On Tuesday May 9th, 2017, President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey – leading to a wide range of public reactions. President Donald Trump: “I have received the attached letters from the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General of the United States recommending your dismissal as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I have accepted their recommendation and you are hereby terminated and removed from office, effective immediately.”“While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgement of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau.It is essential that we find new leadership for the FBI that restores public trust and confidence in its vital law enforcement mission. I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.”Sources: http://www.fdrurl.com/comey-firedYour support is essential to Freedomain Radio, which is 100% funded by viewers like you. Please support the show by making a one time donation or signing up for a monthly recurring donation at: http://www.freedomainradio.com/donate
Hi everybody, Stefan Molyneux from Free Domain Radio.
I hope you're doing well.
So quite a lot of information floating around about, by now, former director of the FBI, James Comey, who was publicly canned like Charlie the Tuna.
And we want to get some information, some facts out.
You know, introduce into this rather hysterical political discourse those crazy little things we call facts and truth.
This is the truth about James Comey and what is going on.
It's really, really quite interesting.
So Tuesday, May 9th, 2017, President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, leading to a wide range of political opinions.
So Comey learned of his termination as he was speaking to FBI employees in Los Angeles, and televisions behind him broadcast the announcement, and he originally thought it was a prank, a hey, good joke, guys.
It turns out it was just another time someone learned from Donald Trump on TV that they'd been fired.
So President Donald Trump wrote the following letter to Director Comey.
Dear Director Comey, I have received the attached letters from the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General of the United States recommending your dismissal as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
I have accepted their recommendation and you are hereby terminated and removed from office effective immediately.
While I greatly appreciate you informing me on three separate occasions that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau.
It is essential that we find new leadership for the FBI that restores public trust and confidence in its vital law enforcement mission.
I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.
What is he, a wrestler?
So this is important.
The third paragraph is important.
Three separate occasions I am not under investigation.
Now this, of course, was included to head off the inevitable leftist or Democrat accusations that Donald Trump was firing the director of the FBI who was currently investigating Donald Trump.
And that's kind of a spin...
That's been put on things and he's there to push back against that inevitably developing narrative.
Not under investigation by the FBI and therefore firing him is not some Nixonian Saturday night massacre of removing somebody from office who's investigating you and so on.
So, I mean, you know, of course most people on the left are ignoring that, but it's there anyway.
He clarified, Donald Trump clarified on May 10, 2017, saying he wasn't doing a good job.
Very simple.
He wasn't doing a good job.
So Attorney General Jeff Sessions, he talked about the two letters that were included.
The Attorney General Jeff Sessions talked about this.
Dear Mr.
President, as Attorney General, I am committed to a high level of discipline, integrity, and the rule of law to the Department of Justice, an institution that I deeply respect.
Based on my evaluation and for the reasons expressed by the Deputy Attorney General in the attached memorandum, I have concluded that a fresh start is needed at the leadership of the FBI. It is essential that this Department of Justice clearly reaffirm its commitment to long-standing principles that ensure the integrity and fairness of federal investigations and prosecutions.
The Director of the FBI must be someone who follows faithfully the rules and principles of the Department of Justice and who sets the right example for our law enforcement officials and others in the Department.
Therefore, I must recommend that you remove Director James B. Comey Jr.
and identify an experienced and qualified individual to lead the great men and women of the FBI. Boy, I tell you, I've had a few performance reviews in my time.
I guess I get them every day in comments and donations.
But that's pretty rough.
It's pretty damning.
The director of the FBI must be someone who follows faithfully the rules and principles of the Department of Justice.
That's the right example.
Clearly, he's saying Comey is not doing that.
It's not a good recommendation.
This is why the conclusion was that he had to go.
Oh, but it gets even worse.
Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein wrote a letter titled, Restoring Public Confidence in the FBI, May 9th, 2017.
And I quote.
Oh, and this guy, by the way, confirmed recently in an overwhelming majority bipartisan support.
This guy is not on either side of the political aisle.
He was put in, I think it was like 94 to 6 or something like that, bipartisan support.
And he wrote, That is deeply troubling to many department employees and veterans, legislators and citizens.
So basically, if you have a pulse, you're bothered by what's happened.
He goes on to say, the current FBI director is an articulate and persuasive speaker about leadership and the immutable principles of the Department of Justice.
He deserves our appreciation for his public service.
As you and I have discussed, however, I cannot defend the director's handling of the conclusion of the investigation of Secretary Clinton's emails, and I do not understand his refusal to accept the nearly universal judgment that he was mistaken.
Okay, I'm just going to go out on a limb here and say that the first sentence of the second paragraph is how the Deputy Attorney General calls you kind of a sophist.
You know, he's a current FBI director.
He's an articulate and persuasive speaker about leadership and the immutable principles of the Department of Justice.
I'm guessing he kind of is implying here, yeah, he talks about it.
He talks the talk, he just doesn't walk the walk, which is actually kind of damning.
Like, if you know a principle well enough to describe it in compelling ways, but you don't follow it, then you're even more responsible for not following it.
Rosenstein goes on to say, Almost everyone agrees that the director made serious mistakes.
It is one of the few issues that unites people of diverse perspectives.
I'm sorry, I shouldn't laugh.
Oh man, this is harsh.
I mean, I'm not saying it's wrong.
It's just, Comey, he brings people together from all walks of life.
Men, women, various people, just about everyone.
They may disagree on everything in the world.
They may think the earth is flat versus round.
They may think the stars are fire or winks from aliens.
