Just thinking: What if Broidy was covering for Trump, the real father of the bunny's baby?
5
"While we may never be able to weigh the factors that contributed to Clinton’s defeat and Trump’s victory,...".
Blow, you must be kidding. Hillary lost because of Hillary! Arrogant, corrupt, compromised, lying and a defender of oligarchs.
3
We're all "flawed". I would rather have a flawed piece of fruit (Comey) to nourish me than have flawed car breaks (Trump) that my fail me- and kill me.
3
From reading most of the comments here, it seems they think Hillary got a bad deal from Comey with his later statement of reopening her case. He explained why, that he figured she'd win but didn't want to taint her presidency if he reopened after she won. BUT he never cared if he tainted Trump's presidency with this crazy Russian collusion witch hunt which has gone on for over a year. He was in the tank for Hillary and politicized the FBI with an Insurance Plan, which I am quite sure he and Obama orchestrated.
3
Thank you, Mr. Blow -- well said indeed. That our country should come to this...
1
Lame, scattershot column fails to persuade that Comey is at fault for Trump's election or for out-egoing the president.
It is worse than ridiculous to conclude that one person put Trump in office and kept Clinton out. Comey at least deserves to be allowed to defend his pre-election actions. Since most of us have not read the book, I'd like to do that and see what the man -- a man with a long history of honorable public service -- has to say.
1
Do liberals blame Comey for Hillary’s defeat to make themselves feel better? Look, Hillary lost the election because she lost Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Obama carried those states in 2008 and 2012. Hillary lost because she ran against Trump rather than FOR working-class Americans. She should have gotten behind the “Fight for $15.” And she should have visited WISCONSIN! If the Democrats want to regain power, they have to get back in touch with their Bruce Springsteen working-class voters. Seriously, I say this as man who voted for Hillary. The Dems have to stop making excuses and take a hard look at themselves instead.
15
I am as big as anti-trumper as there is but Comey is incompetent. Trump has that right. Comey's decision not to charge HRC for her unlawful handling of confidential material and, possibly, obstruction of justice or lying to investigators, was a woeful breach of his duty to enforce the law. Bill Clinton and Loretta Lynch were obvious targets of an investigation into conspiracy and obstruction. Why Comey did not investigate that is unfathomable, except as a political judgment intended to make sure the Democrat nominee for President wasn't indicted. That said, everything he says about Trump fits well into what we already know. Here's hoping Mueller has better judgment and a stronger sense of duty to enforce the law without fear and favor than Comey.
4
I am pleased to see that so many people agree with me. I would go further, however, mr t is a criminal and worse yet a traitor to his country of current residence. We would have found out sooner if t had left him in place but he did not want the house of cards to collapse so quickly. I can only hope when t is finally convicted of all charges they fine him for all his ill gotten gains, sentence him to life imprisonment in solitary on a very low calorie diet without any clothes or toilet and at 50F and no medical care. This is the least he deserves since I do not believe in capital punishment but torture would insufficient punishment. Some of his co-conspirators deserve no less but I do not think there are enough incarceration spaces for all of them.
5
This thread is proving one thing, the most accepted political philosophy in this country is still misogyny. She had to fight 30 years of lies and false accusations, she had to meet a much higher standard than her opponents, she had to deal with the fact that her opponent received $5 billion of free advertising during the campaign because he was good for ratings,she had to ward off trolls, Putin, voter suppression, voter manipulation, and, let's not forget, James Comey - the one on the mea culpa tour as he rakes in the millions - She beat the Independent, who decided Democratic money and voter rolls were really cool, by 4 million votes, she beat the man who is busy turning this county into a fetid dying sea of corruption and cronyism by 3 million votes - that's 7 million votes all total. Hillary Clinton did not run a bad campaign. And for the misogynists that's not good enough because she is a strong, intelligent woman who won the election - except for Comey and his false sense of fair play. Funny, that fair play didn't extend to exposing 45 to the same scrutiny. This thread is supposed to be about Comey and 45 and once again, it's much more fun to smear the woman who should be in the White House because misogyny is the philosophical choice of far too many insecure people.
26
Comey was damned if he did and damned if he didn't, regardless of the result of the election. What he did may have had some effect but the election was lost in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. As Obama said elections have consequences. The Republicans know this and would vote for a pig if you put Republican lipstick on it. Democrats have a tendency to not vote or vote for minor parties who have no chance of winning.
It's impossible to know how many Democrats didn't vote at all or voted for some other candidate but it's reasonable to think that it was enough to make the difference. For example, in all three states the Green party got more than enough votes, in some cases several times the number, to swing the result. Some of those were certainly Democrats and I hope they're enjoying seeing Trump destroy the EPA.
Forget the email controversy; it's all water under the bridge now. Vote for Democrats like your life depended on it in 2018 and 2020 (it just might).
5
I suspect that Mr. Blow wrote his piece before James Comey's ABC interview aired. In that interview, Comey explicated his thinking and statements about Hillary Clinton's server; I found it plausible, although not totally convincing. Give the man some credit for good intentions.
If Comey was, trying to save his hide, as Nate Silver (quoted approvingly by Mr. Blow) alleges, Comey was also trying to shield the FBI. Perhaps he identified himself too closely with the FBI — that, at least, can be responsibly discussed.
However, no actions Comey might or might not have taken would have prevented Trump and Republicans from making the FBI a partisan issue ("Deep State") in 2016.
There's plenty of evidence that Hillary Clinton and her minions blew the election through their shockingly deplorable characterizations of Middle Americans and by bull-headedly ignoring pleas for support from Democratic operatives in crucial counties that determined the electoral count. Comey, for all his flaws, is too convenient a scapegoat.
1
It’s clear that Comey was intimidated by the right wieners. They would’ve been mad at him he didn’t air Hillary‘s investigation.
He was tough enough.
Je suis d'accord avec vous, Trump est un psychopathe soutenu par la mafia russe NY, qui a acheté la moitié du monde pour être président, avec l'aide de ... Comey, que Burocrata connivence grandazo qui avant les élections en escremento fan de Hillary Clinton Je me souviens avoir dit « Je suis sur le point de vomir bord lors de la lecture secrétaire e.mail Clinton. Maintenant, ce résultat de covpbarde dans un perdonavidas dire dans sa brochure pro égotiste et devenir millionnaire, cyniquement « estiy pas sûr qu'il y obstrccion de la justice et de Trump connivence. Je pense qu'ils le sont pour quoi, et si Dieu le veut, Mueler les dépouillera tous les deux devant des citoyens ordinaires et nous affranchira de cette lèpre.
I am amazed that Clinton supporters continue to blame Comey but make no mention of the fact that if there hadn't been a secret email server, there would not have been an investigation or Comey's last-minute announcement.
Yes, the Clinton campaign made many mistakes some of which Mr. Blow has outlined. Others, like Bill's tarmac meeting with Loretta Lynch, the overthrow of Khadaffi, the assumption that she had the electoral vote in the bag with the resultant decision not to go into key electoral states, also came into play.
Clinton made bad decisions, Comey made bad decisions, and Trump made and continues to make catastrophic decisions in a larger sense but he made good decisions in electoral college terms. It is what it is.
But Mr. Blow, there is simply no comparison between Cmey and Trump. Trump's decisions may take down the country, Comey's arguably bad decision about the email announcement was just one, tiny factor in taking down a clunky candidate.
2
I do dislike Comey for how he manipulated the system, or was manipulated by it, for the last minute news conference in ref to Hillary's e-mail account that most likely did her in as a presidential candidate. But, I definitely DESPISE Trump. The question in my mind is whether Comey was manipulated/duped by someone many layers deep and removed from the Trump organization to make that last minute move. Doesn't seem like Comey's style to have done that. It's an honest, well intentioned law enforcer vs the Trump gang.
2
What's been overlooked in explaining Comey's behavior was the intense pressure coming from the right to indict Hillary and later his willingness to bow to the demands of GOP members of Congress to keep them apprised of any news regarding the private Email server investigation. Comey said at the time of his infamous letter that he had made a commitment to the Congress to notify members of any change in the status of his investigation. The FBI director does not work for Congress so why did he feel is necessary to make such a commitment? One can only conclude it was to placate the partisan GOP members who demanded that he keep them informed. And that was confirmed when he sent his letter to Congress allowing partisan Republican members to leak it to the press with political spin that the FBI was reopening the investigation.
It should be clear then that Comey disregarded DOJ rules in order to placate Hillary's political opponents in the GOP and the far right. Comey cannot admit, even to himself, that cowardice in the face of intense political pressure is what caused him to openly and harshly criticize someone he knew was innocent of wrongdoing and then to inform a partisan members of Congress of his discovery of Clinton's Emails on Weiner's laptop before anyone else knew.
He wants us to believe now that he was only trying to protect the FBI from political interference but his actions have made that much more likely by swinging the election to Trump.
9
I dislike the result of the election but respect Comey's rationale. He was in an impossible position and, had Clinton won with this information being withheld, the results might be worse. Comey is right: the country is responsible for him and we need to vote him out.
Why is nobody calling for Anthony Wiener's head? He's the actual culprit who put us in this situation, or his wife who, in all honesty probably shouldn't have been carrying that material around on her laptop. Or Loretta Lynch for her hapless interference. Or Hillary herself for her poor choices in personnel who should have warned her against using a private server. Or how about the DNC's IT department for their ineptitude this time around. Or the racism or the rampant fake news on Facebook. It wasn't any one thing that elected Trump. There is plenty of blame to go around, but it's chiefly on voters, not this one guy.
2
Despite some questionable judgment on Mr. Comey's part during the 2016 election cycle, there is no question that Mr. Trump is far worse. Mr. Comey served the country honorably for his entire career, while Mr. Trump serves no one but himself and maybe his family.
Comparing the two is close to comparing apples and oranges. They have little in common except that Comey got caught up in Trump's autocratic presidency. At least Comey had the gumption to stand up to Trump and the wisdom to make contemporaneous notes, something Trump didn't do and doesn't even understand.
3
One committed to openness and justice while the other should just be committed.
3
The liberals may dislike James Comey after the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails and informing Congress of this fact but it is slight compared to their hatred for President Trump. They feel Mr. Comey was responsible for her loss but they loathe Mr. Trump and feel he stole the election right from under her.
The truth was that Mrs. Clinton was flawed and people despised her and did not want her in the White House. She was a career politician who was looking out only for her self interests. She never visited their states or showed concern for their needs or wants.
She lost on her own and has herself to blame. The Trump critics will never admit her defeat. This is why all the negative press and hatred. It will never let up.
1
How insightful: a republican tells liberals how liberals feel.
8
Can you count? It's called 3 million votes. And that's with 45 getting 5 billion dollars in free press. She beat him by 3 million votes. And if you want to discuss careers - your hero is a 4 time bankrupt, a failed casino owner, a failed "university owner," a failed spouse, a failed truth teller and now to add to the list, a failed and illegitimate president. Trying to keep the facts honest is a full time job. Especially with one who allegedly is good for at least 5 whoopers a day, and I don't mean burgers.
7
Whom we like and dislike is irrelevant. Who is telling the truth is the only important thing in this discussion right now.
2
Hilary's closet-private-unsecure Email server problem was entirely of her own making. Her Emails, containing classified and unclassified materials, were spread out over her whole staff computers (and some 'husbands'). The electoral college is defined in the US Constitution, set in stone in the late 18th century, and she did not campaign in key Great Lakes states at her own peril.
It's a problem to find fault in both Comey and Trump, be it dislike or disdain, because a false equivalency is created. One man grappled with what to do to not appear biased; the other lies as a matter of course. One man made a serious attempt at acting with intergrity; the other thinks it is a joke or "for losers." One man appears to have a conscience, a sense of morality; the other is totally transactional. In Trump's mind we can be sure he thinks he is superior to Comey. If the 60,000,000+ who voted for him agree, then they are prejudiced about the facts.
4
Comey: Enemy or "Problematic Ally"? I'll go with the latter.
The bad decision was made by Mrs Clinton alone. She lost because people didn't like the fact that she acted illegally by using a private server and then lying about the sensitive information she shared on line.
Mr Comey did a good service to DT by disclosing that DT is not mentally ill and have an above average intelligence. This inspite of all the negative editorials in the NYT
1
Not much swamp draining happening... move on, nothing uplifting to see here.
1
Completely support this writer's contempt/hate assessment. Comey at least has added to the evaluations made by all those exiled from Trump's "inner" cartel. Trump is a lying, corrupt, hypocritical, totally inadquate (and worse) president and individual.
3
The democratic party needs to focus on a) a cogent message as to why they deserve to win the mid-terms (polls favoring their win are slipping) ; b) getting people registered to vote and to the polls in every precinct in this battered nation.. All else is superfluous: Comey as Charles points out is worthy of neither our admiration or our scorn. Even now it is a mystery as to where he stands in his unfortunate role in the 2016 election. Perhaps I have watched too many spy flicks, but Comey is not to be trusted. Best to ignore him. Best to keep a clear eye on trump, best to get out of his shadow and WIN.
1
Thank you for parsing out the causes of Hillary clinton's defeat. There are several contributing factors. It seems that if any one of them had been different, the outcome could have been changed. so, although Comey was not the only factor, it could have made the difference.
1
I don't think it is a fair assessment to blame Comey for singlehandedly causing Clinton to lose. I think his announcement on October 28 was the "straw that broke the camel's back" in her loss of votes in swing states. Ironically, it glued perception that Clinton would constantly be under investigation and attacks if she were elected. Strange, now, in retrospect.
1
I for one will NOT be purchasing his book. He contributed to getting DJT elected and should not benefit financially now.
6
How have I gone through life without ever encountering agita? (It isn't a new colloquialism for agitation.)
1
It’s first meaning is “heartburn, indigestion.”
As a Bernie supporter,I too could remain angry.The DNC undermined him, and anointed HRC.I voted for her.Mr. Blow it is well past the time that we all unite,Democrats,Independents and Republicans.Our country is in crisis,because a lout is sitting in the oval office.Mr. Comey is saying what needs to be said.He is one of the few from Washington that is willing to do so.Let's put our energies into getting out the vote this November.
3
Sanders is not and was not a Democrat. The DNC did not undermine him. Sanders only used the DNC as a cash cow. Sec Clinton beat him by 4 million votes - more than 3 times the population of his state. Please, be angry at the Electoral College, Comey and voter manipulation. But let's keep the facts straight. He lost. Primaries are run by states and it's time to realize Sanders was a spoiler, along with Jill Stein. I hope you appreciate that fact. As for asking people to "unite," that's a tall order when you begin your comment by trashing the DNC and Sec Clinton.
13
Looking from the other side of the Atlantic, it seems that wounds from the Clinton loss are still very much open and bleeding. And I cannot blame: I would not trust Trump running even the Moe's bar in the Simpsons, let alone the highest political office in the USA. He is mentally, morally and intellectually the least suitable person for the job.
But you should not forget that Donald did beat Hillary in a fair election. Yes, there was influence from uncle Vladimir, and yes, there was the "Comey factor". But in the end of the day, Hillary did mishandle e-mails, made some rookie mistakes during the campaign and just could not deliver. And if your own front-runner cannot beat a candidate like Trump, it is legitimate to ask whether you picked up the right horse in the first place. Liberals and progressives can always put blame on social media, Breitbart, rotten GOP or the electoral college. But searching scapegoats instead of doing some self-reflection is hardly a winning strategy, on the contrary.
Pointing fingers at persons of high integrity like Comey way over year after the election starts to sound more like whining of a looser. It may be legitimate, as Comey did a terrible mistake at a crucial moment. But as father-in-laws often say in a wedding ceremony, "You may be right, but sometimes it is better to be happy than right."
So my liberal American friends, please stop complaining about Comey and put yourselves together for the next fight! Take back the Congress!
6
I've been thinking about what Comey did to Clinton just at the end of the campaign. The only thing that makes sense to me is that he was acting on an unacknowledged misogyny. How else does it make sense that he released the letter because he assumed Clinton would win? Deep inside himself, he couldn't help taking a swipe at her.
4
Trump is using what he can to distract everyone once more. Because of Comey's book.
Russian interference, the work of Cambridge Analytics for the Trump campaign, the exploitation of social media and all of the rest were not responsible for Hilary's lack of election. She won the Majority vote. The Electoral College elected Trump. It has to go. We have had 2 illegitimate Presidents because of it.
Let us not be distracted by all of the other stuff regarding the outcome of the election.
Trump is only in the White House because of the Electoral College.
Let's get to work on getting rid of it.
2
Love the electoral college. Can't change it to suit yourself after you lose. Hillary used to love it too. Fair is fair, and he won fair and square. Hillary was just too crooked to win.
Given the fact that the polls shortly before the election showed Clinton´s chance of winning at over 80% it was indeed difficult to believe that she would lose. Perhaps many people just did not vote because the result deceptively seemed so obvious.
