trump not be impeached but be
thrown out by voters. He even said that Trump never laughs in public or
private.
3. Comey Loves Obama And Company. Comey described
how much he loved Obama, Loretta Lynch, and Jeh Johnson, among others; Trump,
he says, was unfit for a hug: “And so I'm not an unusually strong person but I
work out and so I tighten my abs and my core and I'm thinking, this-- 'Unless
he's a lot stronger than he looks, he's not getting a hug.' And so he pulls and
he doesn't get the hug.”
4. Comey’s Grandstanding. Comey admits he had no
good reason for not telling Trump that the Steele dossier was funded by Hillary
Clinton’s campaign, but he also had no problem telling Stephanopoulos that Trump
was morally unfit to be president, and that Trump might be subject to Russian
blackmail. He even said that the Trump pee tape story could be true, although
he provided no evidence to that effect. He also suggested Trump could be guilty
of obstruction of justice. Comey knows how to make a headline, and he’s
stretching to make one here.
5. Comey Was Upset He Cost Hillary The Election.
Comey said over and over that he was “sick to my stomach” over the FBI’s
interference in the election, and asked that Hillary Clinton read specific
chapters of his book to see that he had good intentions — and he even said he
announced the re-opened investigation because he thought she was leading in the
polls. He admitted as well that his daughters were big Hillary fans.
Comey didn’t do himself any favors with this interview,
although he certainly sold some books. He didn’t come off as non-partisan and
dispassionate, which would have been devastating to Trump. He didn’t come off
as apolitical, either. He came off as a glory-seeking character in yet another
ugly Washington production. And that won’t hurt Trump.
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