James Comey is trying to do damage control…
…and CNN has obligingly given him a Town Hall forum in which to attempt it. Such forums are usually reserved for presidential candidates, and although when last I checked Comey wasn’t running for that office, the field is getting so crowded one can’t be sure.
I watched a few short clips from Comey’s Town Hall and could watch no more. The man simply oozes hypocrisy and weaselly deceptiveness. Example:
Anderson Cooper: "Do you think the Russians have leverage over President Trump?"
Former FBI Director James Comey: "I don't know the answer to that."
Cooper: "Do you think it's possible?"
Comey: "Yes."#ComeyTownHall https://t.co/bp6skpgRMz pic.twitter.com/Zfx67blVWJ
— CNN (@CNN) May 10, 2019
“It’s possible” that Comey was a snake in a former life. Many things are “possible”—in fact, just about anything that isn’t impossible is possible. Proving something is impossible seems to be the new standard that Comey (and Mueller, in the obstruction part of his report) seem to be setting for people who are accused of wrongdoing—that is, if their name is “Trump.”
The fact that Comey was once director of the FBI is a chilling thought, one that illustrates not just the Peter Principle but something more ominous.
I saw a few moments of an interview with Rudy Giuliani last night, as well. He was discussing Comey, and he apologized for ever having appointed him US Attorney in NY. Giuliani said something curious, too—that he didn’t know what had changed Comey so much, but something had. I submit that it was two things. The first was Trump Derangement Syndrome, and then an escalation of that syndrome when Trump fired Comey. The second is the corruption that sometimes comes with power.
There is always an exception to the rule. He will look good in orange, with bracelets of course.
Sure looks like Anderson Cooper was fishing for an answer he wanted with those Russia questions. That network just seems pathetic.
Other actors in the scandal are right now making public appearances to do personal image massage. Sally Yates and James Baker are two by name in addition to Comey.
Jeff Carlson (@themarketswork) who writes for Epoch Times speculates (and not without reason) that the DoJ IG report is nominally complete and has been distributed to those named critically within it for pre-release comment; that, therefore, named miscreants like Comey, Yates and Baker would naturally, being tipped to their pending embarrassment, go out in friendly fora to skew the fact basis (and shine up their images in the process) in hopes of lessening their future pain.
Could be, anyhow. We’ll see.
Maybe we ought to appreciate all this Russian influence that is impelling the American economy forward like it is nuclear powered.
We look to those in the media and legal field to exhibit the objectivity, neutrality, and fairness that we sense within ourselves at the deepest level. Whenever the supposed guardians of truth go partisan, we instantly know something is amiss.
Comey seems to have given little weight to the option of either playing it straight or seeking a different career where partisanship is more appropriate. Instead he compromised the integrity of his chosen profession. He is not alone.
The connection to invulnerable truth is only temporarily lost (although sometimes for a lifetime or more). It’s our home. Everyone finds their way back to it eventually.
Trump Derangement Syndrome, and the general deterioration that come from becoming a VIP in Washington. They get so full of themselves that reality is obscured. None of the Important People could possibly support a vulgar, loud businessman from Queens. Other politicians have been just as vulgar and considerably more corrupt, but it wasn’t on public view. So embarrassing.
Boss I think I’d reverse the order of your “What went wrong with Comey?” list.
He was corrupted THEN he got TDS.
Minor quibble, I know but following in the Clintons grift-mode administration model, the 0 White House seems to have made corruption a competition to see who could go deepest into the tank.
And I do suspect there will be a cleansing to come during the 2nd Trump administration.
John Guilfoyle:
Agreed. My list of “first” and “second” wasn’t meant to imply a temporal order. I was just listing two factors. I don’t know when the power corruption began, but yes, probably before the TDS. But the two have worked hand-in-hand for several years now.
I buy the corruption that often comes with power. I don’t buy the TDS, at least not initially but perhaps by now.
Comey is a bit of a conman as evidenced at his skill in long portraying himself as a man of integrity.
Once he reached a certain level, he simply sold out to the Left (ala Hillary) because after 8 yrs of Obama, he coldly assessed them to be the winning party.
Comey is all about Comey and since being fired, he’s been engaged in covering his ass by portraying Trump as the guilty party. And, it’s probably occurred to him that if the Left is successful in bringing down Trump, Comey’s actions in ‘doing his part’ will stand him in good stead with what for him has become… The Party.
By now, he probably does hate Trump but with the ordinary hate that every crook feels toward those who threaten to bring them to justice. Trump is now an existential threat to Comey’s life and public reputation. As there will be no CNN Town Hall forums from prison for a traitorous felon.