To this day I still do not believe that Trump won without using very devious tricks...most of them are still being analysed. And I am sure something will emerge to substantiat this.
But what frightens me most is the forgotten arguement that hacking of the voting machines had an influence.
I have read only a few articles on the subject, and fear that the problem has not been resolved for the elections in 2018 and 2020.
With the slim margin for the Republican win in only a small number of states this influence should not to be ignored in the future.
3
Your feelings of disdain for Trump and Comey, despicable for the former, dubious debris for the latter, seems to have gained wide concurrence for anybody willing to follow the news. Trump is so ego-driven, and so abusive, that he'll use any distraction to make us look for scapegoats and bypass his own incompetence and corruption. Trump is a detestable beast that will go on destructing this democracy for as long as we'll let him stay in the Oval Office. This is especially true when we look at the complicity of Pence and his party, apparently having undergone a soapy brainwash if not a lobotomy. Too bad Comey is debasing his statue by vulgar language to get even with Trump. It may be good to sell his book, supposedly a sensation now, but bad for the seriousness required to condemn 'criminal' Trump.
3
Sorry but Comey didn’t cost Hillary Clinton the election. There are a lot of factors behind Clinton’s loss including some self inflicted but I don’t see any one as the primary reason. It’s self serving for Clinton supporters to constantly point one way or another instead of holding her campaign responsible. That being said many of those factors remain problematic and deserving of attention including the Trump campaigns involvement with the Russians. Our republic is wounded by many challenges, Trump just keeps ripping the bandaid off because he profits from the bleeding.
1
I don't know if anyone has implied that he was the only or primary reason for her loss. But he was most certainly one of 4 or 5 reasons (2 of which were self-inflicted).
5
Cogent, concise, and completely on point. Thank you, again, Charles.
2
Through hubris or just miscalculation, Comey is a man who made a mistake that we are all paying for.
Trump is a danger to the entire world. Everyone's future depends upon impeaching him and indicting most of his family.
2
Give me a break. HRC's goose was cooked long before Comey decided to re-open the e-mail investigation. If you want to blame anyone, blame the DNC. Anyone notice that she ran against only one person during the primaries? The powers that be wanted her and her alone. The primaries were a sham setup to make you think you had a choice, when you really didn't. They didn't think for even one second, the only other alternative they were leaving us with. A Bully, Coward, and Thief. Unfortunately, just enough people preferred that to Hillary.
1
The primaries were conducted according to the DNC rules. There was no sham. Why do you dismiss all those who voted for Hillary? Hillary won the popular vote by a wide margin and the voting results in Michigan etc., that gave Trump the edge there are suspicious because of coordinated Cambridge Analytica and Russian targeting - the Mercers, founders of CA, have good relations with Russian oligarchs. It's the Electoral College that chose Trump.
6
Mr. Blow, you certainly collected my thoughts! I was trying to figure it all out. I knew I despised Trump, but Comey? He does seem like a man who has served his country well, but has made some incorrect decisions. (We all do that, but we don't all have the impact Comey has..) I'm not sure I buy his explanation that he thought Clinton would win. It's a toss-up.
The difference between the two, as I see it, is we have two men with large egos: one understands and at least attempts to control his egotistical impulses while the other either has no clue or is simply evil.
Perhaps Mr. Mueller will straighten me out on these things when he finishes up his absolutely necessary investigation.
Register and VOTE!!!
2
Despite Comey's judgement, it's pretty apparent that he is not a liar -Trump clearly is. Comey has a centered moral compass - Trump has none. Hopefully it's clear to all that Trump "is not morally fit to be President" and the Republican leaders in both houses need to step up!
3
James Comey - is making a lot of money! This is not a public service! Trump lies and enjoys his adjectives! Now Comey can buy an expensive apartment in Trump Tower --- it will be huge, the best, and greatest!
2
"He made reckless and harmful disclosures and proclamations about the Clinton investigation while not whispering a word about the concurrent investigation into the Trump campaign." Bingo, you hit the nail on the head about Comey Mr. Blow.
2
Actually if she had played by the rules and not used a private server none of this would have mattered. Take some responsibility for thyself hun. Clintons always thought they were entitled, just like Trump in some ways. Thank God for Obama. Play it straight and righteous and good things will happen.
1
The people equating Comey with Trump and attacking the former are showing extremely poor judgement. Comey is out of government and out of power. Most likely he will never have another government job. On the other hand, Trump is a threat to our democracy and worse. If Comey is potentially useful as a cudgel to diminish Trump, I say use the cudgel.
2
When people talk about choosing the lesser of two evils, THIS is what it means. Making that kind of comparison between Hillary and Trump was always total nonsense.
2
Comey’s actions, as I see it, reveal one thing clearly: He is loyal to his country, and a credit to his profession. If we scan entire FBI today, he would be remembered by his colleagues as a man of integrity and courage. At the same time, we need to realize that Jim Comey is also a citizen of the country with his own understanding and aspiration for the election process as it was unravelling. Using that understanding to calibrate his response toward the evolving Clinton’s email issue as a national challenge is normally a welcome move as it strengthens its otherwise fuzzy parameters enormously. Comey was bound by his own metric to honor the process without being seen siding with Clinton’s campaign. And sometimes it does not work as Comey found out quickly. But that is an operational risk one needs to face.
The President, on the other hand, is not loyal to the country, not loyal to any ethical standard except to his own ego. How could we compare the two individuals totally different from each other? What does the President stand for except himself?
4
Thanks Mr. Blow, very well said, my sentiments exactly, and ones I've been struggling to put into words (which you did beautifully). "Honorable service and flashes of horrendous judgment" is the perfect way to sum up his recent career. He was in over his head, perhaps not administratively, but certainly politically.
There's a mistaken belief among some that if you are against Trump you have to be for Comey, and if you're against Comey you have to support Trump (and one can't approve of some of the things Comey did and disapprove of others). I have disdain for both people, though like you, there's a great difference in the degree of that disdain from one to the other.
1
Comey's wife and daughters got it right in supporting Hillary. He botched the email revelation which to contributed to Trump electoral college win. The percentage of his win in three states was less than one percent. Every factor was relevant to the outcome. As regards Trump, his erratic behavior constitutes n danger to the nation.
6
Thanks for this Charles. Once again you have articulated exactly how I feel.
3
The illogic here is so rife, I had to search for something I might have missed in this raging narrative. Blame is being shoveled onto Comey, but oddly missing from the two originating causes: HRC's atrocious judgment in conducting state business on a private server, and Anthony Weiner's atrocious personal conduct leading to a separate FBI investigation that resulted in the discovery of more HRC emails on a laptop also used by Huma Abedin, HRC's close confidante. Broadcast how you would have handled these matters differently all you want, it doesn't change the fact that Comey was not an instigator here.
And quoting Nate Silver as a final authority? Seriously?
So, just days before the election Comey learns there is another batch of emails to be examined. Time is short, he has to make a decision. He looks at the landscape, concludes as most of the country did, as DJT himself expected, HRC would win. What to do?
If he remains silent, HRC wins, and something incriminating is later found on Weiner's laptop, the legitimacy of her victory is fatally compromised, as is the FBI's reputation for impartiality for the losing side.
If he speaks up, and HRC somehow loses, even though nothing new is found in the laptop emails, the FBI's reputation for impartiality is fatally compromised for the losing side.
What do we make of this?
OH! I know! Let's separate Comey from the FBI, from his obligation to preserve its integrity, and blame him personally! Yeah, that'll work!
3
What strikes me most when looking at James Comey is his obvious humanity. Here you have a man of obvious intelligence who also has a strong sense of justice and morality. And yes, as a human being he has made mistakes, but these were honest mistakes. Comey was not trying to hurt Hillary Clinton, and he wasn't trying to help the Republican party. What he was trying to do was protect the reputation of the FBI. The way he chose to do that was disastrous, but it was not corrupt. I was angry at Comey over the way he handled the HRC affair, but the more I listen to him the more I realize he was trying to do the right thing, and the more I see him as a human being, with flaws and warts like the rest of us. This is quite different from the plastic caricature of evil currently in the Whitehouse.
9
I am so sick and tired of this constant talk about these foreign countries and their problems.When we have so many major problems right here at home and it seems that no one in our congress nor government of elected officials knows how to solve them.We cannot police the entire world.Nor were we ever meant so to do.Bring our troops home ,stop giving our tax money to these foreign countries,put the unemployed to work rebuilding our infrastructure,createe jobs for the people here in our country.
Nannie, I agree we should focus on spending our tax money on infrastructure and creating jobs, and good education, health care and social safety net for all Americans. But, as older Europeans remember all too well, America was indispensable in defeating both Fascism and Soviet rule in Europe and building it up after WWII. This greatly increased global stability and democracy that benefited us all. Our tax money now does not go to foreign countries, but to the 1% who will not invest it in American jobs and infrastructure. As one of the well to do (although not the 1%) I benefit personally from the Trump tax cut as well, but I would have preferred for the government to invest it in all the things you and I mention on my behalf because a healthy, well educated and well-served citizenry makes life in a country worth living. The government has the means and power to do so most efficiently as many European democracies show with their health care systems.
Mr. Comey was a public servant put in an impossible position in the course of his job through no fault of his own. What he coulda shoulda woulda done is now being judged with hindsight. Captain Sullenberger, who risked landing a US Airways jet in the Hudson River in 2009 and thereby saved the lives of all of his passengers, had stellar judgment---with hindsight.
The media is exercising poor judgment in covering Mr. Comey’s situation by once again portraying of our current political mess as a football game, an exciting match between equally qualified teams. “Disliking” Mr. Comey and “despising” Mr. Trump suggests the two are comparable to some degree. They absolutely are not. One is a qualified, hardworking, US government employee guided by the same moral principles that guide most Americans; the other is Donald Trump. The media played at least as big a role in electing Donald Trump as Mr. Comey. Please keep speaking the truth, Mr. Comey, even as media continues with the “moral equivalency” nonsense.
7
Blow has got this one exactly right. Comey plays the standard game with impressive skill. Calm and articulate, he deals in partial truths, flights of moralism, expertly crafted equivocations and semi-coherent not-quite apologies, mixed with what appear to be bits lifted from the movies ('wine in a paper cup', from "Sideways").
Stood up against a neutral background, he'd be assailed as a liar who should be vigorously pressed for the actual truth. With the volcanic spew of the Trump team splashing around him, his Dudley Do-Right impression is momentarily plausible.
But we don't have to play along. Trump, with his usual thoughtless impetuosity, replaced him with the implacable Mueller, and by that act made Comey's absence far more toxic than his ambiguous presence.
Senator Tim Kaine who had supported Comey in the Senate, said it well on a TV program. Paraphrasing his comemnt: That Comey is a basically good public servant who has made a terrible blunder. Terrible blunders are not uncommon. That blunder or blunders of faulty judgement have cost such a terrible amount to the country.
This is proof positive that anybody who tangles with Trump or is in his orbit becomes diminished and has to sink to Trumps street fighting.
This is the first FBI Director who has been treated in this manner and the first who felt a need to speak up against a sitting president in this manner... and the common denominator is Trump.
2
Hate to be petty but Comey has aged a lot in one year. Must not be getting any sleep. It was clear to me in the shortened interview that his wife and daughters have a big influence on him rather than the rule of law. His wife must be Democrat and wanted the first woman president and he needed to do all that was necessary to please his wife. He once said at congress that all he really cares about is his family. Now we know why he did what he did. Behind every great man is a woman but that can work in negative ways too. He let personal feelings get in the way of doing his job lawfully.
The whole Trump presidency reminds me of how I taught my students to write a story or evaluate a novel or film. There is...
The beginning
The beginning of the middle
The middle
The beginning of the end
The end
I'm sure the readers here have a sense of where we are in this (B-rated) film. And now...Hannity! While he supports Trump on his radio show, he has Cohen representing him. Ay yi yi! The end.
3
Mr. Blow lists a number of factors that weighed against Ms. Clinton's run for President but leaves out a really big one. Bernie Sanders attacks on the Democratic party strongly contributed to many liberals refusing to vote for Clinton as a representative of the "old regime." He deliberately split the Democratic vote. Now he's talking about doing it again. Can we please stop giving this man a pass for the damage he's done?
7
I agree, completely. Bernie burned us all.
2
Mr. Blow, your like or dislike of Comey is entirely irrelevant. The only issue of any importance is whether the man is telling the truth when it comes to his interactions with Trump. Whatever your, or my, animus towards Comey may be, there is one thing I am absolutely sure of. He is telling the truth.
2
I believe Comey is a good man who tried to make the best decisions he could at the time. I think he was trying to avoid unforeseen consequences but had land mines in either direction. As for us, we are armchair quarterbacks who really can't put ourselves in his position. History turns on the smallest incidents sometimes, never mind the monumental decisions Comey had to make. He's a decent man with his own code of honor; the other guy, not so much.
4
Many folks are saying Comey made his decision to announce the re-opening of the Clinton email investigation to save his own hide. But isn't another, equally valid interpretation that he was protecting the Republic? To have a president elected, only to immediately put that person into the position of fighting criminal charges in court and claims of illegitimacy, would have created an immediate political morass that could not but have hurt the government in many ways. I hate what he did, but I do not deny he may have done it for the reasons he cites.
Of course, the fact that this is not entirely different than what has actually happened with Trump, who many believe if not a legitimate president, is a bit of an irony.
2
Whether you think the Oct email disclosure that Comey gave was a huge factor in Hillary's loss to Trump one must admit if Hillary had not followed the poor advice to hide both her State Dept and personal emails on a remote server manged by her people there would be nothing for Mr. Comey to look at or comment on. I get a little annoyed that Hillary doesn't take more responsibility for such a glaring error that generally would not be permitted to someone who worked in government. She set herself up.
9
Yes and I also heard that when she was in grammar school she used a number three pencil instead of the prescribed number one.
4
Perhaps you should charge that Colin Powell set her up. He had used private servers in his own conduct of the State Department, and advised Hillary that State Department portals are intermittently blocked by hackers, making it a necessary work-around.
4
Perhaps Mr Blow could do some investigative reporting and find out why Assad has not been investigated for war crimes and wanton massacre of his own citizend by using long-outlawed chemical warfare.
1
Well, as long as Comey is only, "a complicated character, a man of honorable service and flashes of horrendous judgment," I can only say: You're being pimped by bookends.
1
"Donald Trump and fired F.B.I. Director James Comey, neither of whom I hold in high esteem, both men with raging egos and questionable motives."
Mr. Blow, you're sounding like a Democrat who sat out the election because he really didn't like Hillary all that much.
Get it together, Mr. Blow. You're a political columnist, not a preacher. We're in a struggle for the soul of the country, and you're sitting there giving us reasons for why we should dislike someone who is not the purest of instruments for helping us in this cause.
Why don't you go back on Fox and Friends and share with them your misgivings about James Comey? They'll be delighted to have you back. Such a political naif.
Get over it Mr. Blow. Again, this is about the survival of our institutions to which Donald Trump, not James Comey, for all the personal failings you want to flyspeck him over, has taken a wrecking ball, while you're busy trying to assert your moral superiority over both men.
Sheesh!
7
Everybody knows that Trump only acts if it's to help himself. He's disgusting.
2
I was struck with how many times Comey could have stopped the president short with a "Sir, that is not appropriate. I'm letting you know and I will not play this game." He sounded like a woman who, having gotten herself into a compromised situation, can not tell a man to back off, take a hike, buster because she herself put herself there and then feels obligated. Stormy said as much about Trump. So more than once Comey could have stood up to Trump and said, "I will not dine with you alone" , "I will not have this conversation with you" and left the room.
Why will NO ONE STAND UP TO TRUMP? In the moment, when it's important! All those generals having to listen to his rants about his own problems, on and on, when they're needing to talk about Syria. Not one stood up and said, "I'm out of here, this is not acceptable". Cowards in my book. Absolute cowards. As are all the Republicans. Our leaders are cowards. The only person I trust right now is Bob Mueller. I don't even trust the electorate to stop Trump in November. We are a nation of cowards and idiots who are not living up to any of our ideals.
Comey is a Big Ego. Trump is a Bigger Ego. They both have damaged our country. But one is a LIAR and one is not and that's all I need to know.
(NY TIMES: I don't know why your links to my comments are not working properly but I am getting really tired of writing comments and then getting a blank space when I click on the link. Help!!
7
Even the hint of equivalency is disturbing. Makes for a weak editorial.
2
“Strong dislike” is more like it! Comey is as low as a snake. HRC was snake bitten by him.
3
"400 attacks on opposition-held areas between July 2012 to August 2016, killing and injuring civilians, including children"
Gee Charles...did not know Trump already was sitting in the WH at this time...thanks for the heads up!