But the one thing they can agree on is how terrible James Comey is at his job.
He really brings people together.
All these diverse perspectives unite in condemning James Comey.
Man, that's rough.
You don't even have to read between the lines for this stuff.
He goes on to say, the director was wrong to usurp the Attorney General's authority on July 5, 2016, and announce his conclusion that the case should be closed without prosecution.
It is not the function of the director to make such an announcement.
At most, the director should have said the FBI has completed its investigation and presented its findings to federal prosecutors.
It's not the FBI's job to determine whether prosecution should occur.
They do the investigation, they present their findings, and then it is the job of federal prosecutors to figure out whether something should be pursued or not.
He goes on to say, On July 5th,
However, the director announced his own conclusions about the nation's most sensitive criminal investigation without the authorization of duly appointed Justice Department leaders.
Compounding the error, the director ignored another long-standing principle.
We do not hold press conferences to release derogatory information about the subject of a declined criminal investigation.
This is just a matter of privacy.
Like, if the FBI investigates someone and nothing comes of it...
They shouldn't release any information because it's negative towards the reputation of the person being investigated despite the fact that there's no reason to proceed with the case.
So when Comey, if you probably remember this, right, so it was last summer, he kind of scolded Hillary Clinton and...
Put the case as to why she should be prosecuted and then mysteriously declined to prosecute her because he didn't have that authority and it was just terrible and extraordinarily demoralizing and frustrating for people in the FBI, for people in the Department of Justice and seeing this guy continue to skate forward despite this egregious breach of law and protocol.
Well, I can imagine what that would do to people.
He goes on to say, Derogatory information sometimes is disclosed in the course of criminal investigations and prosecutions, but we never release it gratuitously.
The director laid out his version of the facts for the news media as if it were a closing argument, but without a trial.
It is a textbook example of what federal prosecutors and agents are taught not to do.
He goes on to say, in response to skeptical question at a congressional hearing, the director defended his remarks by saying that his goal was to say what is true.
What did we do?
What did we find?
What do we think about it?
But the goal of a federal criminal investigation is not to announce our thoughts at a press conference.
The goal is to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to justify a federal criminal prosecution, then allow a federal prosecutor who exercises authority delegated by the Attorney General to make A prosecutorial decision.
And then, if prosecution is warranted, let the judge and jury determine the facts, right?
So it's not his job.
Comey's job to editorialize and say what should happen and whether the investigation should go forward or not.
It's not his job.
Rosenstein said, we sometimes release information about closed investigations in appropriate ways, but the FBI does not do it su espontae.
He goes on to say, concerning his letter to the Congress on October 28, 2016, the director cast his decision as a choice between whether he would speak about the FBI's decision to investigate the newly discovered email messages or conceal it.
Conceal is a loaded term that misstates the issue.
When federal agents and prosecutors quietly open a criminal investigation, we are not concealing anything.
We are simply following the long-standing policy that we refrain from publicizing non-public information.
In that context, silence is not concealment.
Right, so just theoretically so you can understand this.
Let's say that somebody, some crazy person, you know, maybe some crazy ex or somebody who wishes you harm, phones in something to the FBI and says, you're doing some terrible thing.
And the FBI looks into it and finds, after you're not doing that terrible thing, you don't want that crazy allegation to be made public.
Of course, right?
So the fact that they're not publicizing that they got an allegation or doing an investigation, that's not concealing things.
They're not being secretive.
They're being reasonably discreet and Under the basic principle of innocent until proven guilty, and in this case innocent until a decision is made by the Department of Justice to pursue prosecution.
Rosenstein says, Judge Lawrence Silberman, who served as Deputy Attorney General under President Ford, wrote that, quote, it is not the Bureau's responsibility to opine on whether a matter should be prosecuted, end quote.
Silberman believes that the Director's, quote, performance was so inappropriate for an FBI Director that he doubts the Bureau will ever completely recover.
Ever completely recover.
Let's just pause on that for a moment.
That in the judgment of this former Deputy Attorney General, what Comey did at the end of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails, mishandling of classified information and so on, was so egregious that it has permanently harmed the FBI. He doubts the Bureau will ever completely recover.
It was that bad.
It should have been Obama's job to do this.
Rosenstein goes on to say, They concluded that the director violated his obligation to, Now,
this stuff can be a little complicated to understand and can be challenging to communicate, which is probably one reason among this stuff can be a little complicated to understand and can be challenging to communicate, which is probably one reason among many why the rather partisan which is probably one reason among many why
Rosenstein's letter went on to say, Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who served under President George W. Bush, observed the director, quote, stepped way outside his job in disclosing the recommendation in that fashion, end quote, because the FBI director, quote, quote, doesn't make that decision.
Alberto Gonzalez, who also served as attorney general under President George W. Bush, called the decision, quote, an error in judgment.
Eric Holder, who served as Deputy Attorney General under President Clinton and Attorney General under President Obama, said that the director's decision, quote, was incorrect.
It violated long-standing Justice Department policies and traditions, and it ran counter to guidance that I put in place four years ago, laying out the proper way to conduct investigations during an election season, end quote.
Holder concluded that the director, quote, broke with these fundamental principles, end quote, and, quote, negatively affected public trust in both the Justice Department and the FBI, end quote.
Former Deputy Attorneys General Gorlick and Thompson described the unusual event as, quote, real-time raw take transparency taken to its illogical limit, a kind of reality TV, a federal criminal investigation, end quote.
That is, quote, antithetical to the interests of justice.
