Comey committed career suicide by multiple misuses of power to subvert our election in full view of the world. Oh sure, he must have hoped a Republican administration would circle around to protect him, but he must have known that was not guaranteed.

So, WHY did he do it?

He will NEVER redeem himself.
What power & ego do to people.
To walk away KNOWING he, by one brief well timed statement, determined who would be President of the USA. Determined the fate of our country.
He knew what Trump stood for. He knew Trump was up to his neck in foreign criminal activity.
And that's who Comey chose for America?!!
He threw the election that day & he knows it.
He makes no apologies either.

GFYourself Comey.
People have suffered & died by the direction of this President YOU chose.

Who the FK are you to select our President?
Worst possible decision in American Presidential history.
Now you're on TV selling your book.

Money & Media

I'll give him the same consideration he gave our country & its people.

Nothing.

What he did to Clinton before the election in 2016 was despicable.

either in July 2016, OR in late October. He sure gave the CONS a lot to work with.

This one's on YOU, Comey. YOU personally helped make this happen, every bit as much as the Russians did.

Nobody's gonna find me defending him. Nor do I plan to buy his book. One of my biggest takeaways from Watergate is "don't buy books by crooks." MY ASS he was concerned about the credibility of Hillary's presidency if he kept his mouth shut. I don't think that was such a major concern for him. I think he was trying to keep his own ass out of certain grief and persecution by the GOP. Otherwise, why else did he remain silent about the trump investigations? NOT interested in any of his pathetic after-the-fact mea culpas.

You're no hero to me, Comey. Never will be. And I don't care how extremely you've "unleashed" about trump today. TOO LATE, pal. YOU built this.

The damage has been wrought. He's been CYA since then.
Now we have to right the wrongs.


~sprink
💙🇺🇸🌊

Hero worship is for people who need to hear stories and also want the narrative delivered to them. Every composition has a least two elements and most of the time many more.

To me how much exact cause a biased billionaire owned corporate media had giving someone an edge or not we will have a hard time knowing. In my opinion, it might be a little more for the fact they were trying to put in one of their own, another billionaire (well at least perceived as a billionaire). The fact most common people get their information from the talking heads on television is where I would be looking for reasons on who to blame about the consequences of the distortions placed in front of the public. Of course, Mr. Comey would step into the vacuum created by them. He would want to feel to all that important in making it an issue. The fact he is back in there today doing the same thing is the proof of it. He would step up into the gossip mill and make corporate media's day.

The real owner of this problem should be the corporate owned media outlets and the conflation they gave to the story (obviously done on purpose). It gives them cover also, on how did all this happen? It was Mr. James Comey fault (it's so easy for them)
Then to you could also blame the way our society has been made to operate because it would be the people who need their news compacted into quick blurbs and told how to think about it. It is that they too have their part in this. Everything is a myth, a belief that there is an actual single cause for all of this. The thing is corporate media has all the keys to fill you in on how them myths must be constructed (at least from the establishments perspective)

To me, it all looks like a bunch of BULLSHIT, put into perspective of who actually did what. Corporate media will never own up to the fact that Donald Trump is their creation. They will spin every way from Sunday to tell you otherwise in fact just like they are now

I agree!

You also misunderstand what he said about his thoughts about the October surprise. He said it was because he knew the FBI would take a big hit because of these add'l thousands of emails that had to be reviewed, so he decided to take the hit personally. No matter what they did, they were screwed; half the country would be angry. He also said that in the back of his mind, he thought it wouldn't affect HRC much because she was so much ahead, anyway.

He screwed up big time. I don't think that cost HRC the election. I think Russia did it, and HRC did win. The Comey thing changed her momentum, but she was still leading in almost all the polls. She didn't take that big a hit because of it.

(The other investigation going on by the FBI was still a Russia investigation at that time...not a Trump team-Russia investigation. There had been some things come to light...but nothing concrete or something, Comey said. When Comey was fired, it had become a Trump team-Russia investigation by that point.)

She would never have been vulnerable to begin with if not for his July press conference.