1
The Op-Ed deals with two topics, so allow me to comment on the second:
The timing of the attack to deter Syria's future use of chemical weapons and cluster munitions does indeed stink, as did the entire Skripal nerve agent affair that has conveniently disappeared from the front pages after having served its transparent purpose of demonizing Russia.
By the way, in trying to rid the region of chemical weapons it's a pity the U.S. didn't correspondingly destroy Israel's storage of cluster munitions, uranium shells and White Phosphorous. Oh, I forgot, the U.S. delivered them.
1
"Stain" and "Stalin" are not that far apart.
1
Riddle; Why do Bulls go to the China shop?
Answer; Because the China never fights back.
Trump has made a career out of being the lone bully at the finishing school. He forces his way into polite society and then dares them to fight it out in the gutter with him. His inheritance allowed him to walk through doors that he should never have been allowed to knock on.
Comey is just another example of someone bound by rules and etiquette that Trump ignores. Trump thrives in institutions. They are bound by rules. Trump ignores rules. He is a cancer. He forces his way in, spreads, and then eats his way from the inside out. All of these hollow-eyed corpses we see now - Flynn, McMaster, Ryan, Spicer, Hicks, Manafort, Comey, .... All eaten up by the cancer that is Trump.
For his part, Trump doesn't see himself as a fly, laying maggot producing eggs everywhere he lands. Trump sees himself as a clever orange caterpillar, which will soon seal itself up in a Russian cocoon and emerge as a beautiful butterfly.
5
"Racism, xenophobia, misogyny and ethno- and religious hostility disguised as economic anxiety." Those sentiments about what helped lead to Clinton's defeat are brilliantly stated.
I share your feelings about about Comey. There is no way he could not have understood the enormity of the impact it would make so close to the election, with his public disclosure about the Clinton email server matter being looked into again. No matter that it was quickly found to yield no further damning evidence against Clinton. He had no way of knowing whether or not Clinton had clenched the election outcome. He tipped the balance of the perfect storm of Russian interference, coupled with inept campiagn strategies, along with those who either stayed home or voted for third party candidates in protest, which led to Clinton's defeat. However, in all fairness, the anachronistic Electoral College's role in the election outcome cannot be understated.
So now we have a "he said, she said" book tour. We have Comey's thoughts and impressions with no corroboration when Comey was alone with Trump. Trump's character needs no outside assassin. Trump himself reveals his ignorance, his pettiness, his vulgarity, and his unfitness for office every time he opens his mouth, or sends out yet another hapless "tweet" in the middle of the night.
4
Charles,it becomes quite obvious from Mr. Comey's interview last night that he did not want Hillary Clinton to win.Not because he's a life long Republican but because he thought just 11 days before the election that "If Ms. Clinton wins, I'll have lot more problems litigating a sitting president in the court right after her election."
So no wonder our ex-F.B.I. Director decided there and then that he'd let one of the most controversial human beings on earth called Donald Trump win the election to make his life much easier after the election.
Now we know why Mr. Comey preferred a total buffoon who might have instructed the Russian prostitutes to pee on each other on the same bed where president Obama and his wife slept a few months back in the same Moscow Hotel which Trump deliberately rented asking the hotel managers where our country's first Black president stayed.
This real "slime ball" called Trump and not Mr. Comey did all that because of his life long hatred for the Black and minority citizens of our country which goes back to the '70's when he was charged by the Nixon administration for refusing to rent his apartments to the Black renters in New York.
The irony is Mr. Comey gained all that information about Trump's slimy behaviors through the 'Steel Dossier' which he strongly believed but still decided to make Trump the president. Not Hillary because like many officers in the law enforcement and military establishment,he didn't want to serve under a woman president.
2
I’m a math person. Can I just say I hate the former/later construction. Why not be clear?
Why do writers like former/later so much? Just say it. Comey is a jerk. I dislike Comey
Trump is a dangerous authoritarian, I hate his guts.
See? So much clearer.
2
Thank you Mr Blow! For not being swayed by this apology book tour that Comey is on.
"Dislike Comey, despise Trump" and don't mention Hillary and the thousands of missing emails and phony politically inspired Russian-Trump charges. Sore loser, penny-a-word stuff.
2
Agree. Why was Comey in such a rush to get back on the stage. He may not be as bad as 45, but his motives deserve some questioning.
Despite Comey, Clinton still won by 3 million votes. I don't think anyone changed their opinion that late in the game. Clinton simply didn't look at how the Electoral College was adding up.
2
I don't automatically believe Obama praised Comey. So says Comey!
Mr. Blow counsels readers to hate (or despise) Mr. Trump, our 45th President. Is that the right advice for the moment? I think it is very bad advice likely to lead to further acrimony among we the people and failed opportunities to bridge the gaps that divide us. As the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wisely observed, "darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." Regarding others as being worthy only of contempt and not of understanding may make you feel superior, but it's bad medicine.
1
Ya know, the other person to blame for this is former President Obama. He hid information regarding Russian interference in the election. From my perspective the very weak leadership (and I am being generous by using that term) shown by Obama, Comey, and the rest of the spineless go-along-to get-ahead types lead directly to Trump.
Let's not overlook mcconnell's threat to President Obama that the Republicans would accuse the Democrats of influencing the election. Surely this is treason on mcconnell's part. He chose his party over America. Shame. Shame. Shame.
In the case of Comey, his animosity to Trump would appear to have been every bit as malignant as Trump perceived it to be.
In the case of Syria, Russia had guaranteed the whole world that Syria’s chemical weapons were under control—and that so-called red line must be enforced by someone.
1
It's been said that we get the President we deserve. What did I do to deserve Trump?
2
Terrifying.
Comedy and tragedy join hands as they skip together down the steep path toward our possible destruction. While we focus our ire on the personality disorder in the White House, hanging on his every Tweet, monumental acts of injustice are done all over the world, often in our name. The fact that Trump routinely gives with one hand while slapping with the other, illustrates the psychotic nature of his unstable presidency. We are ruled by his childish whims, more like some Shakespearean king than a man suited for the complexity of modern problems requiring creative solutions. We need a hero and a democracy to believe in.
2
I agree, Mr. Blow. Sometimes the enemy of my enemy is NOT my friend.
2
So Charles, what then was real the reason that Trump used military force in Syria in April 2017? Was there something that he was trying to distract from at that time as well? You speak of upwards of 200 chemical attacks, how many of those were during Obama's years? How exactly did that 'red line' work out? It seems you'd prefer inaction and endless talk over succinct military action. Suggesting the motivation for this strike is to distract is as weak as many of your other arguments in this piece. You're so incredibly biased that you don't even realize that what you're saying isn't even coherent. Luckily, so many people sing your praises in this comment section, but unfortunately they're as deluded as you are.
2
...Comey for me is a complicated character, a man of honorable service and flashes of horrendous judgment.', wrote Mr. Blow. That seems like an apt description of Comey, and reflects on his likely reasons for coming out with a book at this time. While not a fan of Comey's until now, his portrayal of Trump ratifies our feelings about the corrupt, dishonest, selfish, angry, abusive, unbalanced, braggart, racist and vulgar conman with the impossible, golden coiffe. America endlessly characterizing itself as the 'exception' stirred worldwide attention for getting to the bottom of the barrel with the election of Trump. Most of us Americans shudder with fear and shame for the disastrous trouble we are now in. Thank you, Mr. Comey, for shining the light!
2
Mr Blow has a good point about the poor judgement during the 2016 election. But, it goes further than Comey. Just maybe most of Washington DC is suffering from bad judgement in these partisan days. Just maybe the better part of our citizenship is suffering from an e. trumpola virus. This virus causes people to ignore the truth, tweet often, and be crazy when talking politics.
For instance, if I was infected, a bit unhinged and on Twitter, I might tweet that James Comey's deep state FBI was actually in cahoots with Putin to prevent Hillary from becoming president. Yes, e. trumpola crazy.
I’m always amused when people try to lessen their pain by saying, “history will not kind to him”.
Who cares what “history” will say. “History” - so far - has not been kind to Hitler or Stalin, but they still killed millions while they reigned.
Talking about history and its ultimate judgments is a sign that the speaker kmows that the present is scary, and out of their control.
Much damage can be done, and lives lost and ruined before “history” gets its chance to speak.
And since history is written by the victors, who knows what history’s ultimate judgement will be?
Better to remain clearly focused on the damage and threats happening now, in our time, and leave talk of history for historians.
2
"Dislike Comey, Despise Trump "
And trust neither. Ultimately, a person's actions tell me where I can place my trust. Sure, Comey is highly regarded, well respected, and he may even be loyal to truth. But how he chose to handle several of those truths is why, even as I shake my head at the dangerous clowns now in our White House, I can't honestly say I'd ever trust Comey as head of a unit such as the FBI.
Mr. Blow appears to be avoiding a reasoning error in the case of Trump and Comey only to make the same mistake in the case of Trump and Chemical Weapons.
I too despise Trump above Comey, but I despise the wonton use of Chemical and Biological weapons even more.
Does Charles Blow think the missile strikes appropriate, acceptable, or wise in and of themselves separate from his contempt for Trump? From this column, I have not the slightest idea. As he did with Comey and the Clinton investigation, Blow needs to separate Trump from the merits of specific action by speaking to the later.
What he has written is a dodge.
1
Charles you have this one wrong.However flawed Comey may be he is an angel compared to Trump. Trump’s flaws are flagrant.A liar. A user and abuser of women.Some one who mocks the disabled. A man who enriches himself at the expense of the little guy.And exploits the the presidency for self-enrichment.Do not compare Comey to Trump.
Chuck, next time get a stronger candidate. Hilary lost because she was flawed politician. Get over it dude.
2
Thank you for this article. I think Comey is a grandstander with a supersized ego who somehow thinks his behavior a week before the election in 2016 was justified because of his opinion that Hillary was going to win is just crazy.
I am angry at Comey, Obama, and Mitch McConnell who suppressed the bigger issue of Russian interference.
It angers me that the damage that will be done to this country because of Mr Trumps bogus election could perhaps been assuaged by better judgement.
1
Comey is a saint next to Trump. Comey is guilty of poor judgment, while Trump is just guilty.
If people despise Trump, it is because he is despicable. One reaps what one sows.
1
"It's wabbit season."
"It's duck season."
No matter who won the election, Comey had a target on his back as he was the "dubbit."
With the email investigation, had Hillary won, she had cause to fire Comey in her inaugural speech BUT she lost mainly because she only campaigned where she was most adored and fawned over.
Trump, as mob-like as he is, naturally appealed to the stereotype union worker and, I believe, won the backing of some of the major unions in typically Blue states.
Hillary won the popular vote but lost the electoral college. There are complaints a many about this.
Rhode Island has 2 Senators; proportionally NY, CA, TX, IL each ONLY have 2 YET in the House seats are apportioned by state population.
The Rs won't let go of Hillary's email garbage DESPITE winning the election, yelling BRAVO when Comey announced just before the election he was reopening the investigation. BUT when the Russia news came to the surface he became Republican enemy #1 simultaneously taking the knife out of the Democrats back.
Politics...
Wag the dog. We've all heard it before. Scandal? You have a scandal? No problem, start a war to create a distraction. We have come to expect the worst of the fake president. As for Comey and his play on "truth, lies and leadership," the aching truth is what you already called it Charles. Comey is inalterably implicated in giving us the current nightmare. Whether the former FBI man played a major or minor role is irrelevant. He played a role. In his interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, Comey wants to have it both ways. He says he didn't want to politicize the FBI, yet he says he figured Hillary would win and somehow it wouldn't matter. He contorts himself into a pretzel. I just bought the Comey book, and not because I like the man, but because I too despise trump and want to see how he and all of his aplogists will try to squirm out of this muddy brawl. Still can't help thinking about Bill Clinton and how he sees all this. I can imagine that familiar drawl of his while telling trump and Comey, "I feel your pain." I can also imagine Bill's private grin as he observes the whole spectacle. The man never seemed to take pleasure in anyone else's suffering but on this one, there must be a more merry whistle and lively spring in his step when he walks the dog up there in Chappaqua.
2
I got as far you slamming James for not telling about the Donald Investigation and stopped dead. If you would pay attention you would stop telling the Hillary story. Why he didn't was made very clear in "Russian Roulette." Hillary's email case came from a report from the General Inspectors at DOJ and DOS to Congress who sent it to the FBI who opened an inestigation. It was Already Public! Congress made it public! FBI policy is to not go public with an ongoing investigation. The conduct of HRC was being investigated and for what was already known...DRT himself was not, at that time, under investigation...the Russians and staff on the DRT campaign were under investigation by the FBI...it was a secret. OMG. When will HRC and her syncophants take responsibility for her mishandling of a variety of classified info? It was solely her fault and that she was being investigated, not James Comey's! It was Huma's fault the problem came back to haunt her, Comey didn't fail to turn over the email she stored on the same computer her husband used. One of the things that people don't like about her is her lack of clarity about herself. I still voted for her because the only thing she hadn't been called by the Republican's is "racist," which I felt McConnell and DRT clearly are. Now, McConnell had no policy he had to follow...he could have told about the Russia investigation and had been asked to and had said "No." so stop blaming Comey's one decision for her loss..it was her own fault.
The last thing we need is the FBI making moral judgments on the fitness of the president for office and letting that influence how its leaders do their job. Donald Trump was right to fire James Comey. He's a disgrace.
2
Comey continues to show the bad judgement and bad timing he first displayed by tilting the 2016 election and now coming out with his book before Mueller ends his investigation. But he is infinitely more honorable than the pathological liar in the Oval Office.
3
President Russia's WH is wagging the dog.
Comey has delivered pain to the American people differently from but equally damaging to the pain arrogant Ralph Nader gave and is still giving them, big time
1
Comey messed up, and I think he messed up from personality flaws, dislike of Clinton, and a desire to placate Republicans in Congress.
Trump is awful and can’t fake decency, interest in his job, or a desire to help Americans. We can’t go a day without being ashamed, disgusted or angry with him. And before some Trump supporter says, “not me!” I say, yes you too, and why you don’t admit it is your problem.
3
Charles, did you miss the tweet from our President (what has happened to this country?) that it’s “Mission Accomplished!” in Syria? Trump fixed everything in Syria with a one-night, missile and bombing campaign - you know, like he fixed everything last year with a one-night 59 cruise missile attack (strange how that works - fixed everything last year that needed to be fixed again last Friday???), he’s not weak like Obama, he’s a man of action.
Now, back in the real world, Assad has continuously used chemical weapons on his own people - before and after Obama’s red line and subsequent agreement with Putin to stop Assad from using chemical weapons, before and after 59 cruise missile display last year that Trump takes red lines more seriously than Obama - a distraction, sham and Trumps usual con game, and now before and after Trump’s latest “Mission Accomplished!” wag the dog stunt, just another Trump con game. And Assad has killed far more - hundreds of thousands of innocents with non-chemical weapons and torture and just sheer brutality and evil - with support from Russia, Iran and Hezbollah.
The real mission that Trump was trying to accomplish was distraction from the noose that is tightening around Cohen’s and Trump’s necks. Sadly, for the 40% of Americans who support Trump no matter how racist, sexist, sexual predator, mob boss, pathological liar, incompetent, immoral, con man Trump is, it may have been Mission Accomplished! (Though there were some cracks even on Fox News).
2
Have we become so numbed by the travesties of Donald Trump that we hold others to higher standards approaching perfection and lose sight of a broader perspective. Yes, Comey has made some judgmental errors, but who among us including Mr. Blowhave never made such errors. Look at the broader context, Comey had a stellar career with the FBI, he was a devoted official his many promotions. The FBI was his life. Then he was summarily fired by Trump with cause that was dubious at best. If that was not enough, Trump called him names including calling him a nutcake to Russians the very next day. How would you feel if you held high standards and then was fired by a man who has a reputation of lying who then called you a liar?? No, everything Comey puts down in his book is a justified retort. I see no such pettiness in his remarks especially when you consider the monster he has had to deal with.
1
Comey wanted to make sure that if Hillary was elected that the email debacle would be put to rest as "voters know everything and still elected her". Similar to Trump and the airing of the Access Hollywood video, his playboy lifestyle, immigrant second wife, and Jewish son-in-law.
Am I angry at James Coney? Yes. Do I think he was one of the factors in Clinton’s Electoral College loss? Yes. Do I see Comey as a liar, cheat, womanizer, sexual assaulter and pathological liar? No. He made a grave mistake but on balance he seems to be an upstanding man. Trump, on the other hand, should never have been elected president. Whatever tools we have to remove him, impeachment, brokered resignation or ballot box, we should avail ourselves of whatever means we have, to rid ourselves of the most despicable , dishonorable and , unqualified man In our history, to ever hold the highest office in the country. The sooner, the better.
2
Trump has no need to "wag the dog" with a missile strike on Syria. He is administration is all tail and no dog.
1
You are 100 percent correct in your assessment.
1
Full disclosure: I'm a life long liberal democrat who voted for Bill Clinton.