These are learned legal scholars from both sides of the aisle, all universally condemning, as incredibly destructive, just one of the decisions made by James Comey last summer.
Rosenstein continued, Donald Ayer, who served as Deputy Attorney General under President H.W. Bush, along with former Justice Department officials, was, quote, astonished and perplexed End quote.
By the decision to, quote, break with long-standing practices, followed by officials of both parties during past elections.
Ayers' letter noted, quote, perhaps most troubling is the precedent set by this departure from the department's widely respected non-partisan traditions.
We should reject the departure and return to the traditions.
Although the president has the power to remove an FBI director, the decision should not be taken lightly.
This is Rosenstein.
I agree with the nearly unanimous opinions of former department officials.
The way the director handled the conclusion of the email investigation was wrong.
As a result, the FBI is unlikely to regain public and congressional trust until it has a director who understands the gravity of the mistakes and pledges never to repeat them.
Having refused to admit his errors, the director cannot be expected to implement the necessary corrective actions.
Right, you understand?
If you're in jail, you don't usually get to get out if it's a serious crime until you admit your crime.
If you don't admit fault, you cannot correct the actions.
And James Comey has not admitted fault in the way that he handled the closure of the investigation of Hillary Clinton's emails last year.
Ah, but that's not all, folks.
There's more.
On March 20th, 2017, Comey provided false testimony to the U.S. House Intel Committee when he said that Republican emails, quote, were not released in the past year.
There were not releases of material taken hacked from any Republican-associated organizations.
Good Lord, I knew about the Republican leaks.
On June 2016, DC leaks published a collection of approximately 300 emails from various Republican targets, including staffers of prominent Republicans John McCain and Lindsey Graham.
James Comey testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 3, 2017.
Somehow her emails are being forwarded to Anthony Weiner, including classified information by Clinton's assistant Uma Aberdeen.
Aberdeen appears to have had regular practice of forwarding emails to him, for him, I think, to print out for her so she could then deliver them to the Secretary of State.
She forwarded hundreds and thousands of emails, some of which contain classified information.
On May 9th, 2017, prior to Comey's termination, the FBI sent a letter to Congress to correct the director's false congressional testimony.
Only a, quote, small number, end quote, of emails had been actually forwarded to Wiener by Aberdeen, with backup technology being responsible for the additional thousands.
Of those emails specifically forwarded by Aberdeen, two email chains contained classified information.
Hillary Clinton's spokesman, Nick Merrill.
Imagine for a moment if Hillary Clinton had said something this inaccurate when she testified for 11 hours.
Imagine her blaming the Benghazi attack on a video.
So, he's getting things wrong consistently when he's providing testimony to the government.
I don't know, maybe Donald Trump, by firing him, has saved him from a contempt of Congress charge or a perjury charge.
I don't know.
And this is not even partisan.
It's just getting things plain wrong that are obvious and that you should know when you're performing this kind of testimony.
Deputy Assistant to the President, Dr.
Sebastian Gorka, said, The recent testimony of the Director added that last straw to the camel's back and proved that he's unfit to serve and that he's lost the confidence not only of the President but of the agents that serve under him.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said, And the very Democrats that are criticizing the President today would be dancing in the streets,
celebrating.
The Washington Post wrote, Now, just pointing out again, this anonymous source stuff, I don't know what to make of it, but...
There's all this spin.
Why now?
Is it because of Russia?
Is it because of this?
Is it because of that?
Who asked what?
Just have a look at the actual arguments put forward by the bipartisan, nonpartisan attorney generals that have been discussed in this particular presentation that are included in Rosenstein's letter.
Have a look at their arguments.
Did Trump ask Rosenstein to put this together?
Did Rosenstein do it of his own accord?
Who cares?
It doesn't matter.
Look at the actual content of the arguments being put forward and judge Comey's behavior independent of all of this ridiculous partisan spin.
Look at the facts.
But of course, they want to put all this clout up for various reasons.
There are theories out there that Comey stood between real investigations of Democrat wrongdoing over the past eight years and...
With him out of the way, the floodgates may have been open for a proper investigation into a variety of potential misdeeds.
That's why they're freaking out.
See, it's because he was fired by Trump, and Trump's going to appoint someone who may not be blocking any investigations into what the Democrats have done.
Because, of course, if Hillary had fired him, she would have replaced him with some lickspittle who would have...
Continued the fine tradition, perhaps, of blocking some of these investigations or not pursuing them with the energy which the Republicans might pursue them with.
So, previous examples.
So in September 2013, Comey was appointed director of the FBI by President Barack Obama.
So FBI directors serve these 10-year terms, so there were six and a half years remaining on Comey's term.
But according to the Congressional Research Service, quote, there are no statutory conditions on the president's authority to remove the FBI director.
Now, it has been 24 years since the President of the United States has fired the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Going all the way back to July 19th, 1993, when I still needed a trim on top, former President Bill Clinton fired FBI Director William Sessions, no relation, after an ethical probe led, to questions about the director's conduct and the leadership.
Sessions was a Republican holdover from Ronald Reagan's administration, who originally rejected an ultimatum demanding his resignation.
Sessions was accused of abusing his office by improperly billing the FBI nearly $10,000 for offense around his personal home, and also refused to turn over documents related to his $375,000 home mortgage.
My younger friends, he was not living in a van down by the river on a steady diet of government cheese.
He was, in fact, in a fairly nice home, which you could buy way back in the day for about $375,000, back when that kind of money actually meant something.