And her numbers dropped after the October 28 announcement.

Her momentum had changed. But I think it was the Russian bots & trolls that hit the internet after that, and that Russian hacking went on. But for that, she would have won.

I don't think he had an ulterior motive about the election, though. He just screwed up. People screw up.

ten days before the election, i DO remember thinking that it would sink hillary and then -- after a few days -- realizing that the new poll numbers showed it had zero effect on her. and i thought: thank god!!

for DT- people wanted a horse race, or to damage her presidency. The media is just as complicit, but yeah- this was major! Everything has to be seen as amplified by Russian bots, as this was. In a normal campaign, it might not have had the same effect. But Comey admits doing the calculation.

to announce (to Chaffetz via a classified letter) that there were other issues to investigate regarding HRC, I have to respect Comey as a person for his humility and honesty. He erred. From my POV, he was not intending to malign. That makes him very different from Trumpy.

There are many factors that led to Trumpy being prez. All of them are ugly, a lot are criminal and unpatriotic. The election didn't end with Comey's impact. Related factors converged. It was a supreme tragedy. We do have an evil person as president. Sixty million people voted for him. That's also a tragedy.

I think social media played a much bigger role in her loss in that it divided Dems. After her loss here in Pennsylvania, I did a quick comparison of her vote vs the vote the Dem elected state atty general got by county. If she'd gotten the same number of votes he did in those counties where she underperformed him, she'd have won the state.

I think the 40 years of rightwing attacks on her and her husband took a toll as well. He was able to overcome it because he's a natural politician and people person, but she isn't.

Finally, we should think about what Comey said about not wanting her to be seen as illegitimate if she won. With the Rs in charge, there'd still be hearings going on about her email and server and the FBI would still be being excoriated for not letting Americans know about it. I believe things happen for a reason. Although what America is experiencing is painful, Clinton's loss has helped expose the GOP for what it is. They will be wiped out this November and American will be set on a path to renewal.

with your comment I also think it was the Russian meddling and a combination of the investigation into HRC e mails which was total BS.

And boy did Clinton's detractors from both the right and left get mileage out of that.

However, Comey's comment was outside the boundaries of his position and job description.

A stain on those around him.

I think Comey made mistakes before the Election, but the real facts of the Russian envestigation were not clear at the time.

There is much blame to go around. The Media, who gave Trump all the space, magnifying every little thing and rumor about Hillary.

Investigative Reporters who neglected to expose Trump’s criminal contacts and past actions.

We can blame Comey but in comparison to Comey and his record to Trump,whose past and present are full of criminal actions and collaboration with mobsters and Russians, there is no comparison.

I think Russia flipped it, and possibly hacked key district election systems.

Hillary did win the popular vote by 2.9 Million but something happened in the last 3 States.

Ohio has always pushed the Democrat over the line. Then we had Pa. and Michigan.

Something went wrong with the vote.

And as Someone who worked on the Ken Blackwell machines I can tell you they are easy to get into with a key the size of a Locker key. But of course hackers can change votes. There is a paper trail, but they are like old fashioned Adding machines and were always twisting,had to be straightened by hand, hard to read.

In this case I would say Electronic hacking.

the nation is morally unfit. America is morally unfit with the largest military in the world, stockpiles of weapons of death and destruction. Ingrained racism and a sense of white privilege and supremacy and stupid "exceptionalism," and sexism so strong it's taken over our lives.

A belief that the majority of Americans are good, decent human beings isn't good enough anymore. Look at the polls. Too many approve of this madness.

We can blame Comey, but America's been headed here for a long time. I'm so ashamed I didn't do more to try to stop it.

The Russians hacked the actual voting process...not by much...didn't want to be too obvious...just by a couple of percentage points in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin!

I'm talking about the Hatch Act that was passed specifically to prevent federal law enforcement guys (and others in the executive dept.) from helping political candidates while on the job. All of Comey's bogus hand-wringing and phony justifications mean nothing. He broke the law and he knows it.

It would be just as true if he had helped Hillary rather than harmed her. Nobody is above the law.