Anderson Cooper is not a good interviewer.
Lock him up.
“Anderson Cooper is not a good person.”
FIFY
We’ll be seeing a lot of him in weeks to come and we all know why. I’ve only got one thing to say about it. To borrow a line from the movie Arthur; “Good luck in prison!”
Comey is 6′ 8″ tall. An orange jumpsuit with 32″ inch inseams will make him look fetching for the other fellows in the cell block.
In the book “No Heroes” Danny O. Coulson tells the story of his 30 years in the FBI and he points out that there are field men and women who do the work and at that time the guys who wear suspenders who will throw anyone under the bus to get ahead and gain more power. They don’t care who is right or wrong, they just want to avoid making any decision that will come back on them as they worm their way up. Comey was a master at that, never make a decision where your have to take responsibility, never put yourself out for your fellow agents and work your way up the ladder by kissing every political but necessary.
Which is more unprofessional? Comey’s answer or Andersen Cooper’s question?
“I saw a few moments of an interview with Rudy Giuliani last night, as well. He was discussing Comey, and he apologized for ever having appointed him US Attorney in NY. Giuliani said something curious, too—that he didn’t know what had changed Comey so much, but something had.”
McCarthy may be saying the same about his friend Mueller the Straight Shooter.
My own guesses here, knowing absolutely nothing about THAT situation, but having some passing acquaintance with human nature.
In NY all those years ago, it may simply have been too early for the seeds of greed and vanity to sprout. Also, “kissing up” to Giuliani probably involved actually doing the job he was hired to do, reasonably efficiently and with a veneer of integrity, since I suspect Rudy never asked him to do anything illegal or immoral, nor implied that such was a condition of employment or would be welcomed.
sdferr on May 10, 2019 at 3:17 pm at 3:17 pm said:
…
Jeff Carlson (@themarketswork) who writes for Epoch Times
* * *
ET is fast becoming my first go-to for news aggregators. Sharyl Attkisson also writes for them.
I learned just a few minutes ago that it was founded by a follower of Falun Gong, which is why they carry so much news on China.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/about-us
“Having witnessed events like Tiananmen Square and the persecution of the spiritual group Falun Gong, and at a great risk to themselves and their loved ones, a group of Chinese-Americans started publishing The Epoch Times in Chinese in May 2000 in New York City. Some reporters in China were jailed, and some suffered severe torture. Yet despite the risks, they could see the growing need for uncensored coverage of events in China.
Local editions published by regional bureaus soon followed. Today it is the largest Chinese-language newspaper outside of Mainland China and Taiwan.
The English edition of The Epoch Times launched in September 2003 on the web, and in August 2004 as a newspaper in New York.
…
The Epoch Times is part of the Epoch Media Group (EMG), a New York-based global news and entertainment company. With uniquely positioned media assets, EMG is at the forefront of digital video publishing. Across multiple content platforms, EMG produces the highest quality content, in 23 languages, to meet the diverse demands of our growing audience.
…
We strive to be the most trusted global media as we uplift the world with integrity, compassion, and hope.”
Speaking of the FBI and the Epoch Times, interesting wrinkle on a familiar story:
https://www.theepochtimes.com/fbi-lost-notes-from-clinton-probe-meeting-significant-to-concerns-over-foreign-exfiltration-lead_2912428.html
“The lost notes memorialized a meeting that took place on Aug. 3, 2015, less than a month after the ICIG made a referral to the FBI that classified information may have been disclosed in an unauthorized manner to a foreign power because Clinton conducted State Department business through an email hosted on an insufficiently secured server in her basement.
The ICIG-FBI meetings hold special significance because it was allegedly several of these meetings where the ICIG officials passed a lead to the FBI about anomalies in the metadata of the emails indicating that a copy of nearly every email was sent to an agent of a foreign power.
…
Based on documents from a tranche released by the FBI around May 6, special agents from the FBI’s Washington field office were going through materials from the Clinton investigation so they could be released pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. On Feb. 4, they tried to find the ICIG meeting notes, which should have been in the case file based on information in the FBI’s electronic case management system. But the notes weren’t there.”
In 2012 my wife and I were on a cruise. We ate dinner twice with an Army legal officer and his wife. He and I locked horns over the rules of engagement in Afghanistan and the legality of GITMO. He believed in very restrictive rules of engagement, as were effected during the Obama administration. and was very critical of GITMO. I found him to be a smug, morally superior type, who, of course, had never been shot at or threatened by an IED. We avoided him for the rest of the cruise because just the sight of him made my blood boil.