President Clinton commented that Attorney General Janet Reno, quote,"...reported to me in no uncertain terms that William Sessions can no longer effectively lead the Bureau and law enforcement community." And he agreed with that assessment.
So Janet Reno, who ordered Waco, found you ethically questionable.
Ouch.
Bill Clinton said, We cannot have a leadership vacuum at an agency as important to the United States as the FBI. It is time that this difficult chapter in the agency's history is brought to a close.
Now, while former President Richard Nixon didn't terminate the FBI director, he did fire Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox, who had been appointed to investigate the Watergate Hotel break-in.
This controversial 1972 decision was known as the Saturday Night Massacre and is the background for modern Democrat claims, calling Trump's recent personnel decision Nixonian.
Except, of course, Trump is not under investigation and...
Everyone else is criticizing.
People who know infinitely more than I do are heavily criticizing what Comey did last year.
Hillary Clinton.
So former Deputy Attorney General under George Bush Sr., George W. Toe Williger III, on October 30, 2016, said, There's a long-standing policy of not doing anything that could influence an election.
Those guidelines exist for a reason.
Sometimes that makes for hard decisions, but bypassing them has consequences.
Hillary Clinton on October 29, 2016 said, It is pretty strange.
It's pretty strange to put something like that out with such little information right before an election.
In fact, it's not just strange, it's unprecedented and it's deeply troubling.
We are 11 days out from perhaps the most important national election in our lifetimes.
Voting is already underway in our country.
So the American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately.
Comey himself has said he doesn't know whether emails referenced in his letter are significant or not.
I'm confident, whatever they are, will not change the conclusion reached in July.
Hillary Clinton on May 2, 2017 said, If the election had been on October 27, I would be your president.
It wasn't a perfect campaign, but I was on the way to winning until a combination of Comey's letter and Russian WikiLeaks.
The reason why I believe we lost were the intervening events in the last 10 days.
I, in particular, don't agree with that assessment.
Her numbers were already down.
It may have prevented her from recovering from those numbers, but those numbers were already down.
She just didn't outwork Donald Trump, and it's pretty hard to out-charisma him, so...
And her policies, or lack thereof.
But anyway...
The Clinton campaign chairman, John Podesta, on October 29, 2016, said, No one can separate what is true from what is not, because Comey has not been forthcoming with the facts.
What little Comey has told us makes it hard to understand why this step was warranted at all.
Podesta, on May 9, 2017, prior to Comey's termination, the American public is getting mildly nauseous listening to Jim Comey.
Podesta on May 9th, 2017, the same day after Comey's termination, Donald Trump, didn't you know you're supposed to wait till Saturday night to massacre people investigating you?
Campaign manager Robbie Mook on May 9th, 2017 said, Twilight Zone, I was as disappointed and frustrated as anyone at how the email investigation was handled, but this terrifies me.
Mook, March 2nd, 2017, said, It's time for Comey to remove himself from the Russian probe too.
His credibility is gone!
We're going to have a little bit of a pattern here, folks.
I'm going to lay it out to you ahead of time.
You know, in 1984, you're at war with East Asia, then you're at war with Eurasia, and you have to flip randomly back and forth depending on what serves the needs of the party at the moment or the needs of propaganda at the moment.
The we love, we hate, Jim Comey thing happens to some Republicans and to some Democrats just based upon his political expediency at the moment.
So, if Hillary Clinton is right that Comey's random, unprofessional actions cost her the election, then shouldn't he be fired?
If she's right about that.
Now, if she's not right about that, then she's completely mistaken why she lost the election, and the Democrats are never going to recover until they understand what they did wrong in the election, which is a fairly lengthy list.
So if Comey did cost her the election, then he should be fired.
If Comey didn't cost the election, I don't know, maybe there's a case to make that he shouldn't be fired, but then they should criticize Hillary Clinton for completely misunderstanding why she lost the election.
Not complicated, but apparently for some, too much so.
Senator Bernie Sanders on May 9th, 2017.
Donald Trump's decision to fire FBI Director James Comey raises serious questions about what his administration is hiding.
It is clear that whomever President Trump handpicks to lead the FBI will not be able to objectively carry out the Russia investigation.
We need an independent investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia.
Hey, Bernie!
That's been going on since last summer and they found nothing!
Nothing, nothing, nothing!
To maintain this illusion that Trump won because Ruskies...
Maybe he just listened to the American people more.
Maybe he ran a better campaign.
Maybe they preferred him.
Maybe it had nothing to do with Boris and Natasha boring their way through the intratubes to alter the outcome of an election.
Sanders said January 15, 2017.
I think Comey should take a hard look at what he has done.
And I think it would not be a bad thing for the American people if he did step down.
I think that Comey acted in an outrageous way during the campaign.
And, you know, no one can say that this was decisive.
And this was what elected Trump.
But clearly his behavior during the campaign in terms of what he said in the week or two before the election was unacceptable.
He's terrible!
He should go!
He's been fired!
Oh no!
He's terrible!
It's corrupt!
He should stay!
I mean, good lord.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on May 9th, 2017 said, The President's sudden and brazen firing of the FBI director raises the ghosts of some of the worst executive branch abuses.
We cannot stand by and watch a cover-up of the possible collusion with a hostile foreign power to undermine American democracy.
See, that's the job of the CIA overseas, but we can imagine that it's the job of the Russians in America.
She went on to say, The interests of justice demand Congress act immediately to create an independent bipartisan commission to pursue the Trump-Russia investigation, free from the administration's attempts to silence it.