Dislike Comey, Despise Trump, Loathe Hillary. Hillary lost because she's Hillary. Period. End of Story.
1
Unlike Mr. Blow I rise to applaud James Comey. Not because he is giving Trump agita. But because he is an obviously upright principled man who has held extremely important government jobs requiring exquisite judgement as well as principled hard work. I rise to applaud him because it is important for someone of that caliber to speak out loudly and publicly about what the President is trying to do with the country and its institutions and its morals. It is important because we may become habituated to such unethical and unconstitutional behavior in other presidents or other elected officials. An attack on the press and the institutions enshrined in the Constitution must be called out and not just by pundits but by high officials, both those elected and those in government service not elected. Looking backward at history one can only say about Hitler's rise and consolidation of power that if someone could only have opened the eyes of the powerful in Germany at that time to what was happening, the world would have been spared millions of deaths and near destruction of western civilization. So, Comey is not perfect and on occasion has thought too much about his own reputation in history and cannot bring himself to admit that. I do not demand that the people I applaud be perfect. I am not either. Nor is Charles Blow.
1
Charles, you nailed it.
1
Hillary lost because of who she is. Arrogant, power hungry, hypocrite ,and liar. Had she won, our country would be in even worse chaos than it is now, where the emails, pay to play indiscretions with foreign powers, Clinton foundation, etc would be unrelenting front page news from day one. She would be the second president who would have been impeached...and first to be criminally charged. Comey helped her lose with his incredulous exonerated speech... condemning her actions then proving to millions of Americans....yes, there are some who are above the law! Thanks, Comey. I wish you and Hillary would just disappear from the spotlight...like Bill!
2
It's interesting to me that I was motivated to watch Stormy Daniels' tell her story and give her point of view on Trump, but I don't care about watching Comey's explanation. Somehow, out of these three the porn actress comes across as refreshingly honest and worth supporting while Trump is (of course) despicable, and Comey continues to show that he's fixated on his personal situation to the exclusion of America's very real peril.
Comey is getting all the approbation professional white men get in the typical claptrap recasting of their ugliest deeds as pure-of-heart. After all the time the FBI had already spend on investigating the email server issue (a non-issue pretext to begin with), he certainly knew there was nothing there, not to mention knew that it was a complete violation of protocol to announce further investigation, as he did.
He deserves everything he getting from Trump, who he significantly and, yes, deliberately contributed to putting in office.
1
I still muse over what would happen if the government of this country were decided by this method...all parties run candidates. After the election the one with the most votes is president, second is vice president, third is speaker of the house. All voters would be represented this way & no one party had majority power. Just daydreaming on my part. This country just was not ready for a woman president & certainly not another Clinton. Trump played to the white males of this country who could not stomach an educated woman running their country. Comey is just stinging from his firing but Trump is projecting his self as lying slimeball onto Comey & everyone who challenges him. as Trump says SAD!
Despite all the "but for's" offered by Mr. Blow and responding readers to explain HRC's election defeat, no one, at least as far as I have read, has mentioned the tarmac meeting between Bill Clinton and Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
Just as "hard cases make bad law," so difficult circumstances may make for bad administrative decisions. Agree or disagree with Comey's decisions during the election campaign, the tarmac meeting made the circumstances he was operating in vastly more difficult; had that meeting never taken place, he would presumably have left announcements about the email investigation to the attorney general. As it was, Comey was, arguably, faced with dilemmas, however wrongly he resolved them; Bill Clinton and Loretta Lynch each made a spectacular error in judgment regarding what should have been a no-brainer.
I'm disappointed in your column today, Mr. Blow. The Comey interview aptly invalidates your animus toward Comey. A man who, like Comey, worries about his own ego is not a man, like Trump, with an ego raging.
Also, readers who might be interested in your view of the Syria crisis, but not your excessive animus toward Comey might miss that you're combining two columns into one.
I'm interested in well-deliberated opinion. So, I don't forgive you for decreasing my respect for your insightfulness. Sorry.
Racism?
I thought we were talking about Comey and Trump.
Mr Blow, how about spreading some of your disdain to the 46% of eligible voters who never bothered to show up? While Clinton was not the ideal candidate to lead the Democratic Party to victory, we're talking about Trump here. Trump, for goodness sake! And the Supreme Court at stake as well. According to best estimates, 8 million fewer democratic voters than voted in 2012 failed to understand the consequences of their inaction in 2016. Comey is a mere footnote to the election result.
How is it that in listing factors contributing to Mrs. Clinton's defeat, no mention was made of Anthony Weiner? It was Weiner's bizarre sexual misbehavior that led the FBI to reopen the Clinton investigation, because of stuff found on his laptop. Weiner has caused so much trouble and behaved so badly that no legitimate opportunity to condemn him ought to be missed.
2
Without the tools or temperament to lead, you can't bind supporters (here or abroad); and even if a plan is not foul (but they are), it is D.O.A. The Republican voters' hubris to believe in a lime light-loving, over-leveraged, lawsuit-prone, morality-impaired Reality President HAS BEEN THE PROBLEM from day uno. That day he sold (and is still selling) - "Mexican rapists".
Check your citizen portfolio, Trump supporters. Time to diversify into some common sense stock; you are overweight in "Mexican rapists". PIERCE the bubble of excessive hyperbole from this junk bond salesman, and reveal the EPIC "nothingness" of real investments in our future.
Or don't, but don't expect us to buy the Trump bunk. It's worthless. Trump is pure "smoke and mirrors".
Rally, rally: About that wall,
Who's the fairest one of all?
Keep lapping that up, or don't.
1
If only:
If only Secretary of State Clinton had used the email provided her at state.gov instead of setting up an email server in her home.
If only SOS Clinton had immediately turned over the FBI subpoenaed email server instead of having computer specialist wipe the disk so clean an FBI forensic expert could not retrieve the deleted emails.
If only Attorney General Lynch had told Bill Clinton he was not welcome on her plane when his wife was under investigation.
If only Anthony Weiner had not been sexting a 15-year old girl and was thus under FBI investigation.
If only State Dept emails were not found on Weiner's laptop.
If only AG Lynch did not have to recuse herself from the investigation because Bill Clinton visited her on her plane so that she could not tell Comey not write the letter.
If only we had a Secretary of State that had used the email address given to her by the government instead of setting up an email server in her home.
If only we could blame President Trump for all of these actions by SOS Clinton, her staff, AG Lynch, Bill Clinton, and last but not least Anthony Weiner.
If only...
I voted for Hillary, but there were many missteps by her, her campaign, Bill and Obama that lead to his missteps. Reminder that Hillary chosen use a private server. The DNC was slow to respond to the warnings from the FBI its server was hacked. Bill stupidly went on Lynch’s plane. The DNC cleared the field for a candidate under FBI investigation. Obama’s handling of Russian interference was weak.
Comey made mistakes while serving his county. Trump is an evil criminal occupying the White House.
There simply is no contest and this false equivalency is just as sloppy as the false equivalency we put up with during the campaign from journalists.
When Comey announced he was effectively re-examining the issue of Hillary's emails I assumed it was a political stunt. Turns out I was correct.
But I do not really concerned about Comey's shabby foray into election politics. I blame the idiot voters who were so weak minded and malleable that they could be bamboozled into voting for a failed casino huckster.
62 million sub-optimal Americans are the problem. And what are we going to do about them? There is the dilemma.
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We are witnessing history in the making!
Just imagine it. Decades from now, children will learn about great moments like this: when the President of the United States 'tweeted' that the former head of the FBI is 'a slimeball' and cavalierly suggested he would throw the man in jail. Such eloquence! Such principled leadership! Such reverence for our Constitution!
And then, they will learn the reason for the President's ire: the former director failed to demonstrate his 'loyalty' by declining to embark on an investigation to prove to the world that said President had not paid Russian prostitutes to urinate on one another for his entertainment - despite rather credible intelligence reports that did in fact occur.
That'll get the kids' attention in 7th grade Social Studies, won't it? And won't they be filled with pride for our great national heritage!
Trump was and still is a lying bigot birther. The nearly 63 million Americans who voted for him knew this, and they voted for him ANYWAY.
Too many progressives voted for Jill Stein. This is why we have the most shameful president in the history of the nation.
James Comey is a good ma who was caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. There were no good options.
Give control of Congress to the Democrats in November. Send Trump home in 2020.
Bill Buchner was a fine baseball player. The ground ball that skipped through his legs unfairly rewrote his legacy. If Boston had won we would not be discussing Buchner. That says a lot about how we approach him as a player ...and Comey.
With imperfect knowledge of Comey's motives 'disliking' him may be too harsh an indictment. If he knowingly chose to affect the election and ignore what he believed to be proper then, yes, he is a bankrupt bureaucrat worthy of 'dislike' and even 'despicable'. But if this was a one-off act of hubris + expectation that the election outcome would not be affected + poor professional judgement it does not negate decades of upright, principled and noteworthy service.
Despise Comey's decisions. Despise the consequences. Understand his motives. Judge this singular event. But let's not discard his decades of principled service. Beware ethical false equivalences framed by singular events and their consequences.
Trump, on the other hand, is truly despicable.
We may not like how he got there, but it was by a democratic process. No one forced anyone to to make their decision to vote the way they did. In the end every voter needs to look in the mirror and take responsibility for their own judgement.
Trump showed and told us who he was: Huckster, bully, misogynist, racist, dishonest, cheater.
Anyone swayed at the last minute by Comey either didn't pay attention or didn't adequately respect their responsibility to vote for the best of the country. No matter which way they voted.
I trust Comey made his best judgements as a single human being.
Donald Trump? The emperor had no clothes and he was voted into office anyways.
Thank you Charles. Trump is a despicable man who has earned our contempt. The nightmare that is Trump can not end soon enough.
While Democrats still whine about Comey's late Oct disclosure of finding classified emails on Anthony Wiener's laptop as the reason Ms. Clinton lost the election, Republican's blame Comey (1) for changing the FBI's report that categorized Ms. Clinton's entire email operation as criminally negligent and (2) failing to investigate the obvious implication of the Attorney General's (his boss) runway meeting with Ms. Clinton's husband!
We now have Trump, a feckless, hateful, cowardly and deeply insecure president who is compromised. Not possibly. HE IS COMPROMISED.
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Despising Trump and disliking Comey makes perfect sense to me. That Trump is entirely despicable goes without saying, but Comey's self-righteous and superior act certainly increases my dislike.
Someone else is also not whispering about election factors, not whispering a word about Obama's allowing Clinton to purchase the the bankrupt DNC that Mr. O bankrupted, presenting Clinton to the electorate as the Democrat's best choice (blood brother Biden be darned), tethering her to his other out-of-political wedlock blood brother -Tim 'Who?'Cain, and leaking damaging email server story to media....culpability buck never stops only sways to silent deniability music where Obama seems to be concerned.
Charles M. Blow writes of the factors in Clinton's loss: "Racism, xenophobia, misogyny and ethno- and religious hostility disguised as economic anxiety."
What of those who had voted for Obama, then switched parties to vote for Trump? Are they racists, xenophobes, etc.?
For me, James Comey is in the same political class as all those Bernie Bros who undercut Clinton at critical moments because she wasn't pure enough to match their ideological prerequisites. I hope they're all happy in their purity with the complete perversion and dismantlement of our government by Trump and his oligarchic, corporate, racist, misogynist, and homophobic GOP lackeys.
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There are four reasons why HRC lost:
1. Russia
2. Comey
3. NYT
4. Bernie Sanders/ Jill Stein
there’s more than enough blame to spread around and also taking responsibility for the Trump catastrophic “presidency”.
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Well put.
Not good enough. In your position, you have to take sides. Comey is an ego, Trump is a monster. Do your job.
I have come across several articles, at least two in NYT, that characterize both Trump and Comey having outsized egos.
It is dangerous false-equivalence. Mr. Blow and his journalist colleagues will be better served if they consider entire life span and careers of both Trump and Comey before drawing conclusion on their egos.
Trump's ego has weak foundation and absolutely no morality to it by any measure of humanity or decency. Comey's ego is based on morality of truth, law-&-order, and justice. Yes, Comey could have been over confident, cocky and self-righteous. However, as a director of FBI, he was in cross-hairs of both parties and powerful lobbyists and wealthy donors.
By no means Comey's ego compares with that of Trump's.
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I heartily agree. And while we're at it, let's consider the "outsize ego" of the pundits (e.g. Mr. Blow), who are still so puffed-up with indignation over Clinton's defeat and who refuse to acknowledge that she, not Comey or anyone else, must be blamed for it.
Didn't like Comey from the time he first set his feet on the anti-Hillary path. Never thought djt was anything more than a criminally-inclined huckster who tarnished the reputation of anyone involved in New York real estate.
No, Comey didn't just break bad immediately before the election. That is historical revisionism.
We may not know why Comey was that way. Too much under the sway of the pro-Giuliani NYC FBI faction? Too deferential to them?
Whatever. Charles Blow, you have the right of it on how you rank them. I suspect I would rank Comey a bit lower than you do. Not sure it is possible to rank djt lower than you do ...
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While a bit blunt, we'll forgive Mr. Blow and ourselves seeing the Republican world in dark tones of grey.
Comey does not appear to be enjoying his Trumpian reward to pitching the election his way.
I have to agree with your take on Comey v. Trump. Mr. Comey has ample reason to regret his comments on Ms. Clinton and the election of the most shameless and incompetent president in American history. Penance is due.
I feel the same way. His treatment of Hillary 10 days before the election. His excuse of holier than though that it was right to do it. PLease
Say what you will about Comey, but I remember him as the guy who stood up to Alberto Gonzales and Andrew Card when they tried to get a hospitalized and nearly incapacitated John Ashcroft to reauthorize the illegal domestic surveillance act in 2004.
Not a word about Loretta Lynch's actions which surely influenced Comey's actions? It was her actions - ordering Comey to call the Clinton investigation a 'matter' and then having a clandestine meeting with Bill Clinton out on the tarmac that caused her to have to recuse herself from the Clinton investigation, which left Comey to have to deal with all of it. Why are her actions always omitted in pieces like this??
On our planet, Earth, right now, hundreds of thousands of our fellow human beings are being killed by bullets, bombs or chemical weapons or have left their homes trying to escape the war in Syria. We have a humanitarian crisis, and all the US can do is debate Comey vs. trump. We are being absorbed into trump's world order, whether we know it or not.
Of course to trump, the Syrian refugees are not worth allowing into the US. He finds a reason to bomb, but won't work to solve the real problems in Syria, while we are all caught up in the daily drama of trump and idiotic, childlike bully tweets coming out of the Oval Office.
Question: which Shakespeare play are we now wittnessing in real life?
A discussion of your contempt for the two men blurs the critical nature of the crisis the country has with one of them.
Very good points, Mr. Blow, and I agree. But being the shallow person that I am, my eyes are drawn to the two photos of these two different men. One looks normal, like a law professor or an FBI agent, with a resolute mouth, his own hair, an intelligent brow...the other looks abnormal, with a pouty girl-mouth, odd dead eyes, Mussolini jaw, and the hair...And in the back of my mind, I hear an ugly guttural voice, a voice that makes me run for the mute button whenever I hear it, and it's saying, "Look at that face! Would anybody vote for that face?"
Mr Comey is a good, upright person who has made his share of errors of judgment. Mr Trump, on the other hand, is a compulsive, chronic liar, a totally characterless person who lies and cons just as he breathes, eats and drinks. How can anyone deal with a man like that?
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The President publicly defames the character of a man he was too cowardly to fire in a professional manner. Let's him see his dismissal on TV in another City where he is working with FBI agents....Simply demeaning behavior from someone who is supposed to lead-not run "fake" pity parties 24/7.
I am no fan of Comey and his behavior before the election.But, a man's reputation and good name being trashed by another man who has absolutely no clue of how to behave like a LEADER, is not something the men I know would walk away from silently.
Trump deserved what he got from Comey...He can dish out his insults behind the safety of gates and guards and is surprised when any person refuses to rollover in submission?? Your good name is YOUR PROPERTY TO DEFEND. Comey just decided that letting the "safety" of Presidential security by allowing this jerk to bear false witness of him was not going to stand as truth. Good men do not let bad men smear them. Regardless of where they live.....
Someone might want to work on teaching this President what good manners and professional behavior means. This is the United States of America. It belongs to all of us and is not supposed to be run like some privately held Kingdom. Like Comey, I won't bow to this King.
Mr. Blow,
You're not alone in your suspicions as to the timing of this Syrian attack. Trump, however, made a miscalculation in not making a full-throated, "send in the Marines" invasion, What he did was weak, transparent, and left Putin and Assad laughing hysterically at this Mr. Bumble of a president. He might as well have sent those two bullies an engraved notice of his intentions.
Ttrump's hoped for diversion from his political problems was not in the least achieved. In fact, he added to them by acting unilaterally.