He gave an update on a possible reopening of an investigation of one of the candidates. The Hatch Act is for doing something partisan. That's not what it was. If he were being partisan, then that would mean he was in the Trump camp, and working in a partisan way for Trump, which wasn't true. So he didn't violate the Hatch Act. Which was why he wasn't charged.

That's my understanding and from reading about the Hatch Act, anyway.

Comey’s Mistake was his Press Conference.

He said he would do it again. Unreal!

This Hayward took it upon himself to decide the fate of an entire nation at a time when it was most in danger, yet still has no remorse about it. He needs to be prosecuted IMO, though I'm unclear what the legal grounds would be.

He said well, here's part of the transcript:

That people will read that story and try to put themselves in my shoes. Try to realize that I'm not trying to help a candidate or hurt a candidate; I'm trying to do the right thing. And you can come up with different conclusions. Reasonable people woulda chosen a different door for reasonable reasons. But it's just not fair to say we were doing it for some illegitimate reason.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: If you knew that letter would elect Donald Trump, you'd still send it?

JAMES COMEY: I would. I would. In fact, that was a question asked by one of my best people-- a deputy general counsel in the FBI who is a very thoughtful and quiet person, who didn't speak a lot. And that-- that morning we were making that decision, she asked, "Should you consider that what you're about do to may help elect Donald Trump president?"

And I paused, and then I said, "Thank you for asking that question. That's a great question. But the answer is not for a moment because down that path lies the death of the FBI as an independent force in American life. If I ever start considering whose political fortunes will be affected by a decision, we're done. We're no longer that group in America that is apart from the partisans, and that can be trusted. We're just another player in the-- in the tribal battle."

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: But-- but at some level, wasn't the decision to reveal influenced by your assumption that Hillary Clinton was going to win? And your concern that she wins, this comes out several weeks later, and then that's taken by her opponent as a sign that she's an illegitimate president?

JAMES COMEY: It must have been. I don't remember consciously thinking about that, but it must have been. 'Cause I was operating in a world where Hillary Clinton was going to beat Donald Trump. And so I'm sure that it-- that it was a factor. Like I said, I don't remember spelling it out, but it had to have been. That-- that she's going to be elected president, and if I hide this from the American people, she'll be illegitimate the moment she's elected, the moment this comes out.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: An-- and doesn't that also explain, at some level, your decision to conceal the fact that you're investigating the Trump campaign for possible ties to Russia? You conceal it so you don't give him an excuse to say, "Hey, this thing is rigged."

JAMES COMEY: Well, no. Not with respect to the counterintelligence investigation of those small number of Americans. That-- that was actually not a hard call, given the sensitivity of the matter and that it was ongoing. We didn't want to tip anybody off. What-- you're right though, with respect to the decision by President Obama, as to how to talk about the Russian interference with the American people.

I think it was-- I mean, he said it to me-- in that meeting I described, "Putin backed the wrong horse." He was clearly thinking, "I don't want to, given that Trump's going to lose, be-- look like I'm putting my finger on the scale."

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You've said that a few times now. You think it's not a close call. Boy, your critics say this is a clear, clear, clear double standard. You revealed information about Hillary Clinton; you concealed information about Donald Trump. That elected Donald Trump.

JAMES COMEY: Yeah, I get that. I get that-- why they say that. But what I'd ask them to do is take a step back and stare at the two cases and the posture they were in. The Hillary Clinton email case, which began with a public referral, and so was public, th-- and we were actually investigating the candidate herself; and the counterintelligence investigations trying to figure out whether a small group of people, not Donald Trump-- we were not investigating Donald Trump.

Whether this small group of Americans was coordinating anything with the Russians. We had just started the investigation. Didn't know whether we had anything. So it would have been brutally unfair to those people to talk about it. And it woulda jeopardized the investigation.

As I said, the Department wouldn't agree to talk about that, and only in a general way, until the following March. So I hope those critics-- I get the initial reaction. It seems inconsistent. But if you take the time and look at the posture of the two cases, they're very, very different. And actually illustrate the rule that we're following.