Pelosi, November 2nd, 2016, about Comey, right?
Maybe he's not in the right job.
I think that we have to just get through this election and just see what the casualties are along the way.
California.
Representative Maxine Waters, January 13th, 2017, prior to Comey being fired, the FBI director has no credibility.
Maxine Waters, March 22, 2017, prior to firing.
I think the American people now understand one reason why I believe FBI Director Comey has no credibility and why I've said that we need an independent commission to uncover the truth.
Today, in publicly confirming the FBI is investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 election and the Kremlin's possible coordination with individuals associated with the Trump campaign, Director Comey also disclosed that the investigation has been ongoing since July 2016.
I believe, she said, that Director Comey bears some responsibility, along with the Russians, in adding to the confusion and misinformation campaign that led to the election of Donald Trump.
It's an astounding statement.
Bears some responsibility.
Director Comey bears some responsibility for the confusion and misinformation campaign that led to the election of Donald Trump, along with the Russians.
Russians.
Russians everywhere.
So, the FBI is supposed to be non-partisan.
It's supposed to not do anything that might influence the outcome of an election.
She's saying that he basically was responsible for a lot of the stuff that led to the election of Donald Trump, violating everything that the FBI stands for.
No credibility.
She's a terrible guy.
No credibility.
Waters, May 9th, 2017.
Donald Trump should follow his FBI director out the door.
No credibility.
Waters, May 10th, 2017, said, I do not necessarily support the president's decision.
I think that if the president would have fired him when he first came in, he would not have to be in a position now where he is trying to make up a story about why.
It does not meet the smell test.
Yeah, that's an argument.
It doesn't meet the smell test.
Oh, man.
Of course, if Donald Trump had fired...
Comey, when Donald Trump first came in, he would have been accused of interfering with the investigation into the Russia stuff, which was already underway and had been since July of 2016.
So, this why now stuff?
Forget it.
Just look at the actual arguments.
When asked if she would approve of a hypothetical President Hillary Clinton dismissing Comey from his position, Waters said, if she had won the White House, I believe that given what he did to her and what he tried to do, she should have fired him.
Yes.
What he did to her?
It's not...
He just did the wrong thing, according to all the prior attorneys general that we've quoted here, according to a pretty sophisticated case built up by Rosenstein.
He did the wrong thing.
Unprofessional, incompetent, against the Charter, against justice.
Permanently harmed the FBI. So, should be fired.
So what's the problem?
Problem is, she'd have fired him.
She'd have put someone else in who may not have pursued the Democrats as aggressively as whoever Trump's going to put in.
We all know what's going on.
It's not even that complicated.
Tennessee, Representative Steve Cohen on November 3rd, 2016.
I called on FBI Director James Comey to resign his position after his recent communication with members of Congress regarding the Bureau's review of emails, potentially related to Hillary Clinton's personal email server.
He should go, he said.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, December 10, 2016.
This is not fake news.
Intelligence officials are hiding connections to the Russian government.
There is no question.
Comey knew and deliberately kept this info a secret.
Read was then asked if Comey should resign.
Of course!
Yes!
Georgia Representative Hank Johnson on January 13, 2017.
My confidence in the FBI director's ability to lead this agency has been shaken, but not stirred.
Now, it's pretty funny.
You should watch this.
We'll put a link to it below.
Typically liberal studio audience of both The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and The View cheered wildly at the mention of Comey's firing.
And then they were lectured, no, no, no, it's bad that Comey was fired.
Bad think, wrong think.
We are always at war with East Asia.
We've always been at war with East Asia.
Change your narrative.
Change your response.
And they're like, okay.
Tragic.
Anyway, the wind blows.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on May 9th, 2017 said, I told the president, with all due respect, you're making a big mistake.
The first question that he has to answer is, why now?
We know.
The FBI has been looking into whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians.
Were these investigations hitting too close to home for the president?
First President Trump fired Sally Yates, then Preet Bharara.
Bharara, sorry.
Now, Comey.
Doesn't seem like an accident.
We must have a special prosecutor.
If we don't get a special prosecutor, every American will rightfully suspect that the decision to fire Comey was part of a cover-up.
Schumer, on May 10, 2017.
Was this really about something else?
No doubt we'll have an opportunity to question Mr.
Comey, now a private citizen, about what happened.
But we need to hear from this administration about what happened and why, and what is going to happen next.
I remind him, turning to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and my Republican friends, that nothing less is at stake than the American people's faith in our criminal justice system and the integrity of the executive branch of our government.
Chuck, that's the whole point.
Everyone, all the attorneys general quoted in Rosenstein's letter said that Comey's actions and decisions last summer permanently harmed the FBI and shook people's faith in the integrity of the justice.
So don't fire him because we want to protect the integrity of the...
Madness.
Schumer on November 2nd, 2016.
Regarding Comey, I do not have confidence in him any longer.
To restore my faith, I am going to have to sit down and talk to him and get an explanation for why he did this.
No more confidence!
Wait, he's been fired?
That's the worst thing ever!
Oh man, these people.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, quote, Today we'll no doubt hear calls for a new investigation, which could only serve to impede the current work being done.
Partisan calls should not delay the considerable work of Chairman Burr and Vice Chairman Warner.
too much is at stake.
It is clear what our Democratic colleagues thought of it, both at that time and consistently thereafter.
Last year, the current Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, said it appeared an appalling act, one that, he said, goes against the tradition of prosecutors at every level of government.