During the Obama administration many federal agencies were politicized. (As was the Army legal corps.) Does anyone doubt that Eric Holder brought in partisan lawyers to the DOJ? How about the politicization of the IRS? The FBI’s anti-terrorism curriculum was completely revised to stop any “incorrect” references to the “Religion of Peace.” Those who didn’t go along with the new policies were passed over and those who did were promoted. The message was plain for the ambitious. Go along with the Obama program and get ahead. How else do we account for such partisan embarrassments at the head of the CIA, DNI, and FBI as Brennan, Clapper, and Comey? How do we account for Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and Andrew McCabe rising to important positions in the FBI?
They all were loyal to the policies of Obama and it was clear to them that Trump the vulgarian, the bombastic businessman, the unpolished billionaire, the anti-Obama loud mouth was a threat to all that. So, they decided to take matters into their hands.
There was no legitimate predicate for the investigation they launched and the methods they used against American citizens. May Bill Barr proceed to do what needs to be done. The Obama shaped government needs a whole lot of reform.
https://www.redstate.com/bonchie/2019/05/10/james-comey-pushes-disproven-conspiracy-theories-cnn-town-hall/
“…Last I checked, it’s not an investigator’s job to treat something as validated evidence based on gut feelings. Yet, here’s Comey essentially admitting that he did just that.
…
It is not James Comey’s job to take it upon himself to save the nation from a President he despises. This is why Comey was so dangerous in his position. He had no boundaries and truly felt he had the power to engage in what was essentially a soft coup. That meant if he had to lie on a FISA application, then so be it. If he had to mislead the President on the dossier, so be it. If he had to orchestrate the appointment of a special counsel, so be it.
If there’s any justice left in our system, this guy is going to go down hard in the near future.”
Comey isn’t the only one giving interviews. Coincidentally (or not?), Downer met with Papadopoulos 10 years ago today.
https://www.redstate.com/elizabeth-vaughn/2019/05/10/sky-new-interviews-australian-diplomat-alexander-downer-raises-new-questions/
Posted at 9:30 pm on May 10, 2019 by Elizabeth Vaughn
Everybody is giving interviews.
https://www.redstate.com/streiff/2019/05/10/former-fbi-general-counsel-james-baker-tries-gaslight-us-russia-hoax-doesnt-work/
Posted at 10:30 pm on May 10, 2019 by streiff
https://www.redstate.com/elizabeth-vaughn/2019/05/10/devin-nunes-comey-lot-trouble/
Ed’s reaction to Comey’s brushing off the implications of spying on a presidential candidate is okay, but the commenter nails the bottom line (can I mix a metaphor that way?)
https://hotair.com/archives/2019/05/10/comey-totally-normal-use-undercover-agents-presidential-campaigns/
More Comey: It’s “Totally Normal” To Use Undercover Agents On Presidential Campaigns
ED MORRISSEYPosted at 12:31 pm on May 10, 2019
Daniel Hunt
Questions no one has asked but everyone knows the answers to. “How many agents did you imbed in the Hillary campaign?” “How many FISA warrants did you take out on anyone in the Hillary campaign?” Both answers would be ZERO. Pretending like this is normal practice and not political is laughable.
Bill and Hillary had many Russian interactions. Bill actually met with Putin while Hillary was SOS. Do we know if any of Hillary’s campaign folks had any Russian interactions? Oh, we do. Perkins Coei Law firm.
Gotta win the prize for strangest Comet Comey effect.
https://hotair.com/archives/2019/05/10/school-fundraiser-cancelled-tweet-james-comey/
Read the whole thing to see just how bad the tin-foil-hattery has become.
AesopFan @ 11pm: From Red State: “:What stood out most to me about Comey’s performance on Thursday night was his remarkable state of denial.”
A state not that different from that of the MSM and the progs. To have done what Comey did, he had to believe that Trump was guilty or that they could frame him. I opined at the beginning of this revelation of the coup attempt that these perps would all claim they had no choice but to investigate the possibility that Trump and/or his campaign had colluded with the Russians. They are claiming it would have been a dereliction of duty to have not investigated. And, with the Mueller Report finding no collusion, they still cannot let go of the idea that somehow Trump may be a Russian asset. It is both denial and a cunning attempt to claim they did nothing wrong.
Paging AG Bill Barr. Do what you have to do, sir.
The more information that is starting to pour out in answer to various FOIA requests, the earlier and more widespread Obama Administration efforts to set up, entrap, and to spy on Trump, his associates, and apparently other candidates as well, are revealed to be.
It seems like, in their efforts to entrap him, these people threw every temptation they could at him, did everything but push George Papadopoulos’s into a hotel room featuring a naked pole dancer covered with chocolate and hundred dollar bills.