This is a good time to take a break from DU.

Remarks Comey made at a July 5 news conference 2016

“Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.”

Clinton’s emails included seven message chains with information classified as top secret.
“None of these emails should have been on any kind of unclassified system.”

“The security culture of the State Department …was generally lacking in the kind of care for classified information found elsewhere in the government.”

Comey acknowledged that the FBI did not normally make public its recommendations to prosecutors as to whether to bring criminal charges. He added: “In this case, given the importance of the matter, I think unusual transparency is in order.”

“Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.”

“I know there will be intense public debate in the wake of this recommendation, as there was throughout this investigation.”

...and:

The Comey Letter Probably Cost Clinton The Election

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-comey-letter-probably-cost-clinton-the-election/

The SOB should have been terminated then. This human world has no saints.

Why is any if that a problem?

That’s fucked up, and it is political.

It was NOT part of the calculus under consideration as he made his decision.

Considerations. I put that next to the press recently admitting they hadn’t bothered vetting any candidate except for Hillary. All that nonsense about a “coronation” had an effect.

Was very honest about his failings.

a variety of reasons. We can all debate that....YES! However, the character assisination that I'm seeing around here is very disturbing.

Many participated, Comey included & in a big way at the final hour of 2016.

He had absolutely no reason to step out to speak as he did.
Well, except to lend his hand to stop the momentum of the only person who stood in Putin's way.

There was no reason other than that.

Why'd he do it?
That's the answer I want.
I want the the Truth.

when he went to some lengths to explain -- in some detail -- exactly why he did what he did.

If you REALLY want the Truth -- you can see my post above, or better yet the entire interview, not just what was broadcast:

Transcript: James Comey's interview with ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos
http://abcnews.go.com/Site/transcript-james-comeys-interview-abc-news-chief-anchor/story?id=54488723

..step out publicly as he did.
In the end, there was NOTHING to the email scandal, except the scandal. And that was the entire point of dragging Clinton as soon as she announced her candidacy.

As for Comey , he also knew of the criminal behavior of Donald Trump from ongoing investigations over the years.

He knew Clinton was clean & well knew that Trump never was.

If he felt it so urgent that the public should be told of a "new development" in the Clinton email scandal, that MAY be true or MAY be false, he should have perhaps also informed the public of the ongoing investigations which MAY be true or MAY be false, into Trump's mob related, money laundring. Something that had been in the eye of Feds for years.

His answer as to why he made a POSSIBLE YET UNCONFIRMED scandal the center of the news at a critical time in the election, for many listening last night, still has yet to be an honest answer.


Why "Clinton's possible" last minute hail mary pass from the Right, and never Trump's criminal dealings the FBI had been monitiring for years?

He had ZERO reason for his action.
That is the unforgiveable act & that is the answer we will never truly hear from him.

There were many nefarious players readied to unseat democracy in favor of fascism.

Comey stepped out on "Breaking News", the eyes of the world watching, and chose to speak of an issue, manufactured for impact in the final days of campaign 2016, concerning Hillary Clinton, while staying dead silent about the criminal behavior of her opponant, Donald Trump.

He chose this act.
Why? We ask again & again because the reason he is giving still doesn't answer that question, and but..but..but just isn't the truth.
It is a dance around the truth.

He can say a mea culpa, clear his name, write a book, do a TV interview & move on with his life.

The many who have lost much & stand to lose yet more, with Trump as president, those families separated, and those lives lost due to the cruelty of Trump, need not have happened at all.

This is on Comey's decision in those final days, this is also on everyone who contributed, for Money & Media, Power or Position to stop the USA from being a nation of ALL people over a nation of the creulty of fascism.

There were two choices.
Comey was well aware of both of them.

When you compare Comey to what we have in the WH right now, there is no comparison to the 2 men.

He has a fine record of fighting for us, an unblemished character. He did make a mistake in making that speech against Hillary in the midst of the campaign, but the blame for the attacks on her come from all sides.


Even I can be holier than thou at times because I know I am right! , that is why I am a Democrat!