And the prior Democratic leader, when asked if James Comey should resign, given his conduct of the investigation, he replied, of course, of course, Yes!
Our Democratic colleagues complaining about the removal of an FBI director whom they themselves repeatedly and sharply criticized.
That removal being done by a man, Rod Rosenstein, whom they repeatedly and effusively praised.
Mr.
Rosenstein recommended Comey's removal for many of the very reasons that they consistently complained about.
Former Obama White House Communications Director Jens Psaki said, This should not be sugar-coated.
Firing Comey is up there in terms of the scariest things Trump has done.
Oh, look.
Feels.
Former Obama National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said, This is not normal.
This is not healthy for a democracy.
The fixed 10-year term for an FBI director exists to prevent this.
This justification several months into this administration is just completely and insultingly unbelievable.
Sounds, with my breathing hole, entirely devoid of arguments are why you should have my position.
I know, Democrats, I guess, maybe it's their work with unions, they just don't like it when people have the capacity to be fired.
Representative Debbie Washerman-Schultz, she's back, said the reasoning and timing behind this firing is absolutely preposterous and unbelievable.
It smacks of a Nixon-esque cover-up of President Trump's Kremlin ties.
Massachusetts Senator Edward J. Markey said, This episode is disturbingly reminiscent of the Saturday Night Massacre during the Watergate scandal and the national turmoil that it caused.
Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy said, The president has removed the sitting FBI director in the midst of one of the most critical national security investigations in the history of our country.
one that implicates senior officials in the Trump campaign administration.
This is nothing less than Nixonian.
Okay.
Newsflash, everyone.
Newsflash to all you guys.
If you remove the FBI director...
The investigation continues.
You understand?
When a new president comes in, doesn't have to re-vote on Social Security or Medicare.
Might not be the end of the world if they did, but continuation continues.
It's not like the investigation suddenly stops.
It wasn't all on Comey.
He wasn't just sitting there night and day learning Russian and talking to people.
I mean, the investigation is going to continue.
I mean, and if Hillary had fired Comey, would the investigations have continued?
What about all the investigations the FBI's doing into the Clinton Foundation?
If she'd fired Comey, would then have everyone said, well, she's firing Comey because he's investigated the Clinton Foundation, and that's a conflict of halala.
Oh, my God.
They just want to paralyze anything that you might do.
Don't move.
Don't move.
Don't change anything.
Michael Moore.
On November 6th, 2016 said, after this election is over, I say skip the show trial for Comey and just send him to Alcatraz.
He can feed the birds.
It's an old movie, right?
Birdman of Alcatraz.
Anyway, so Michael Moore said, basically Comey was so terrible, he should go to jail.
That's how bad he is.
Not just fire.
Shouldn't just be fired.
Should go to jail.
Michael Moore, May 9th, 2017.
Comey fired!
Dirty, corrupt things afoot!
The truth will all come out!
The unraveling continues!
Hold the election over!
Dirty!
Corrupt!
He should go to jail, but boy, if you fire him, that's just the...
Oh my God.
Keith Olbermann, who I'm genuinely concerned about, October 2016 said...
Regardless of the outcome, Comey must resign or be fired.
At best, he's the most tone-deaf government official since Scooter Libby.
Whether this was accident, stupidity, or electoral manipulation, Comey's credibility as leader of the FBI is spent.
Hashtag resign.
Very simple.
FBI Director Comey needs to clarify today that these are not emails from or withheld by Clinton or resign immediately.
He's the worst guy ever.
Keith Olbermann on November 6, 2016.
Our one bipartisan moment.
This man's position at the FBI is no longer tenable.
Hashtag fire Comey.
Keith Olbermann on May 9 and 10, 2017. - Yeah.
To hell with you, you mother effing traitor!
Things will never calm down again until you are removed from office.
Referring to Trump.
You mother effing traitor!
After Comey, if enough GOP aren't political whores and fully owned lickspitals, Trump will be impeached, impeached, impeached, impeached.
You see the picture of him with an American flag looking like he's living under a bridge?
I guess that Forrester would agree to not breed a lot of stability.
So, Comey's exit letter.
He wrote, I have long believed that a president can fire an FBI director for any reason, or no reason at all.
I'm not going to spend time on the decision or the way it was executed.
I hope you won't either.
It's done, and I will be fine, although I will miss you and the mission deeply.
Fun fact.
Actually, I'll just let you do it.
Look up James Comey's net worth.
Compare it to his salary.
Ponder.
He wanted to say, I have said to you before that in times of turbulence, the American people should see the FBI as a rock of competence, honesty and independence.
What makes leaving the FBI hard is the nature and quality of its people who together make it that rock for America.
It is very hard to leave a group of people who are committed only to doing the right thing.
My hope is that you will continue to live our values and the mission of protecting the American people and upholding the Constitution.
If you do that, you too will be sad when you leave and the American people will be safer.
Working with you has been one of the great joys of my life.
Thank you for that gift.
So, due to Comey's termination, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is currently serving as the Acting Director of the FBI. Now, once appointed by President Trump, the new FBI Director must be confirmed by the US Senate.
Acting Director McCabe is highly unlikely to be nominated as the new Director.
McCabe was appointed to deputy director by Comey on January 29, 2016, and headed up the Hillary Clinton private server slash email investigation.
As a brand new political candidate, McCabe's wife received up to $675,000 in political donations from a Democrat political action committee which was run by Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe.
McAuliffe is a long-time close associate of Bill and Hillary Clinton and one-time chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
The connection is so troubling.