There was Prof. Mifsud’s sexy, flirty supposed “research assistant,” and now this revelation.
Papadopoulos is now reporting that in 2017 he was invited to Israel by an Israeli-American businessman supposedly working in the energy field, who said he wanted Papadopoulos to do some energy consulting work, and this businessman invited Papadopoulos up to talk in the businessman’s hotel room, and gave Papadopoulos $10,000 in cash, that was was supposedly the first monthly retainer for Papadopoulos’ work.
Apparently Papadopoulos was suspicious of this deal, so Papadoupoulos testified to Mueller that, before he returned to the U.S., he gave that $10K to a Greek attorney for safekeeping.
Strangely enough, when Papadopoulos arrived home and got off the plane at Dulles, the FBI was there to greet him, and was already searching through his luggage, apparently in anticipation that they would find that $10K in it, and they could then charge him with a crime for not declaring it (as you must do if you enter the U.S. carrying more than $10K in cash).
OldTexan is right – the butt kissing necessary to advance in many bureaucracies often changes “doing what is right” into “doing what the boss wants”. Not just gov’t.
In profit-oriented companies, the boss usually wants stuff done that enhance profits, meaning more production at lower cost, which is more work for the workers.
At gov’t agencies, and NGO / no profit measured agencies, there is A LOT more bootlicking, because there is no good objective way to measure good results.
Like JJ mentioned, under Obama, and to a too large extent GOPe Bush (who I strongly supported), the bootlicking became PC, and those not PC enough did not get promotions.
A HUGE part of the problem with PC thinking is that politics becomes more important than “truth”. Blacks, on average, have lower IQs than Asians — both are US minorities. That basic truth, and its implications, are at the bottom of non-truthful Political Correctness. Once PC becomes more important than truth, it combines with the corruption of power to rapidly become “politically expedient”.
All the illegal Obama admin actions, including Pres. Obama illegally communicating with Sec. Clinton on her illegal server, as well as the many Clinton (bribery) Foundation donations (bribes) can be understood as politically expedient, acceptable to the Dems in order to advance their PC agenda.
It’s sickening, and frightening. And the USA, in electing Trump instead of Hillary, probably DID get saved, for a time, thru a Flight 93 election.
All the top gov’t employees who used Clinton’s illegal email server were probably violating some law — they should all be fired. Inexperienced, rank amateurs would be doing a more honest, much more honest, and probably better job, than the PC bootlickers who accept illegal actions “for a higher truth”.
I mentioned falun gong a few times online. Did not seem much interest at the time. Hence epoch times.
They are a kind of spiritual cousin or sister to our axis. It is hard to be the vanguard for the light in china. The darker factions sometimes see you as a threat. They are not as alone as they may be told.
The state is right. If falun gong continues the power of chi, the cultivators will return and overthrow the state. The Chinese state crushes you humans with tanks. The DIvine Fleet orbitally scorches worlds, and states are crushed like ants. Some pov.
This is a story or metaphor. The divine fleet cannot intervene without humanitys permission. This permission is like a law contract, very complicated. Once a beacon of light grows on a land, that land can be annexed by the fleet.
In other traditions they called it the ark of the covenant. The aura itself killed humans but was a beacon and portal. Also egyptian power source. Not a legit parable but no key board for the warriors.
Comey said he STILL thinks the Russians might have something on Trump. My take is that Comey felt he would be hero of the century IF he could bring down Trump, a feeling shared by creepy porn lawyer and criminal cheating SOB, Avenatti.
“The second is the corruption that sometimes comes with power.”
I think the corrupt seek power and the power just brings out the corruption that already exists.
Ray on May 11, 2019 at 12:46 pm at 12:46 pm said:
“The second is the corruption that sometimes comes with power.”
I think the corrupt seek power and the power just brings out the corruption that already exists.
* * *
This is true for many people, maybe most.
However, there are also many instances of reasonably ethical people who seek power with every intention of doing good, and then discover that they are working with so many corrupt people that they “have to fight fire with fire” — and it’s important for them to keep power so they can continue to do good, regardless of the means, and so the devil leads them carefully down to hell.
Back to the philosopher of Neo’s earlier posts — “One of the big mistakes in ethics is to think that means make all the difference.”
https://www.thenewneo.com/2019/05/06/this-is-what-passes-for-an-eminent-philosopher-these-days-julian-savulescu-part-i/
I don’t think it’s been covered very much, but Comey was counsel at Bridgewater prior to being fbi director. That place is known for it’s lack of privacy and weirdness