Worse, though, is the possibility of Trump upping the ante as the tea kettle that is the White House, begins to boil over. ( Sorry about the mixed metaphors).
The issue of the Syrian war is complicated by a number of factors. First, note that there is little credibility when the US and Britain claim moral outrage over the use of chemical weapons. As any Iranian can tell you, the US and the UK provided Saddam with the materials to make chemical weapons; the US provided Saddam with the intelligence to use those weapons against Iranians, killing thousands. The US and its Western allies are highly selective in their outrage. (Note that at the same time 40 Syrians were murdered by their government, Israel is casually gunning down hundreds of Palestinians, killing at least 20 so far. Nikki Haley is remarkably silent on that). Did Trump use Syria as a distraction? Probably. If so,however, he miscalculated. The Trump show just goes on and on, sucking the air out of the room. The one good thing about it is that Trump has difficulty moving the focus away from his misdeeds, no matter how many missiles he launches and lives he destroys.
Comey may be something of a moralizing prig, but Trump is a monster. Comey may have exercised poor judgment, but Trump has none at all.
No contest choosing between them.
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yep, agree 100%
For Blow to say that HRC lost because of racism, nativism, or xenophobia is absurd if you look at the facts. Obama won two commanding victories with absolute majorities in 2008 & 2012. How then was her defeat, the defeat of one of the whitest people in America, the result of racism, nativism or anything else except her own failure as a candidate? HRC had the entire Democratic, Republican, media, business, tech, & global establishment on her side. She had had the most formidable political machine of the past 30 years. She raised more money than any other Democratic candidate for POTUS, over 900 million dollars. She out spent Trump 3-1. She had substantially more troops on the ground. She had President Obama at the height of his popularity not only anoint her as his successor but campaign by her side. She had her husband as well as Michelle Obama pleading her case. She won all three debates. Her opponent put his foot in his mouth every time he walked out the door. She had every conceivable advantage, more advantages than anyone who has ever run or probably ever will run for President. Yet she still lost...to a former reality who never held office. Perhaps she didn't win because she one of the most divisive candidates to ever run for POTUS. This is something her supporters...but especially Blow simply can't admit. There are limits to self delusion. Face it HRC ran one of the poorest, most tone deaf campaigns of all time. That's why she lost the election. She has no excuses.
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The next headline I would like to read: "Comey To Donate All Book Proceeds To Charity".
I hear you, but you obviously are not a proponent of that old saw "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
That said, I think the differences between the Clinton and Trump investigations from Comey's standpoint is that the Clinton investigation was going to leak, and Comey felt he needed to be out in front of it to protect the FBI's institutional reputation.
Now, he's never admitted this, perhaps because it sounds less self-righteous than the reasons he has given, but there is reporting on it.
I think that what that reflects is how polarized our politics has become. People on the right loathed Hilary, and wanted to destroy her, much as people on the left now despise Trump and want to see him destroyed, and will go to any lengths to do so.
I voted for Hilary, but held my nose while doing so, and then only because the alternative was far worse, how much worse I couldn't have imagined.
Give it up. Hillary was an unappealing candidate who ran a pathetic campaign. Hillary Clinton, more than anyone or anything else, bears responsibility for Donald Trump.
I can't argue with that. The Democrats ruined their chances by running a crooked primary. Sanders would've totally thrashed any republican candidate, including the criminal that currently occupies the Oval Office. Still, Clinton gained 3 million more votes than trumpie, so she wasn't THAT unappealing. I wonder how many votes trumpie will lose by in 2020?
Comey violated the guidelines of the FBI in announcing the reopening of an investigation into HC’s emails 10days before an election because HE DECIDED THAT IT WAS NECESSARY! He own sense of righteousness is not cause for applause. He has single-handedly done the thing which put into power an authoritarian President with a sycophantic Congress, both of which are destroying the nature of our democracy and government. Disgusting.
Comey held a press conference that was not his job to do, solely so that he could editorialise on his disappointment that no criminal behaviour was found so no indictment would be forthcoming. He conducted one investigation in public, and kept the other secret. Then he used his office to give him a platform to opine about a fact-free nothingburger days before the election.
His excuse? He thought she’d win anyway. (Otherwise he might not have.) So, that means it’s ok to... what? Pile on? Take it upon yourself to take her down a peg?
That’s the classic excuse of a bully: aw, I didn’t mean no harm, and anyway she’s tough, she can take it...
What a vile person. Mildly nauseated? He makes me retch.
Oh, and folks are right — Clinton didn’t handle the email thing correctly. She should have pointed out, every time, that her predecessors at State did the exact same thing; that one third to half the members of Congress also use private emails for government business; and said that if she became prez she’d institute a government-wide review of such practices. After all, if it’s a national security concern then it applies to all branches with access to sensitive information, and I’m sure everyone agrees that everyone needs to be treated just the same...
Okay Mr. Blow, I get it. The world is flawed. For instance, the world doesn't give a hoot about the rules of war: they use cluster weapons, gas, fear and nearly total disregard of life. Too often, these horrors take place "somewhere else," and are overlooked or disregarded. These are givens.
Now, in America, we are being confronted with an epic battle to save our country. Comey is a vital part of the fight. He may be flawed but has stepped up to help us move against Trump and that certainly can't be said for the Republicans in Congress.
Keep in mind that our election of Trump has passed and NOW, our combined efforts to keep this bad egg from spoiling all our meals have become our front and center task.
I look forward to the day when you can find positives to communicate. America needs to see the happy face again!
1
I hear you Charles. I dislike Comey and despise Trump too.
Have you any thoughts on what words we should use to describe our feelings toward Putin, Khamenei and Assad? I'm feeling more than a little fatigue contemplating the degrees of (male) human rottenness.
Trump is despicable and Comey is a unlikeable. Obama reminded us that we can do more than one thing at a time; Trump is teaching us that we can viscerally dislike many people at the same time. We all have within a deep reserve of dislike given the right stimuli.
DJT is in the WH because HRC (and her disgraced and disgraceful husband) used a corrupt DNC to steal a nomination to which they felt entitled. HRC was the only democrat who could have lost to Trump, and DJT was the only republican who could have lost to Hillary. And in the end that is what happened and the world is much the worse for it all. All the rest is interesting folderol. The DNC - especially he superdelegates - sold us down the river to the Clintons. Ultimately they are responsible for this debacle but of course will never accept the blame. In the end we may be better off if a consequence is the destruction of the Republican Party which itself has devolved to a slimy despicable pox on the USA and the planet earth.
God help us.
If by "steal" you mean that she convinced 3.7 million more voters to vote for her in the primaries than your guy did, then yeah it was "stolen".
Honestly, why do you believe that the person who got less votes, less state delegates, less superdelegates, fewer states, no large states, and no diverse states should have been handed the nomination? Or doesn't it count as "stealing" in your mind if it is "stolen" for your guy?
1
Comey committed fraud by omission. created
false impression only Clinton was under FBI
investigation and Comey knew that Trump was
also. Comey harpooned Clinton, and put Trump
in the White HOuse. His reward getting fired
and slimed by Trump. The fun never stops
Spot on, Mr. Blow! I too wish Comey had followed Michelle Obama's line of reasoning and gone high when trump went even lower. He seems to have let his ego get in the way of his principles....too bad. (I still pre-ordered the book...from Amazon!)
I dread turning on the news tomorrow to view the latest in this sludge-slinging brawl. But I probably will. Dislike Comey. Despise Trump. Beginning to hate myself for not tuning out.
Trump’s moral degeneracy, volatility, and ineptitude are obvious and need no further exegesis.
Comey is more complicated. Moderately book-smart though no genius, and prone to bad judgments based on a concrete and literal cognitive style. A law geek, a cop trying to be a good cop by seeing the world as black and white. These guys can be useful but need to be moderated and should not be making executive decisions. They often are made hatchet men, XOs, or COOs, and are deemed expendable in times of crisis.
Take away Nixon’s brains and you get Trump. Take away Nixon’s malice and you get Comey.
1
Mr. Blow must have had a pretty funky weekend.
In this piece, he is all over the place and with so much material to work with, I simply can't draw a writer's line between the beginning of his piece and its end.
I had to rewind his comments just to make certain I wasn't reading two different articles. Comey? Trump? and Syria? Really?
Comey and Trump...News!. Syria, sadly always News!
Clinton, old News!
That said, Mr. Comey is clearly looking to clear and keep clean his good name. His efforts in the waning days of the election in adding a chill to the Clinton campaign left the safe harbor of investigation. If he a) thought that Clinton was going to win and b) didn't want to have a cloud hang over that victory, then he acted inappropriately.
Questions arrise. If Clinton were not up in the polls in late October of 2017, would he have been equally motivated to release his letter?
Clinton failed in becoming President and Comey was a small aspect of that. But then again the margins of victory were small. No one will ever truly know the impact of his statements on the election results as there were other factors in play including Clinton's own self certitude.
Come is a good American. Trump is not a great example. Clinton doesn't matter as her time has now passed. What doesn't belong in this picture, Syria. Any grade-school kid would know that.
1
Comey made a catastrophic error in judgement with the Clinton emails by allowing his reputation and moral vanity to get in the way of doing the right thing, which would have been nothing.
His vanity stroking "out of the box" moral scolding of Clinton was a feeble attempt at keeping the hounds on the right at bay while simultaneously trying to salvage his tattered reputation. Unfortunately, he wasn't insightful enough to realize that this was a baby that could not be split. And if we're being totally honest, Comey isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, either.
It's clear by know that he's one of those guys who knows how to navigate bureaucracy not via a superior intellect but with his highly burnished and curated reputation of being a boy scout and the fact that he's 6'8".
He's no hero, but as you assert, he's no Trump, either, and I don't blame him for "wrecking the country".
Our country was eminently "wreckable" long before Trump came along. Comey stupidly thought he could tamp the campfire out but inadvertently set the whole country on fire. If it wasn't him, it would have been something or somebody else.
Interesting to see how the Trump sycophants, & hangers-on do their ethical & legal gymnastics in support of Trump - the amoral, adulterous, narcissist - while continuing to debase Comey, who exemplifies a decent man with normal human failings.
Who to believe, Trump or Comey: As a NYT reviewer says: One is an impulsive, utterly transactional narcissist who, so far in office, the WP calculated, has made an average of six false or misleading claims a day; a winner-take-all bully with a nihilistic view of the world
As we all know, there were many reasons HRC lost.....but Cambridge Analytica was not one of them. Their claims at being able to target voters were overblown, according to many reports. The scandal was in the misappropriated data itself, not the result of its use. Faux News, on the other hand.......
Yes indeed, Mr. Blow, it's a far shore from Dislike to Despise. Thank you for this column.
Elsewhere I saw that Dolt-45 called Comey a "Liar" and for a split second I thought he was complimenting him on an assumed shared trait...
Couldn’t have said it better myself, an ego-driven FBI Director who feasted on the power and adulation and mad man who can drive the world to oblivion... Hillary shines with each passing day ...
Vote OUT who you feel is in the position to do the most harm. Our Monday morning chatter has is meaningless.
M s Clinton was responsible for her own defeat. If
anyone voted for he r it was because she was the best of the worst
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Uh with respect to the 'timing' of the Syria missiles, I wonder if those photos of dead people made the case a little more compelling than prior cluster bomb 'violations'. I respect a lot of CB's writing but when you 'despise' someone it probably blinds you a little. Trump did the right thing. He's flawed. But give him his due.
Oh please, Mr. Blow, give it a rest. Your loyalty was totally partisan, and you couldn't see Clinton's high crimes and misdemeanors routine in front of you. Mr. Comey did the honorable thing, knowing how compromised and corrupt Loretta Lynch was, in the Clintons pocket.
I respect Mr. Comey for the way he comported himself in making a tough choice when 133,000 new emails surfaced on Weiners laptop. He HAD promised Congress he would notify them! It WAS a higher loyalty to a professional code. Certainly more than yours. We don't get to decide history ahead of itself...we do the best we can at the time with our choices. And he did the right thing.
1
Charles Blow is right on target!
None of this matters.
You can’t beat Fox News and it’s audience who have lost the ability to think for themselves.
Goebels would be so proud.
For James Comey to suggest that he doesn't know whether or not the story about Trump paying prostitutes to urinate on a bed because 0bama slept in it is typical of his outstanding hypocrisy. To even bring up such a foul unconfirmed allegation simply because it was passed on by an unreliable Russian source is beyond the pale .
1
Yes, Comey is an egotistical slime ball. But I agree with Mr. Blow in that Comey is nowhere near the slime ball that currently occupies the Oval Office. Why we haven't taken to the streets en masse, marched to D.C. and extricated trump by mob rule is beyond me.
Rest assured, Mr. Blow, hate is the only thing that lasts.
1
Amen! The only reason Comey looks as good as he does right now is that the person he's speaking out against is even worse. Had Hillary won the election, Comey would be nothing more than an ignominious footnote in history.
Incidentally, I'm not sure that racism, xenophobia, misogyny and ethnic or religious hostility were disguised as economic anxiety by Trump voters. It seems more likely to me that economic anxiety made those voters look around for someone to blame for their anxiety, and Trump knew which direction to point them in; just as Hitler knew that Germans would be happy to blame the Jews for their economic anxiety after the first World War.
1
Columns like Blow's are typical of today's pseudo-journalism. The most important thing is the author's own emotional state, which he goes out of his way to tell us about at the beginning and end of the column, as well as the title. In the middle of the article, he finds a way to rationalize that his emotions are valid. Big surprise. I've gotten to the point that any article that relies heavily on the writer's emotional state can be tossed in the wastebasket without serious consideration.
1
Even Charles Blow knows tha Comey’s own words in his book show that he is a liar, a leaker, & a man void of any honor or dignity who should have been fired on Day 1
1
Mr. Blow, I share your opinion about
both men!
1
Contempt of Comey? Entirely misplaced & thoughtless.
Comey has explained the reason for his decision to mention the new batch of e-mails, convincingly.
At present he emerges as a man of courage who stakes his own future on a decided stance. Exactly what we need in a witness (which he is) & just what's lacking in a supine & just now contemptible Congress (with a few honorable exceptions.)
Amen Mr Blow. They are both contemptible human beings and possibly in cahoots with each other.
1
Comey may be an honest fool, but he's still a fool, from his toenails to his hair cut.
Trump is a dishonest, unprincipled, immoral fool, without a shred of redeeming virtue. He is simply the worst and most dishonest President in the history of the nation.
3
so we have a president who does WHAT? with Russian prostitutes and all people can say is that Hillary lost the election herself? A morally corrupt man elected to the highest office surrounded by other morally bankrupted goons and all we can say that it was Hillary's fault she lost the election?
2
A disgusting Republican President, a disgusting Republican Congress, and an even more disgusting group of Republican supporters and voters-putting their personal self interests above the United States of America.
Frankly, this is the sleaziest group of leaders in America's history, and the Republican Congress and Republican voters stand by with their hands in each others pockets and watch our country be shredded by the sleaziest of all cancers, Trump and his crooked cronies. Have you no shame...
Save a Republic, remove a Republican.
4
Is this circus going to be endless. How long are the American people going to have to suffer all the scandals and vulgarities that this unfit fake president has brought to us. He refuses to understand how our government works....he just wants to do it his way. Why bother having advisors he never listens to them, he just fires those that don't bow to his idiotic demands. Are we able to survive his term in office.
2
Ho hum, we already know he's a train wreck and a liar.
So what's all the big fuss about?
1
Not very many acted nobly in the 2016 election.
Charles Blow's contribution was as a never-questioning cheer for Hillary Clinton...
And any time Bernie Sanders staged an upset, like in Michigan, Blow blew barrels of ice water on it, as sophists can, because it threatened his investment in Hillary Clinton.
Blow blames Comey, because he can't blame himself.
Maybe, if he were a more erudite political scientist, instead of a wordsmith, he could admit that Trump won because:
1. Clinton's perceived past was of a serial parser, chiseler, deal maker, liar-lawyer...
2. She carried southern black primaries -- all of which went R in the final while Sanders won the smarter, ind. states.
3. Because pundits like Blow -- there was a suspicious unanimity at the Times -- all continually talked up Hillary and down Sanders, dismissing projected polls in the general that showed Bernie would beat Trump by twice Hillary's margin.
4. And most importantly, she allowed her vindictiveness to trump her judgment by not only NOT selecting Sanders to be her VP, but also leaking that her vetting team had ranked him 33rd of possible selections.
5. It's a principle in political science 101 that you balance the ticket with someone who can bring the most support. It's why Kennedy chose Johnson. She chose her male doppelgänger, WHO ADDED ZIP!
So Blow: Hillary, you and your peers lost the presidency more than Comey did. And now he's part of the solution while you're still stuck in Denial.
2
Same old Blow. Hates Comey because he blames him for costing Clinton the election that Blow and every single one of the people he actually speaks with knew she was going to win. Hates Trump because Trump keeps proving him wrong about everything.