Members of the Congressional Oversight Committee asked McCabe to supply documents detailing his wife's financial dealings with her campaign.
You know, just, if you're curious, just go trying to run for office and ask for $675,000 from a Democrat political action committee.
See how you do without connections.
You know, just as a little experiment.
Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Shafat said, It seems like an obscene amount of money for a losing race.
There are outstanding questions regarding a possible conflict of interest into this case.
Ah.
One of the many falsehoods being spread about this, the New York Times has reported that Comey had requested additional money for the investigation into Russian election meddling in a meeting with Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein several days before he was fired by President Trump.
You see, this is supposed to be an answer to the why now question.
Why, why today?
Why now?
Why not yesterday?
Why not tomorrow?
Why not today?
Ah, you see, he was requesting additional money for the Russia investigation.
That's why.
Domino's firing!
Nixonian!
Massacre!
Corruption!
The Department of Justice spokeswoman Iska Flores said, The story is totally false!
This was a personnel decision about serious concerns about Director Comey's leadership, not about an ongoing or future investigation.
Now...
When James Comey was nominated by President Barack Obama in 2013, he told the U.S. Senate that he would recuse himself on all cases which involved his former employers.
Seems reasonable.
You know the way that psychiatrists are supposed to disclose their connections to pharmaceutical companies and that sort of stuff?
Comey served as Deputy Attorney General during the Bush administration.
Upon leaving the position, Comey took a position as Vice President and General Counsel at Lockheed Martin.
Comey's Lockheed Martin tenure started in October 2005, with him serving in that capacity until June 2010 and earning him a reported $6 million in compensation within a single year.
Seems like quite a lot.
But, you know, I'm sure he knows a lot about planes, you know, like Trayvon Martin.
The same year that Comey took the position, Lockheed Martin became a Clinton Foundation donor and later a Clinton Global Initiative member in 2010.
Patrick Howley at Breitbart has said, Lockheed Martin is also a member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt, which paid Bill Clinton $250,000 to deliver a speech in 2010.
In 2010, Lockheed Martin won seven approvals for private contracts from the Hillary Clinton State Department.
Ah, the webs, the webs, the webs.
On January 20, 2013, HSBC Holdings announced that the former United States Deputy Attorney General was appointed as a director and board member.
HSBC Holdings has also routinely partnered with the Clinton Foundation.
James Comey's brother, Peter Comey, reportedly serves as Senior Director of Real Estate Operations for the Americas for DC law firm DLA Piper.
D.L.A. Piper performed the widely publicized independent audit of the Clinton Foundation in November 2015.
According to Open Secrets, D.L.A. Piper's employees, members, and or owners join with those from Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase& Co., Goldman Sachs, as one of the overall top 10 contributors to Hillary Clinton's political campaign.
You know, you can put all these sort of threads together and draw them all out, but then you look like some beautiful mind's obsessive stalker of some ex who travels all over the world, and you've got to have threads and photos of her everywhere she goes.
So, look, if they want to find out how the investigation was going or what's going on, they can call on Comey.
He's not vanished.
He's not moved to another dimension.
He's perfectly available to give information.
And again, the investigation doesn't end just because the FBI director has been terminated.
Investigations actually end when the Attorney General meets with Bill Clinton on the tarmac.
No, just kidding.
Totally, totally kidding.
And this special prosecutor stuff, first of all, if they believe the FBI is compromised, if they believe the FBI is partisan, then they need to deal with that.
Just saying, well, we want a special prosecutor.
Basically, the Dems are just saying, well, we want someone who's going to end up feeding into our pre-approved narratives.
Or they don't want the Russia investigation to end.
Because the Russia investigation has been going on forever and ever.
They found absolutely nothing.
If the investigation ends, they lose that excuse.
They kind of want it to keep going.
And that is a big challenge for the Dems, right?
They want this event because then they can just say, oh, it's the Russians, it's the Russians, and the investigation's ongoing and so on.
See, when there's an investigation, it proves wrongdoing, unless that investigation is into Hillary Clinton's mishandling of classified information, in which case it's totally bogus.
See how that works?
I think you do.
I think you do.
You can't make the case that Comey was doing some fantastic job.
I mean, or if you want to make that case as a reporter or whatever, whoever, you're going up against the judgment of people who actually know what they're talking about, like former attorneys general and so on.
I mean, you can't make the case that he was doing some great job.
Russian election interference has been investigated since the summer of 2016.
There's still no evidence of anything in particular.
How long is this supposed to take?
I mean...
It doesn't make any sense.
It's not competent.
They can put more, you know, they've had, I don't know how many dozens and dozens of FBI employees working on the Clinton thing, arguably, a possible foreign subversion of a U.S. electoral system and process, somewhat more important.
They can't find anything not reported on anything.
As Holder said, there are guidelines put in place to not interfere with an election, how you're supposed to behave.
If Comey violated all of those, forget Russian interference election.
Everybody's complaining on the Democrat side about Comey's interference with an election against the mandate of the FBI to appear or to be nonpartisan and to not do anything that's going to interfere with an election.
So if they're so concerned about interference in an election costing Hillary the election, they should want Comey strung up by his feet.
But it's not about any of that.
As we've said, it's not about any of that.
Now, if you're not that partisan that much on the left, well, you've got an FBI director who way overstepped his bounds and publicly said, we're not going to recommend prosecution of Hillary Clinton after making a case and giving her a public scolding about things which he shouldn't have done.