I still can hardly stand to read his name. It takes me back to that day in October 2016.

Yes!

Fox News, the RNC and the Koch bothers thank you for spreading the message

That’s my two cents

Were all Hillary supporters.

They also took part in the women's March.

The only people who could come announce the pre election interference without having the partisan divide blow up were McConell and Ryan. They were both briefed but somehow didn’t think that the Russian interference would go against them. If they believed in country over party they would have told the American people about Russian interference.

To go along with President Obama. They knew the Russians were interfering in the election.

So blame Republican Leaders in Congress.

Last edited Mon Apr 16, 2018, 03:06 AM - Edit history (2)

He could not stand up to the pressure being exerted by Congressional Republicans that wanted dirt on Hillary Clinton and they pounced on email.

Even though Rice and Powell before her also used a private server Comey opened a narrow investigation on Clinton.

Stepping back, when Bush was elected the whole Whitehouse staff was set up on the RNC email server and when that was exposed the millions of emails were simply deleted. With those as a background the Comey investigation had the look and feel of a witch hunt and when virtually nothing was found Comey was in hot water for a partisan bias and unfit to continue as FBI Director. Then the FBI was investigating another case (Weiner) and found a backup copy of Clinton email.

Comey caved and misled the American public that they were in possession of New Clinton when all they had was a backup file. He could have clearly indicated that it was a backup file and they wanted to compare that with the email they already had and to get back with the American people shortly. Instead he made it sound like something Clinton was hiding, which is proof that he was in over his head and caved. Because of how uneven he handled this (not examining Rice and Powell) he would have to resign if she was elected. Comey is no hero. Far from it.

new incriminating evidence of emails and then it was not. Oh, oopsie?

So serious a matter. Who were the professionals here. It stunk to the third heaven.

Will never give him a pass.

~sprink
💙🇺🇸🌊

who should've early on concluded that the email 'scandal' was a GOP witchhunt designed to derail Hillary's presidential run.

And the Weiner emails were clearly duplicates that Huma forwarded to herself, Comey could've easily figured that out quietly, which would've satisfied his duty to the Constitution, the public and the FBI.

Instead he violated the Hatch Act and long standing norms of federal officials not injecting themselves into elections.

F Your Book.

And F the scumbags in the New York FBI.

and a big K&R

He was unprofessional.

He's landing some serious punches on Trump which is far more then what anyone here is capable of doing. Comey, at this particular point in time, is quite useful for our side.

I believe Comey when he said tRump is morally unfit for office and leaves a stain on all of those that surround him. I am not happy with what Comey did in relation to Hillary, but right now Comey is pushing tRump closer to the edge of the cliff and I am grateful to him for that.

Comey said that he made the decision to announce that he was taking another look see into Hillary Clinton's emails because he was scared that NY FBI agents (Who HATED Hillary's guts, and who were buck-tooth denture-wearing, cousin-marrying Guliani's thug boys) would be leaking those Weiner emails I mean got damn. Well, that and because he said that he "thought" that Hillary would win the election He reiterated that he'd handle the Hillary email situation the SAME way AGAIN ....



Yet what we ended up with was tRumputin being installed into the White House by hook and crook, and he's totally ripping apart the bonds of this country/the world. Fatso's trashing and lying on Comey. He's lying on and also trashing our intelligence agencies, and all of the special agents/law-enforcement who protect this country. I believe that it'll take this country a LONG time to recover from what's been done to it in the very short time Fatso's been in the Oval Office. And in SOME instances unfortunately (Packing of the various courts with RWNJ/racists/bigots), this country may not EVER recover because many of these judgeships are for LIFE, and many of these judges Fatso's appointing are young. Think about the draconian rulings they may pass down that might cripple this nation for MANY generations to come. Almost hourly lies and scandal after scandal is sinking our nation's political image into the toilet bowl. European leaders won'tever trust, or see the USA the same again because of tRumputin.