1
Mr. President: Investigations go with the territory. You knew this when you decided to run for the highest office in the land. What do you have to fear, to be concerned about, to be angry about? You are our chairman and CEO. We work for you. We will take care of all the tedious details for you. All you have to do is run the country. Take a load off, take your feet off the pedals, with Comey and Mueller. We've got you covered. When has the truth ever hurt an honest man like you? You're just new to the job, and you've got a little performance anxiety. That's not a problem. When the truth comes out, as it always does, you will clearly be vindicated. We all know that. Honest people, those with genuine character, always are with an investigation of this length and depth. You have nothing to be nervous about, because the truth will set you free. Consider the wisdom of Mahatma Gandhi: "Truth never damages a cause that is just." Fear not, sir. Soon you will be free, for all to see.
The title calling for readers to, “Dislike Comey,” is heinous. Me. Blow, you don’t have to match the other side’s reprehensible speech.
Burn a blackmailer like Jim Comey and this is what you get.
JFK knew better when dealing with J. Edgar Hoover. When the blackmailer has the goods, you make the deal.
Come on Mr Blow.... You seem to want it your way only. Hillary was a horrible candidate. That played a very large role. Why was she a bad candidate? Try Google.
1
Mr. Blow you are wrong. It is because of HRC and people like you that Trump became the president.
2
Everything is not black and white. There are many shades of grey. I don't believe that Comey wrote his book expecting that America was going to paint him in a purifying light...but I am glad he did. His choice to speak about the Hillary investigation may have been a mistake, but I see his point that NOT to speak of it might have been just as damning. And contrary to us all wanting a single reason as to how we wound up with Trump, it was NOT just Comey's action. Just as Trump has awakened peoples patriotic responsibility to vote, the Parkland kids have highlighted the need for gun regulation, the DACA kids have shown us that we need immigration reforms, the "battle" of words between The Don and Comey riding in on a white horse may be what we need to get us off our butts and vote...not just in a presidential election, but in all those local, state and mid-term ones from whence our national leaders spring. Look inward, America, and if you don't want to read Comey's book don't!
A false equivalent to even criticize Comey and Trump in the same breath.
Comey was trying to protect the reputation of the FBI and himself leading that bureau. He had his own anti-Hillary forces within the organization to worry about.
His mistakes were ones of good intent. Every action of Trump is perverse and self serving; a one dimensional moron utterly unable to attune himself to a higher cause and purpose. The man is un-American to a degree never seen before. Nixon cared far more about this country than this miscreant case of arrested development.
The only thing remarkable within Comey's interview or book is that he doesn't admit the President's ringing stupidity. I wonder why? That question is more interesting than Mr. Blow's pieces which I normally admire and enjoy.
Hillary was a terrible though highly qualified candidate. She is slithery and sneaky and perhaps has her reasons to be so, but a bad candidate never the less. Regardless all the ancillary reasons, her foibles were the primary reason she wasn't elected.
Just now watching Comey's attempt to justify his actions on ABC. I had expected him to save us somehow from Trump and his horrors; now I see a very self-serving jerk. You are not my hero, James Comey.
Middle of the night:
Wake you from a deep sleep, no time to reflect: say "untruthful slime ball" and ask, whose face and name first come to mind?
My take away from the interview is Comey is a man of truth and honor and was in the impossible position of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t.” Two investigations, one public (Clinton) and one not (Russia). Clinton’s email mistakes IMO did not alter the election outcome, but perhaps Russian involvement, which Comey was actively investigating and could not reveal, did. To this day, we do not know the extent of Russian involvement in our election and with Trump...there is much more to come on this subject.
I do thank Mr. Comey for speaking truth to power and following the rule of law. Take a moment to really think through the consequences had he not made the lawful choice.
3
The one critical fact that is missing here is that by Justice Dept. official policy, Comey had no legal authority whatsoever to issue his decisive Oct. 28 letter without specific approval from the Attorney General. He had no discretion in this matter.
The rules specifically prohibit any actions within 60 days of the election. Former AG Eric Holder, who wrote the latest version of these rules, confirmed that these rules apply to the FBI and the FBI Director.
The whole purpose of these rules is to prevent any Justice Dept official from taking any independent action that could unduly affect the election. Both the Judicial Code of Conduct and Bar Rules contain similar prohibitions for judges and lawyers.
Had Comey simply followed the Justice Dept. rules, like everyone else, none of this would have happened and Hillary would be president.
For some arrogant and egotistical reason, Comey felt himself to be above the rules that applied to everyone else. History will judge him harshly for this lapse of judgment.
Probably the most damning part of Comey's interview, for me, was his statement that he did not vote at all in the 2016 presidential election. I believe that it is the duty of every citizen to vote. His failure to do so was inexcusable.
1
Comey is correct that we are all flawed human beings; it is easy to judge him, but we do ourselves a disservice if we don’t try to walk around in his shoes. He was damned if he did; damned if he didn’t.
For people to hold Comey to a higher ethical standard than they hold Trump is ludicrous. Comey is honest, willing to make personal sacrifices to uphold the constitution of this land; Trump has no morals, no compunction, and no patriotism. He is morally unfit to lead this country.
Comey is like John Adams: not making many friends, but damned if he will allow this country to become a tyranny of one: Trump who thinks he is king. The Constitution must prevail if we are to be a democracy.
2
I am no fan of Trump, Clinton or Comey. No need to repeat the revulsions of Trump. They're already stated well. Remember Comey is an FBI Agency member. They are no angels. Ask those with remembrances of Dr.King and the Civil Rights Movement. Morality, integrity is not and has not been their highest quality. Let's not play. And, this is the club he loves. Then, there's Hillary. Yes I voted for her as the lesser of two evils. But I've not been a fan since her role in gutting public assistance to women and children in the 90s. On most social-economic issues, she and husband were a bit too center-right for my political understandings and location.
Now, however, let's look at the bright side. If Hillary had won, most of us would have continued to be complacent, believing that she was going to be almost alright. But, with Trump, no such illusions. So, this is the silver lining. We have the opportunity to engage governmental processes and hopefully clean up much that is wrong and not in the best interest of the majority of Americans or the world's peoples. From getting corporate and monied interest out of politics, including contracting and research, not just lobbying. To defining a moral arc that is fair, just, equitable for the majority, not just a privileged few.
Can we use this opportunity to think and act on issues for the greater good?
I, too, am no fan of Comey, Mr. Blow. And like you I dislike him. Why? Because of what he did to Hillary Clinton so soon before the election. He can spin it any way he wants, the fact remains he not only lacked good and fair judgement, but also I think it was calculated. Again, why, I don't know and perhaps never will. But....I believe him. I still hold that he is telling the whole truth. Years of service in the FBI speaks volumes re his integrity and ethics when it comes to the law.
But this opinion piece points out the many factors besides Emailgate that came into play during our now infamous presidential election...from social media to Cambridge Analytica to Russia. Add to the mix the resurrected ugly, ugly bigotry, racism, and nativism awaiting its "champion" to say, "Go for it. It's your time, you 'Christian' White folks."
After thinking long and hard about the wisdom of having Secretary Clinton as our Democratic candidate, I have concluded that I am not sorry for that choice. I doubt if even Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden could have won. For you see, there were just two many evil forces behind this demonic individual called Trump. If this country gets through this time of corruption unscathed, let us collectively exclaim, "Never again. We have learned our lesson."
7
As James Comey rightly pointed out last night, Donald Trump is not competent to serve as President of the United States. He is immoral and disinterested in the requirements of holding High Office. He serves only himself.
Comey has less insight into his own incompetence and self serving nature.
He ran a three ring circus investigating the use of a private email server, when the whole issue was politcally motivated and arose out of the Benghazi investigation.
Every secretary of state who came before Hillary was shown to have engaged in the same practice. And the Anthony Wiener laptop discovery -- also staged by Republicans who set him up to communicate with an underage woman and turned the evidence over to authorities.
Using the FBI to hold press conferences exploring the twists and turns of these political machinations?
Irresponsible, and ridiculous, no matter who he thought would win!
Did Comey consider a letter on FBI letterhead to Hilary Clinton quietly asking that the appropriate server be used in the future? No, he instead opted for his own version of reality tv, giving Hillary Clinton a time out that amounted to "you're fired."
3
Comey is a republican and undermined hillary clinton in the last days before the election with no proof whatsoever against her, and may have colluded with the russians and trump. Together, he and trump were the worst fbi director and worst US presidential candidate ever.
3
Cut the partisan opinions and put country above party. Hilary Clinton holds most of the responsibility for her election loss. James Comey, if he had a role at all, could have been only a minuscule portion of it. Hilary did not lose because of Comey. She lost because of herself, despite my vote.
1
Hillary Rodham Clinton and the Democratic party are solely to blame for her loss. She has been viscerally disliked by the right for decades, and only tepidly supported by the left due to her globalist economic policies and violent, neoconservative foreign policies. I held my nose and voted for her, but certainly didn't campaign/donate for Clinton like I did for Obama.
2
The major distinction between DJT and James Comey is truthfulness.
Comey's judgement is truly awful. It was the role of the AJ to make both of the key public statements on Hillary Clinton that Comey decided, against official advice, to reveal. He's pompous, arrogant and self righteous verging on incompetence. But in questions of fact, he is virtually unassailable.
But his credibility is above reproach.
Unlike Trump. Every time Trump makes a statement the first basic assumption is that it is permeated with lies, misleading material, and dumbfounding ignorance. It is more a question of watching a circus comedy sideshow than looking to the president for insight. There is the rare truth or accidental good judgement, but only rarely.
4
Russia is at least part of the reason Trump is in office now. I'll never believe otherwise anymore than I believe the entire truth about JFKs assassination was revealed in the Warren Report. Comey is also complicit.
The Syria strike? Wag the Dog. If Trump is so affected by the pictures of dead children he would admit refugees or feed starving American children.
2
If James Comey had not revealed the discovery of more emails and Clinton had won, the Republicans would have completely disabled her Presidency with investigations into her emails and the corruption of the FBI. At the time Trump was cleverly screaming "rigged elections." Comey fell on the sword to protect the agency and he knew the dangers. Hardly the move of a person who is saving his hide. The conjecture about the reasons Hillary's loss and who to blame is absurd. Comey's interaction with Trump and his subsequent firing has led to the Mueller investigation of Russian interference in our election. The very point that Mr. Comey was pursuing as FBI Director. We should thank him for his sacrifice and stop the incessant and pompous scolding. I want more James Comeys in our government.
Charles Blow is generally right. Comey is not likeable, but he is not a threat to world peace. Trump is. Two other points which it seems to me harm Mr Blow's arguments: 1. Cluster bombs are banned, but they are not necessarily chemical weapons. 2. He refers to a number of bigoted beliefs as being "disguised as economic anxiety" which infers that actual economic anxiety was not a real factor in the election when it absolutely was. This is the kind of arrogant dismissal of Trump supporters that hurts liberal opponents of Trump.
2
I was, and still am an ardent Hillary supporter. Yes, Comey had a horribly untimely lapse in judgment... so, you've never made errors? And about this book: under Trump's constant bludgeoning, I may lose diplomatic temperance too, and find it cathartic to lay it out in a book. By the way, your allusion to profiting from said book is beyond the pale: you really think Comey should give away his work, after the treatment he suffered? Would you? Or would you suffer in silence amidst a forgetful public's oblivion?
1
Where to begin. I am not going to censure Trump over the Syrian strike. There may be truth to your assertion of political expediency, however, the Guardian gives a different slant that probably correctly gives a lead role to Macron and doesn’t May have lots of reason to back a strike? You post facto mention numerous other violations. If true where was the press in vigorously reporting theses previously? And you know as well that the Syrian strike was soon replaced by the Comey news and later today Judge Wood’s decision on the FBI Cohen raid will be the lead story. BTW not much media mention of the irony here(remember Nannygate and the aborted nomination of Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood to AG?). On Comey, we should be forever in his debt for his role in preventing Bush lawyers from side swiping a sedated John Ashcroft on his sickbed). All great leaders are flawed but few if any match Trump’s moral turpitude. I think Blow has gone down the rabbit hole of false equivalency on this one.
It is indeed ironic that President Trump got to fire Comey, for all the wrong reasons, while President Clinton should have fired him, for the right reason (that he attempted in interfere in the election). Either way, the only way he can redeem himself is by helping to take down Trump.
Then again, Comey says that he doesn’t favor impeachment because that would “short circuit” the prerogative of the American people. No, Mr. Comey, you already did that. We can’t afford to wait until that chance comes around again.
Vote. Flush out the entire morally-vacuous GOP, at every level of government. If you are a Republican, do it so your party can rebuild as a heathy thing rather than the cancerous destroyer it has metathesized into.
2
While I despise Trump, I can't warm up to Comey. He'll get rich(or richer) off this book deal. This all seems self serving. I can never forgive him for the Clinton email fiasco. A smart college political science major could see that Comey's timing on Clinton two weeks before the election would be detrimental to her campaign. I was astonished when he did this and am still in disbelief over those actions.
2
While you and I might believe that Comey made the wrong decision concerning Hillary's (actually Weiner's) e-mails, he does make a valid point when he says that the revelation that she was under investigation just before the election would most likely have undermined and potentially crippled her Presidency. Benghazi is the case in point.
Again this piece is the product of a person who is a political propagandist first, last, and always. He uses only one criterion: is a person a very far left wing idealog who cannot even see how their policies hurt ordinary people and more important democracy.
The big difference between Comey and Trump is that nothing that Comey could legally do or have done could proactively help MAGA. All he could legally do is prosecute crime.
Trump, as President, has the ability to set policies,
such as dropping the silly Paris "accords", approving pipelines, enforcing our border laws, or dropping other goverment regulations, that MAGA.
And he has done so.
He has also, through Twitter and otherwise, brought in a refreshing honest and forthright way of speaking to the people, rather than the typical "speak only the canned talking point" in reply to any question or situation that his predecessors for many many Presidential cycles have employed.
The chips fell where they fell.
I can't dislike anyone who admits
to feeling nauseated about his
part in the election outcome.
It seemed to me that Comey was always a bit too self
righteous for his own good. I wonder why the AG
did not recuse herself regarding the Clinton e-mail
situation. Unfortunately for the moment all of this hoopla over the interview & the book will do nothing more that entrench the opinions that are already in
place. Comey 's actions regarding the Weiner computer did bring out once again questions
regarding Hillary's honesty. I think that in the
future when history is written Comey will be
portrayed as an earnest but flawed public official
Trump on the other hand will be shown to embody
the very worst aspects one would want to find in a POTUS. Yes, Comey's handling of Weiner's computer
was a factor in Hillary losing. There is no way to
sugar coat that fact.
I look forward to the day Republicans and Democrats (and others) propose and run candidates (men and women) of integrity.
Pretend all you wish but the candidates running for president for so many years have been below all reasonable standards.
Experience NEVER outweighs behavior which destroys the most important need for every presidential candidate - the need to be trusted by Americans.
Maybe 2020.....?
Yeah well -- for us -- all 85 million of us ready to pull the lever for Donald in a heartbeat thanks to his policies of demanding fairness in trade, lowering unemployment massively, and brining companies back to our neighborhoods -- and who do not see ANY of his comments as lies but just NY-style hyperbole for emphasis or jokes -- We LOVE Donald Trump, and despise prejudiced, hateful writers like yourself.
Every time you ask us to hate, we grow closer to Trump and oppose you and your colleagues more.
We also welcome aboard more and more Independent voters that none of you can find who simply decide, quietly, to support Trump without fanfare so you don't harass them. You don't understand at all that most people don't watch Colbert or Kimmel, and that most who do come from the coastal elite areas, not the heartland.
I guess what mystifies me the most is how you seem to think that continuing to smear Trump day after day is some sort of "service" to Americans. But none of us see your descent into journalistic unprofessionalism as a "service", I am sorry to say. You don't realize that just because you can't find us for your polls, doesn't mean we are not here.
We are here; your smears have fused us permanently to him; and the sympathy your hate has engendered among Independents is bringing to us in droves.
Oh -- and please continue to repeat all Comey's whining from his book. Please. The more you do it, the more pro-Trump voters we get. Oh yes...
2
I totally agree with you. Can not muster much sympathy for Comey’s plight—his firing, maligning, Nor much enthusiasm for his book. Can’t really move beyond his actions on 2016. Seriously, thinking of consequences in retrospect is not consistent with someone with his track record, especially after everybody and their mother told him to shut up. And why not be an equal opportunity disrupter by sharing the info about the investigation of the current WH occupant? Not buying the whole package. Agree with your dislike/despise dichotomy. But am worried that the press continues to follow the shining objects & does not pay attention to the very important things that are going on.