Comey has also not had much luck stemming the incredible tsunami of leaks that is coming out of intelligence agencies to the media.
Not great.
That should be something he should be able to tamp down on.
The whole job is keeping secrets.
The whole job is keeping things close to your chest.
And if he can't create or manage an agency that doesn't leak like a sieve, then he's not doing his job.
He also has repeatedly provided false testimony, which means that people just don't believe what he says.
And his whole job is credibility, right?
I mean, that's the whole thing.
Now, again, this is anonymous, sources take a bit of a grain of salt, but people think, oh, Comey did not even see his firing coming, and...
I don't know.
It seems to me you should kind of have your finger on the pulse of the nation and know what's kind of coming down the pipe.
And it kind of been a big shock, right?
I mean, if you remember back in the debates, Donald Trump said that he was considering appointing a special investigator to look into Hillary Clinton's emails, basically a vote of non-confidence in what Comey said.
He's basically saying, Comey got it wrong.
We really need a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton's mishandling of classified information, like this whole server in the bathroom thing.
So it can't be that much of a shock when the candidate is saying, this guy got it wrong.
We need to get someone in who's going to get it right about the most important investigation in recent U.S. history.
Can't be that.
When you keep making mistakes, oh, let's send a correction because I made mistakes when testifying.
Oh, we've got to correct this.
It can't be that much of a shock.
You really have to be deluded to not see any of this.
Coming.
Now, the one thing I could say that could have been handled better is, you know, Trump is an incredibly gifted persuader.
If Trump had sat down and ran the press conference, as he did once recently, which was a glorious thing to behold, if he'd sat down and run the press conference, he could have run through all of this stuff, maybe have all of the attorneys generals with him who could have explained all of their reasoning, get all of the stuff right out there, get ahead of this.
I think it would have been worth the time.
Although, you know, maybe it's just another way of showing how biased the mainstream media is.
It is fascinating.
You know, when I do this kind of work, it is really interesting to see the two worlds that people live in.
Like, I go to right-wing sources, and they say all of this.
And I go to left-wing sources, and it's like completely different planets.
There's not even any overlap.
They're not even talking about the same things.
It's like Rashomon when one person's on LSD. And this has a lot to do, I think, with this...
Upcoming conflict.
I mean, it's brewing and it's really erupting now between people who produce stuff and people who are dependent on that stuff, right?
So the government takes a lot of taxes from people who are making stuff and making money and producing stuff and gives it to a whole bunch of dependents.
And the number of dependents is growing and the number of people producing is going down, or at least was until Trump came in.
And there's these two sides of the same thing.
The people who are productive generally tend towards the right, tend towards republicanism in the U.S. And the people who are dependent tend towards the Democrats.
And there is a civil war that's going on that's shielded by the power of the state in reallocating these resources.
And so the only way to understand why there are these two different worlds is that there are two desperately oppositional motivations going on in politics, not just in America, but throughout the West, even in other places as well.
So the people who are making stuff want to keep their money.
And it's not like they won't be charitable and won't help things out, but they're sick and tired of being taxed up to the hilt and being controlled and regulated up to the hilt.
And sick and tired of people not working.
Tens and tens of millions of people in working age in America just not working.
Not working.
And so the people who are making stuff, sick and tired of supporting the people who aren't making stuff.
Now the people who aren't making stuff, the people who are dependent on the state, Want to keep taking from the people who are making stuff, right?
If you want to keep your stuff, it's like you and a mugger.
You want to keep your wallet, the mugger wants your wallet.
You have a conflict brewing.
And it's being played out, and you can see it all.
The Comey thing is a perfect example of this.
And so this conflict, when you really understand it, you've got a group that's making stuff, wants to keep their stuff.
You've got another group of stuff that's dependent on them that wants to take their stuff.
And the government is currently in the middle of this tug of war and is enabling it and Enhancing it as well.
And Trump was voted in by people who want to make stuff and keep their stuff.
And Hillary was supported by people who want to take other people's stuff through the power of the state.
So if you want to understand these two different worlds, these oppositional worlds, this civil war of ideas and resources that's going on in the West at the moment, you just have to remember that there are these two groups, the producers and the moochers.
And now Trump, of course, wants to move people from the dependent side into the productive side.
And some people will be able to make that transition, and happily so.
Unemployment is way down.
Unemployment, requests for unemployment insurance are down for the lowest level in forever.
So he says, look, we've got to move people from dependence to productivity.
And that's how we're going to grow our way out of things.
This is how we're going to try and find some way to address the national debt and unfunded liabilities and all this kind of stuff.
And some people are eager for that, and some people are really resisting that.
Now, the people who were eager for it, like in the Rust Belt, they wanted to get back to work.
But because so much manufacturing and coal and all that had been shut down...
By the hysterical watermelon environmentalists, you know, green on the outside, red on the inside, have been shut down by Obama and the EPA. So he went through Rust Belt and he said, listen, you guys can go from dependents to producers.
We're going to make that happen.
They want to get back to work.
Now, there are other people who don't want to get back to work who want to continue.
To leech off the body politic and they're gonna fight tooth and nail to keep the benefits flowing while other people are gonna fight tooth and nail to try and keep their stuff.
So this conflict you can see playing out in every single big eruption and it's showing up right here and once you understand this politics gets a whole lot easier to understand.
A little more distasteful to view, but a whole lot easier to understand.
Of course, it is my job and goal to help make these things as comprehensible as possible for you.
So thank you so much for watching and for listening.
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It's a lot of work.
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