Secondly, I don't think that the brain-dead, stupid mistake that Comey made in and of itself cost Hillary the election. It was the cherry on top for a lot of voters--Dems included--who either walked away from voting for her in key states, or who didn't vote period, while other Hillary voters voted for Stein or that dimwit Gary Johnson. Some even voted for Fatso. You had paid in rubles-paid Facebook and twitter complicit in allowing disinformation campaigns to be seen/read on their media platforms. A complicit corporate media who gave Fatso $2 Billion in free air time (Loving the ratings he bought them) & they never really checked him on all of the MANY, MANY LIES he told. Yet, that same corporate media was ham-handed in most cases when criticizing Hillary Clinton over those fucking emails for starters There were GOP-lead voter-suppression drives in key states that Fatso just happen to WIN He also won with help from the ruskies And, we still to this day don't know exactly what type of meddling the ruskies were successful with during the 2016 GE to give fatso the presidency. Now what type of meddling they plan to do in the upcoming mid-terms, we have NO clue. The only thing Dems can DO is make sure folks have current ID's, then register other Dems to vote, and get them to the polls to VOTE in HUGE numbers, because we know that the GOP is frightened by the results of those recent special election wins by Dems especially in Alabama, so we know that they'll adjust for cheating windage so that they can keep their majorities in both houses, and from impeaching Fatso because they need him in there so that they can FINISH off the poor, old, Dems, women, children, disenfranchised and it's own voters so that they can reward their rich voters like the Mercer's, Kochs who gave them boat loads of cash for re-election. Some could also be scared, not knowing if or when putin will release Kompromat on Fatso or on them (GOP servers were hacked too), which might be the reason 50 of those sole less, hateful, grifting weasels have or will shortly leave the Congress/Senate. Comey said that he doesn't want to impeach Fatso, no he wants us citizens to vote his ass out (Yet he doesn't bother voting). Well under under normal circumstances that would work. However, with the ruskies & GOP-suppression tactics working hand-in-hand, who knows IF our votes will count so we CAN vote him out? Didn't Comey say that the ruskies meddled in our elections? His statement saying that we should vote the bum out is just TOO simplistic, especially if our votes are meddled with again by the ruskies, or if our votes are collected and NOT tallied properly or they aren't counted PERIOD by the party whose in charge of collecting and counting our votes and who wants to STAY in power: thuglicans.

Yeah, I need to go to BED now after processing Big Boy Scout Comey's "interview."

From what little I know of/about his wife Patrice Comey, she REALLY seems to have much more sense than her hubby Big Boy Scout James.

But the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Anybody who is getting under trumps skin like this, I want to hear more from.

The only way to catch this corrupt global money laundering cabal was to get them elected. Otherwise they'd go back underground.

and I am sick and tired of seeing him everywhere. He used his position to sway the election against Hillary Clinton.

+1

I'm angry, too. Democrats were fu**ed. Out of the presidency. As well as a Supreme Court nominee.

But Comey does not deserve our anger. Don't waste your energy. Channel that anger into the 2018 midterms.

Sure, they won the battle. But they won't win the war. Be angry, but let it be righteous anger diverted into action. Anything else is a distraction. Don't do it, if for nothing more than being angry without action is EXACTLY what Republicans want. Don't give Republicans what they want. Ever.

yes, bitterness, but he is surely not the only reason Hillary lost. Without legally questionable jerrymandering, voter suppression and Russian intervention (l believe votes were flipped in critical areas) we likely would not have the slime autocrat. We can do nothing about the actions of Comey, except to embrace his disgust of tRump for use in the fight to preserve our democratic values. November will soon be a reality, and we have no time to waste.

And on another DU Post we’re supposed to harbor no ill feelings. Well, I do. He helped get this assclown elected, and now surely regrets it. I’m sure he thought, like everyone else, that HRC would win, and he would look like a GOP team player. But it didn’t work out for him, or for us. So fuck him.

Political considerations should NEVER have been part of his decision-making process! Bet he now wishes that Hillary had fired him instead of Trump. #sorrynotsorry

[which was only 10 days before the election.]
He should have been arrested and tried for that crime!

K&R!