It's impossible to present any case that puts Comey on a level with Trump. Comey made a few mistakes, Trump has a habit of making them. Comey has a long record of public service, Trump, maybe, had bone spurs. Comey enforced the law, Trump hired people to maneuver him around the law. So, all you people trying to equate the sins of James Comey with the crimes of Donald Trump are wasting your, and our time.
The only thing Comey did wrong was announce that Hillary mishandled her emails. That was a mistake, and it is a basis for some level of disapproval. But is it really unforgivable? Just putting Comey and Trump on the same scale is a less defensible, if also less consequential, mistake than the one Comey made.
Aside from the orbiter dictum when the investigation was closed, what was a Comey to do? He couldn't deny that an HRC investigation had begun, as known facts demanded that one be started. That being the case, could he really not announce that it had ended? And, having announced that it had ended, could he not announce that it had been reopened?
Yes, he was also investigating Trump, but there were no publicly known facts that raised a presumption that an investigation was ongoing, so no need to comment on it at all. Such distinctions matter when you are trying to judge someone in whose shoes you have not walked. You needn't be free of sin to cast your stones, but you might try a little harder to understand how a man who has demonstrated his commitment to public service might have erred without earning your facile contempt.
Mr. Blow,
You are basically a center-right writer who excel in creating an aura out of false equivalences. Come cannot be compared to Trump. Full-stop. One is a decent civil servant who tries to do the right thing but watches for his behind along the way. Does not like to take personal risks, that I for sure. The other is a buffoon who lies through his teeth and who was brought to us by the wonderful closet conservatives backing Hillary Clinton against people who spoke the truth like Bernie Sanders. You tooted her horn and did not see that her chances of winning put out by the likes of Nate Cohn and Nate Silver were erroneous statistics based on incomplete information necessary to make proper predictions. If you want to do something right this time around, stop beating around the bush and endorse people who really mean to change the in the direction of fairness and equality in terms of wealth, income, healthcare, education and gender.
2
Mr. Blow - you put into words exactly how I feel about the whole thing. thank you. I was left very unsatisfied by Comey's answers to George Stephanopoulos' questioning about the late Oct announcement of reopening the clinton email case. I was a Bernie supporter in the primaries but I voted for clinton because I thought trump would be worse. Never expected trump to be this monstrous.
Consider the possibility that Tump and Comey are actually in cahoots, working towards a common end. Comey may have merely used bad judgement in handling the investigations of Hillary's emails. But given his vast experience as a Jusrice Dept. insider, I find to hard to write his bad decisions off as just poor judgement. It quite possibly cost Hillary the presidency and it looks intentional.
Before the election we knew everything we needed to know about how unfit Trump was, but he became president anyway.
A nation gets the government it deserves and the United States we knew no longer exists.
2
Thank you Mr. Blow. Your perspective on this is as usual right on target. I agree with you that there are many factors that contributed to the Secretary's defeat by this horrid human being, but I also believe in the concept of a tipping point, and Mr. Comey's eleventh hour "honorable righteousness" was I believe the tipping point to the worst mistake in American political history. I must admit, however, to being thankful that Mr. Comey is doing a good job of "getting even", and I think our so-called President may have met his match.
Let's face it: Comey made a long series of bad decisions calculated to ingratiate himself to a presumed next President. These were not unlike other decisions he had made in his upwardly mobile career in the FBI - overly dramatic, overly public and violative of FBI SOP. That he has continued this in his 'private' life is not a surprise. It appears Jim Comey never made a decision in his professional life without first assessing its political effect on his career.
I am no fan of the 'moral sensibilities' of either my President or Mr. Comey: both have startling tendencies to a fluidity of situational ethics that rivals ether… As we can see, both are willing to say and do whatever it takes, in their estimation, to take down the other. When a physically towering man such as Comey stoops to comparing hand size, he has shown us where his moral 'development' was formed - and interrupted: the jr. high locker room.
In short, Jim Comey, by his actions and inactions, placed a huge personal bet on the 2016 Presidential race - and lost. This isn't about "A Higher Loyalty" - it is all about a higher net worth. Ironically, President Trump would probably respect that…
1
I'm sick of hearing ad nauseum about Hillary's failures when she won 3 million MORE votes than Donald. Trump. Just tired of it. She. Should. Have. Won. She lost on a "technicality"-essentially, the failure of the electoral college to follow the popular vote.
I DO think Comey's guilt ridden justification for his actions speaks for itself. He should have spoken up equally about BOTH investigations, or not spoken at all. I feel we still don't know the truth. I'm not buying his explanation at all.
1
Agreed
I totally agree. Comey is not the sainted hero he thinks he is, but Trump...say no more.
Mr. Blow, You are basically a center-right writer who excel in creating an aura out of false equivalences. Come cannot be compared to Trump. Full-stop. One is a decent civil servant who tries to do the right thing but watches for his behind along the way. Does not like to take personal risks, that I for sure. The other is a buffoon who lies through his teeth and who was brought to us by the wonderful closet conservatives backing Hillary Clinton against people who spoke the truth like Bernie Sanders. You tooted her horn and did not see that her chances of winning put out by the likes of Nate Cohn and Nate Silver were erroneous statistics based on incomplete information necessary to make proper predictions. If you want to do something right this time around, stop beating around the bush and endorse people who really mean to change the in the direction of fairness and equality in terms of wealth, income, healthcare, education and gender.
1
I think everything wrong with Comey's personality can be found in his idea that we should "suffer Trump" as "our" (minority of voters!) "punishment" for electing Trump.
Comey's bizarre rigidity leads him to conclude that people who have been lied to and swindled by Trump somehow brought in on themselves. This mental malfunction shows why Comey had the tone-deaf desire to "punish" Hillary ahead of the election that he thought she would win. (Presumably after she won, it would not "hurt" enough.)
I am sure that Comey has many good qualities, but there is a rigidity and egotism-about-virtue that is crippling to him.
I do not doubt his honesty, but his judgment is impaired by these psychological issues.
As Thomas Paine said:December 23, 1776
THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
1
When DJT is no long POTUS, which has to happen sooner or later.
What is your solution for the real problem, the 80% of Republicans that support and approve of him and the 45% of the general electorate.
These people are not going anywhere.
You like to blame and invest much effort into some individual, e.g., DJT, but you never blame the real problem, the human species; why is this?
"Racism, xenophobia, misogyny and ethno- and religious hostility disguised as economic anxiety" played a role in Trump's victory.
How about admitting that economic anxiety, the real thing, played a role? As well as working-class America's legitimate skepticism that Hillary Clinton was committed to alleviating it?
So who is an attractive political personality these days? Are we looking for modest and bland to get away from huge egos? An intellectual with enough energy and humor to connect? What?
I was nodding along while reading every statement that Mr. Blow made in this article. What strikes me as odd is that Comey is surrounded by sane women in his family and yet, he acted in such a reprehensible manner to hurt a female candidate. It also doesn’t explain why he relentlessly pursued Martha Stewart’s wrong-doing when so many men get away with more severe crimes. Is he a closet misogynist?
1
So many flawed figures in this mess, it severely lowers confidence that this American Experiment can right itself and proceed as a beacon of hope. Right now, we're giving banana republics a bad name. FBI directors with exceedingly poor judgment and breathtaking lack of self-awareness, top administrators prostrating themselves before Dear Leader, Dear Leader increasingly deranged, Congress nowhere to be found except palling with the big money. Even the seeming Last Best Hope, Robert Mueller, stubbed his toe with poor vetting of his assistants.
This thing gets uglier and more dreary by the day. And now Joe "Lady Whisperer" Biden has the delusion he'll come riding to the rescue, and his party hasn't the chops to put the immediate kibosh on it. Yikes!
Hillary Clinton lost an election she should have won easily because she ran a lousy campaign. Comey knows the unwritten rule about not doing anything to influence an election within three months of the election day and he ignored it. Both of these men have a very high opinion of themselves and it is great to finally see someone come out in public and call Trump out on who he is. The country deserves better than either of these ego maniacs but they deserve each other.
1
I am with you, Mr. Blow.
what Comey and Trump have in common is they are both Republicans. Trump just has a much worse case of it.
with luck, a cure will be discovered in our lifetime.
I recall that after the War, the Communist Party was outlawed in he US. perhaps the GOP now deserves the same fate. certainly, they have been much worse for our nation as a whole than the Communists ever dreamed of being.
Kudos Mr. Blow. The Attorney General should have fired Comey the day of his unprecedented news conference announcing the end of the investigation into HRCs emails. "Mishandling" of the investigation would have been enough if the firing included a "review of the charges" in spite of Comey's decision not to proceed, but Lynch had been made impotent by that time.
As for the Syrian tragedy, apparently we are going to insist Assad now play by the rules when murdering his people. As pathetic as that is, I have yet to hear a strategy for intervention that offers a reasonable chance of success.
I agree completely with Mr. Blow, having taken the same position after the election. Mr. Comey's comment on ABC-TV that impeachment would let the American people off the hook has some but not overriding merit. Impeachment is nothing more than the old bill of indictment - a statement of the charges. In Pres. Clinton's case we saw the Senate wiggle out of trying the president on the impeachment charges emanating from the House. The Senate declared an acquittal. The impeachment stood as it was, merely a bill of alleged wrongdoing. It was a stain on the person but not on the presidency.
There is no certainty that an impeachment of Trump issued by the current House will prompt the current Senate to vote to remove Trump from office. If a majority of the voters in 2018 vote out the Republicans & vote in the Democrats in both houses then Trump might be crippled legislatively. Russia may well try to remain in the hacking game.
If that new Congress is followed in 2020 with a Democratic presidential victory, then Trump & Company are gone & criminal charges could be leveled against any & all where Federal and State prosecutors find evidence to indict and prosecute. If Trump is out of office his power to resist Federal & State prosecutors is diminished to a shadow. He and his henchmen will fight but will stand as any other citizen before the bar (assuming the prosecutors are successful.) We desperately need to see Justice prevail and a return to the rule of law. Finally.
3
Mr. Blow of course is entirely right. It's worth pointing out re Comey's announcement on the email investigation at the last moment that when Mr. Comey says that he was trying to defend the FBI's reputation, there is every appearance that he is conflating "the FBI" and "James Comey", and that his action appears to have been above all an attempt to provide a plausible basis for arguing that he personally was pure. I guess that he isn't capable in his own thinking about this action of separating his own reputation and the FBI's reputation, and that he has a strong emotional need not to do so.
2
Amen! Comey is doing no one but himself a favor bringing out his book, wish Stormy got hers out first. We don't need this kind of distraction, Books and bombs both leave us in a cloud of confusion.
3
Comey made a mountain of Hillary's molehill, and a molehill of trump's mountain of ethical problems.
7
Comey gave us trump. Therefore, He is almost worse than trump. Almost, but not quite.
See, republicans, we all agree on some things.
As for the attack, trump attacked his inquisitors. He doesn’t give a hoot about Syrians. Unless he’s a secret Syrian. Hmmmm
4
Charles you are becoming more and more representative of mainstream views but please express something novel. The vast majority of Americans think the world would be a better place without Trump, Comey, and Hillary.
4
Ego versus ego, both advancing vain ends. One attempting to justify and obscure bad practice because of an overwhelming preoccupation with self and being right; the other with a commitment only to a self that lacks any sense of duty or obligation to country (who ever would have thought that we’d be exhausted with use of the word “untethered" when discussing an American president a year and a half ago?), and regularly advancing slash and burn racist, misogynist, and divisive practices that reach new lows almost daily. Ah, yes, America is going mad with leaders like these.
2
Everyone deplores the use of chemical weapons against the Syrian population, but even worse are the 26,000 bombs that the USA dropped on Muslim countries last year.
I am not buying Comey's book. He possibly helped sway the election for Donald Trump by announcing, on the eve of the election, that Clinton was "under investigation". But unless they pulled polling booth levers in favor of one candidate over another, he nor Russia "interfered" with the election. That is why we need an educated electorate. I was on the verge of voting for Clinton over Stein, but NEVER TRUMP, when I read an article in the NYT about the Monica Lewinksky/Bill affair and how Hillary went after Lewinsky. Also Hillary being worse for the Palestinians, favoring Israel too much, and not being for national healthcare like Stein, I voted Stein - to my regret. But the article in NYT swayed me, not Russian propaganda, not Facebook and all the trash you read on there. Articles in the NYT also assured me of a Clinton victory by 6%, so I thought I would vote for the one I wanted, not against someone. NYT swayed me not Russia. At least the NYT is more fair and balanced than Fox News.
1
Right on again, Mr. Blow. Just because one guy is off the charts horrible and destructive does not mean that the other guy is glowing. Comey may not ever own the destruction he caused, and his book is a distraction from his own bias and incompetence. Me, I despise them both. Comey may have absolutely stood between a brilliant president and the monster we have now. Never forget!
2
There is no one to like in this story.
Hillary Clinton became the nominee because the super delegates, not the voters, picked her.
James Comey then helped Trump by attacking Clinton.
The result is that an unhinged mobster is running the country.
5
Not true, Clinton received millions more primary votes then Sanders.
1
Dislike Comey, Despise Trump and realize that that press can be journalists or the resistance. How many guesses would you like which choice they made?
1
Comey is the definitive example of our friend being no more than the enemy of our enemy.
The most obvious difference between the two is that the word "Trumpian" now has undeniable meaning in written and oral communications, and not just here in Comments. "Comeyian" evokes only a "Huh?"
Comey is nothing but a lightning rod for both sides during the 2016 election disaster. His impact is grossly overstated by the Democrats and mightily celebrated by Trump then. The 2016 fiasco can only be laid at the feet of the Hillary campaign that grossly underestimated the electorate. Even Biden was wondering what happened to the white guys? Russian interference, mainstream media false equivalency coverages all contributed to that disastrous perfect storm that sank what might have been our first woman president. These are lessons learned for 2020 and now being applied effectively in states like Virginia. BTW, Blow is also engaging in false equivalency between Comey and Trump. It is patently ridiculous to compare an albeit flawed but honorable public servant to a creature named Trump.
1
Like him or not, at least you know he's telling the truth and has witnesses and/or contemporaneous memos to back up his account, which is more than you can say for David Dennison.
3
Charles Blow gets it right. Neither one is an Angel. By taking out his revenge in print Comey has left an indelible mark of questionable character on the celebrated FBI. That may be his lasting legacy - a FBI Director unworthy of the role. Mr. Trump is only one of a several POTUS unworthy of the position. But for the FBI Mr. Comey makes the immoral J Edgar Hoover look like a choir boy.
1
Here's a difference: I believe that Comey believes in his patriotism. That said, he made a grievous mistake that has cost our country dearly and for which, in my opinion, no amount of atonement will overcome. Trump, on the other hand, is a self-aggrandizing egotist who is indeed unworthy of this or any position of leadership and who puts his interests first and the country's somewhere far back in the "lip service department." I understand Comey trying to right his wrong. Based on last night's interview, I don't think he accomplished that.
3
The comments railing about the Electoral College are rediculous. Our founders saw it as to give everyone a say, not just the east and west coasts. The bigger question is, why do Democrats believe the Constution is unconstitional?
2
Along with your reasoning that Trump bombed Syria as a distraction, the pardoning of Scooter Libby should definitely be included.
3
You might have added the central problem with the Clinton campaign - Mrs. Clinton herself.
2
When Trump asked if Flynn could be let go being an obstruction of justice Trump needs to be impeached. When the tv report showing Trump during a campaign asking Russia find Hillaries emails that was a collusion right before our eyes. Mr Comey said
Trump was immoral and unfit to lead USA and the free world he needs to be removed before he sends any more bombs anywhere. Worst President in our History and the worst party . You all need to change your party name and moral character.
2
I have an idea regarding Syria. How about President Obama does not prematurely withdraw from Iraq? Then the Islamic State never makes a comeback and never rises to establish a state across a huge swath of the Fertile Crescent and never creates the civil war in Syria. How about Obama not foolishly treating the Islamic State as if they are the "junior varsity"? How about Obama not ridiculously articulating red lines and then backing down? It is Barack Obama more than any other Western leader who created this humanitarian disaster of Biblical proportions. Yet, Mr. Blow, you have no criticism for him, only for his successor who inherited the mess and who has largely defeated the Islamic State and has actually attacked the Syrian regime for their brutality.
2
Charles, he got elected to withdraw us from the Iraq disaster. he withdrew over a 3 year period responsibly. why do you exonerate members of Isis and the Iraqi government from their rise after our withdrawal?
In the comments Hillary is blamed for Benghazi (the house cut money for embassy security so if you voted for those republicans, one could argue that you share responsibility) the email scandal (she was by no means the first to do so and there was never any evidence that she colluded with the enemy) the Wall Street speeches (bad move but again only she seems to get criticized for this)and the uranium sell (really?). Lest we forget she and Bernie shared the same position on 93 percent of issues, yet only she, to use one example, was mocked for slow coming to the gay marrriage position even though it was at he same time as Biden and Obama and Bernie , for all his "progressive" bonafides originally said gay marriage was a states right issue. The piling on Clinton, without acknowledging her own qualifications for office and all the outside forces she had to face, frankly reeks of misogyny.
4
You are so right!
Don't forget to send your thanks to Bill Clinton and Loretta Lynch. It was their tarmac meet up and Lynch's recusal that caused Comey to have to step into the role of prosecutor. If he'd never had to decide whether the case merited prosecution, he'd never have felt he needed to explain it and he'd never have sent the letter in October, because he'd not have promised Congress anything.
I will never understand what Bill Clinton and AG Lynch were thinking.
3
Portland Maine overwhelmingly was Sanders territory. Portland Maine overwhelmingly voted for Hillary Clinton. Comey's revelations about more emails did not tell us anything new about Clinton and her reckless tendencies. As voters, we chose a sane candidate over the even more flawed Donald Trump The accusation that Comey's email announcement turned the election against Clinton is ludicrous.
Sorry, Mr. Blow. Clinton was the loser and can blame herself, which by the way, seems a pattern with the Clintons: We're blameless. We had two terrible choices in 2016 and I certainly wasn't going to vote for Trump, a disgraceful American citizen. But my conscience did not allow me to vote for Clinton who supported big, dark money and only more of the same. I voted for a more reputable candidate, Bernie Sanders who was done in by the DNC and Hillary. Forgot about that? I have not. The Clintons' standards of morality are not Presidential either. James Comey is the better of all three: He speaks and spoke the truth.
2
Winning the popular vote by 2.7 million doesn't make you a loser. An electoral college not doing its job as the backstop to keep America away from hyper-questionable leadership is not a victory; it's "just following orders" despite all evidence to the contrary. How did that work out for Nazi Germany? And how's it working here?
2
With Giuliani, who had strong ties to a renegade anti- Hilary cabal in the New York FBI Office, chortling over multiple TV talk shows that there was going to be an October surprise Comey might have felt that his hand was forced. If he did, its likely that his solution was worse than if there were indeed last minute leeks.
1
There is no comparison, not even a qualified one, between these two men and to even place their names as if there is equivalence is despicable. You may not agree with Comey's handling of Clinton matters, but I think that depends on how you feel about Clinton, but to place a man of decency and morality next to an amoral degenerate and say: both bad because the one didn't help my preferred candidate is really low.
1
Wow, our political "system" is a disaster.
1
It's important that we take the former FBI leader's book and interview at face value, shocking as it is. Most of the educated and informed American public (I am sure close to the 63 million that voted for Hillary) were fully aware of what an awful and vile man Trump was and is.
Comey, like so many others, has simply and clearly confirmed it.
It's more shocking to me how pundits see it necessary to disparage Comey even as they agree on the what a nightmare Trump truly is. Even Charles Blow does this a bit in this editorial piece.
The call for the end of the Trump Presidency should remain consistent, loud, and, really, requires no moderation.
We messed up, big time. On many levels. A conman, a grifter, a white nationalist, an ethical and moral low-life, a fascist, has become our President and is dismantling everything good this country has stood for.
We must do everything in our power to remove this curse on the republic as legally and as quickly as possible.
2
In contrast to his mentor, Robert Mueller, who always walks softly and carries a big stick, James Comey walks clumsily with a bloated ego and perfidious sanctimony. As for his big stick, Trump is holding it.
2
Mr. Blow, your columns are usually quite insightful. However, this time you failed to make a key distinction between judgment and honesty.
JUDGMENT VS. HONESTY
While many of us would decry Comey's pronouncements and misjudgments, he was being forthright about them. Just as he is being forthright about Trump and his interactions with him. You are essentially trafficking in the same meme that the Right and Fox Fake News are promoting — that Comey lacks integrity, is in it only for himself, and, therefore, cannot be believed. Nonsense!
FALSE EQUIVALENCY
He has great integrity, has been systematically honest, yet made an error in judgment in discussing the FBI investigations. But he is not, contrary to your assertion, in the same league or category as Trump.
BILL CLINTON'S ROLE
You also ignored Bill Clinton's role in all this! If he hadn't gotten on that plane with Loretta Lynch, she wouldn't have recused herself, and Comey wouldn't have been the one to proclaim on the email scandal.
ODD SHIFT TO SYRIA
Oddly, you shift half way through to the Syrian bombing. It's as if you had two columns in mind and mangled them together. Sure, Trump had extra motives in the bombing, including showboating against Obama's grievous redline error.
But that is not germane to what should have been a more detailed analysis of Comey's observations and case against the so-called president.
I've despised Comey since he stepped far beyond his remit to pass judgment on Clinton's email indiscretions and scold her, when his job was simply to report his findings objectively. I despised him even more when he released completely unsubstantiated and uninvestigated suspicions a week before the election. But my disdain and lack of respect for this sanctimonious man pales in comparison to my outright loathing of the man who is ruining everything good about this country, and my utter loathing for the spineless republicans that support him, and my immeasurable disgust for those who voted for him and continue tho defend his indefensible actions.
3
Comey is appearing "Trump" like. The language used in his book is on the same level as Trumps. I don't think anyone edited this book for its "childishness." Many personal opinions should have been left out. Comey reputation will suffer because of it. He is looking less an less credible. He has to stop responding to Trump and just stick with the facts. Comey and Trump are having a 10 years old meltdown. Comey needed to rise above it, but he did not. He's already put his foot in his mouth. Too bad. Vote democratic in 2018 and get the current party out of all politics. The republicans are a complicit lot with Trump.
1
Well said!
Comey is at best naive.
Trump is a beast.
Comey deserves some degree of responsibility for his role in bringing trump to the head of the USA, and yes, these people are also to some degree responsible for the Syrian tragedy- had Hillary been elected, her no fly safe zone in north Syria and ability to stand up to Putin would have been the best plan available.
"Comey is now making the rounds promoting his new book, which will no doubt be a monster best seller."
.
Who, pray tell will buy it?Hillary voters? I doubt it. Trump voters? Nah. This book deal is hush money, to keep Comey from talking about what Obama knew and what he didn't do to stop Russian interference.
"I'll have what []he's having!"
You say “There were many factors that played into the 2016 election result.” You left out our slave era electorate college and the winner-take-all method of allocating the vote. Also, Green Party, Jill Stein with a couple million votes earned - who realizing there was no way she was going to get elected, could have done what is best for the country and told her followers to also do what will be best for their ideals and pick from among the remaining two choices.
1
Donald Trump and James Comey will go down in history as poster boys for how much damage can be inflicted on our system of government by people utterly lacking in humility.
1
Thank you again, Charles M. Blow -
Yes, when Trump attacks, it is tempting to elevate the targets, e.g., Amazon, Comey, to something sympathetic, perhaps even virtuous - but let's not be tempted. Your headline "Dislike Comey, Despise Trump" says it all.
The bad guys remain bad guys, even when Trump twitters vulgarities about them -
But still leading the pack, way out front, Trump remains Public Enemy #1.
They both contributed to HRC's loss, which is our loss. An HRC presidency would have made us proud. Now we are humiliated by this monster in the WH.
1
Not to take away from the general thrust of the piece, which is right on the spot, but perhaps we haven't said anything about Assad's use of cluster bombs because, as the Times recently reported, we reserve the right to use them as well? https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/01/us/cluster-munitions-pentagon-south-k...
If Trump would discover a cure for cancer, Chuck would be suspicious of Trump's motives and he would worry about the fate of cancer drug companies.
1
Comey also was morally unfit to head the FBI. The citizens of the USA had a right to know that Trump was also under investigation October 28, 2016.
I will not reward him by buying his book
"He made reckless and harmful disclosures and proclamations about the Clinton investigation while not whispering a word about the concurrent investigation into the Trump campaign."
And Comey made quite reasonable responses to both issues. The fact that HRC lost to the most pathetic presidential candidate in history is too much for her die-hard devotees to accept, so they sweep it away with, "The Clinton campaign’s miscalculations".
Comey is a proven criminal and liar. President Trump is doing a superb job amidst a Democratic party that is hopelessly extreme and obstructionist. I dearly love President Trump.
No, we should never leave the electoral college system. James Madison and his compatriots were very wary of majoritarian democracy. Those founding fathers knew their stuff.
Pots calling out the kettles.
Thanks again, Mr. Blow for once again spelling out so clearly just what is going on in our country & the world. ...I was on the phone with a U.S. Congressional candidate (a Democrat asking for a political contribution, of course) the morning after Comey's Clinton e-mail bombshell. I told her, "Comey just threw the election to Trump;" the candidate demurred. As Mr. Blow points out, there were dozens of other factors at play, but Comey should spend the rest of life apologizing for his horrendous action.
One need not side with Comey the man to side for his truth to triumph over Trump's lies.
Comey made galling, hard-headed, ill-conceived mistakes, but unlike Trump, he is not a pathological liar who would stop at nothing to cover his wrongdoings.
Comey is far from a hero, but Trump is unmistakably villainous. Comey can't absolve his role in Trump's election, but we all lose if Trump is not held accountable for his attempted abuses of the Justice Department.
I agree, Comey committed a crime, a sin against humanity, and unforgivably ruined our democracy by making statements about the innocuous emails. He is as guilty as Trump, Trump's supporters, Republican politicians, and Republican voters. They all belong in prison.
Agree with you, Trump despicable, Comey less so. Comey's explanation about the email investigation 10 days before the election is garbage -- he shouldn't of revealed it, gone ahead and done the investigation - what, it took jut a few days anyway - and shut up about it if and until the matter was raised -- at which time he had covered himself because he had done the investigation and found nothing wrong. For some reason, this Hillary email issue took on a huge significance, I for one still wonder why, seems such a minor transgression but it took on a life of its own aided by Trump's unrelenting drumbeat about how crooked she was. And Trump complaining so bitterly about Comey now is laughable -- he loved what Comey did at that time, praised him to the skies
Like Mr. Blow and many of the comments below....I agree that Comey may have contributed to the loss of the election to Mr. Trump. There were other factors as well, redistricting--that prevented fair representation of voters, the Russian scattering of misinformation, a frustrated electorate, and maybe even an electorate that felt, she's going win, so I can stay home. All of this and more. Comey may have contributed to the mess but he is right about Trump and he is a Republican and so few of them will stand against this morally absent human being--. I find Comey liking the spotlight a little too much but my god he is standing for something I hope all Americans will listen to.
Maher put it best. The attack on Syria is “Operation Stormy”.
Look. In 2016 we held a presidential election campaign during which BOTH candidates were under FBI investigation! How utterly ridiculous. And now both sides are blaming Comey for struggling with how much information to give the American people about their Hobson's Choice.
There's plenty of blame to go around. Trump gave his supporters permission to hate, so they voted for a traitor and a crook . Obama ran against Hillary in 2008 because he thought she wasn't fit to be president. Then he selects her to be--why, oh why?-- Secretary of State, giving Hillary a platform to make a presidential bid. So blame Obama for fueling her political ambitions and convincing the Democratic rank and file that she was worthy of leading our country.
During Hillary's tenure at State, she did her best to persuade Democrats that she was incredibly incompetent, and still the DNC caved and ceded control of the nominating process to her blind ambition.
As a voter, I want all available information about candidates, especially when that info is gathered via taxpayer dollars. So I welcomed Comey's assessment of Hillary's extremely careless handling of sensitive government emails. And it was already obvious that Trump was a dope. I wrote in Bernie on my ballot.
When talking about hate, let's not forget about Hillary calling half of all Americans deplorable.
Knowing he inflicted President Donald Trump on America is a punishment that will never end for James Comey.
Excellent article Mr. Blow. I agree with you on every point. But I think there is more, and I can't say exactly what that is. However, I fail to understand how a supposedly intelligent man like Comey, in a highly sensitive position could be so dumb. Dumb or stupid may not be the correct words. Perhaps naive and unsophisticated; certainly unprepared for the position, and responsibility he had.
If Clinton wasn't foisted on us by the plutocrat-funded DNC, we wouldn't be having this conversation now. She, with the impeccable, sterling resume, cultivated step by step over decades, just squeaked by in the popular vote over a complete buffoon, with absolutely no qualifications. That says something about her, does it not Mr. Blow? Comey is a sideshow compared the real machinations that gave us Hillary.
1
It is surprising to me how much criticism is heaped on Comey for his comments about Trump and how they show a lack of respect for the President. Seriously?? Donald Trump constantly demeans people, gives them ugly names, calls them liars and demands that they be investigated and or arrested. He respects no one. Comey is simply talking Trump's language and Truth To Power, something that the gutless Republicans in Congress have lacked the courage to do.
Comey is trolling Trump, attempting to provoke him into a self destructive mistake. Comey seems willing to risk his reputation in order to set the Nation straight.
Let's not deify Comey. Let's keep in mind what Mr. Blow points out. Let's also acknowledge that #45 is an ILLEGITIMATE president. His presidency thus far is an absurdity, like a reality-t.v. show. It coaxes us into false distinctions: what's the difference between killing kids with barrel bombs or killing them with poison?
1
I am looking forward to the day which I believe may be coming soon when Putin -- annoyed by Trump’s sudden burst of activity against him in Syria -- will finally begin releasing some of the hotel room “golden shower” tapes that Trump stars in. Netflix and HBO will bid furiously for the rights to show them. Fundamentalist preachers will appear on CNN and denounce Putin as Satan and defend Trump as a sinner who has redeemed himself by appointing Christian judges to the courts. Fox News will brand the tapes as an outright fraud created by friends of Hillary Clinton. Alan Dershowitz will draw attention to violations of Trump's civil rights. Melania will maintain radio silence, and will not defend him. Trump himself will announce further sanctions against Russia and point to acts of greater depravity by Bill Clinton. Mueller, Rosenstein and Sessions will all be let go and replaced by Trump flunkies. One of them will turn out to be Trump's hairdresser. Republicans will cover their eyes while announcing plans for further budget-breaking tax cuts.
Stormy Daniels will get a show of her own on MSNBC. The present craziness is just beginning. We ain’t seen nothing yet.
1
It is surprising to me how much criticism is heaped on Comey for his comments about Trump and how they show a lack of respect for the President. Seriously?? Donald Trump constantly demeans people, gives them ugly names, calls them liars and demands that they be investigated and or arrested. He respects no one. Comey is simply talking Trump's language and Truth To Power, something that the gutless Republicans in Congress have lacked the courage to do. Comey is trolling Trump, attempting to provoke him into a self destructive mistake. Comey seems willing to risk his reputation in order to set the Nation straight. Trump seems eager to take the bait. This where we are right now...
1
ok. You dont like either Comey or Trump. So what do you propose to do about it beside stand your "moral high ground?" Try encouraging people to get into action instead of telling them you dont like what you see.
As usual, Mr. Blow is rational, impartial and sees things as they are, not filtered through a partisan lens. Comey is prideful and sanctimonious. Trump is that most dangerous amalgam: arrogance alloyed with ignorance. Mr. Blow has it just right.
1
I doubt the book will change any minds, in fact will probably entrench the tribalism even further. Trump haters will hate him more, lovers will love him more.
And Comey will get rich.
This article captures perfectly, as does much of what Mr Blow writes, along with his colleagues at The Times, the consequentialist, moral relativism of the Left. Something is acceptable if it meets the purposes and objectives of the ideology, and becomes unacceptable only when the ideological imperative is not met. A weaponized IRS? Perfect, so long as it keeps conservative groups from organizing effectively in opposition to OWS and the ACA. Special prosecutors and independent investigations? Great so long as their target is a president the Left despises, as we are told to do in this ridiculous article. Extra-Parliamentary actions, and rule by fiat and executive order? Wonderful, so long as it's Barack Obama doing it. Surely, given the size and scope of the Left's infiltration of the commanding heights of our media culture, we will forever have to put up with the absurd argument that Comey lost the election for Hillary and not her venality and incompetence driving the unexpected defeat. But until writers like Mr Blow, and his readers, understand that their ideologically driven, consequentialist approach to politics is responsible for the state of politics in the country, well, we will continue to have to put up with more than just drivel. In the meantime, enjoy the feast your approach to politics has created.
Again, forgive me if I’m not buying this as a purely humanitarian mission focused on protecting the Syrian people from suffering.
"This action and its timing stink. It feels like a legitimate crisis is being used as a tool of distraction, and that to me is unspeakably callous." This statement by mr. Blow is beyond contempt. His name fit his opinions
I couldn't say it any better.
Yes, James Comey influenced our most recent presidential election and helped grease Donald Trump into the White House. Why did he do it? His explanation — that he wanted to make sure the future Clinton administration wasn’t sullied by doubts or any spot of scandal — is too precious, and not credible. Apparently the FBI had known about the Clinton emails on Weiner’s computer for months before Comey’s momentous announcement in late October, according to the DOJ Inspector General’s report on Andrew McCabe. And the FBI agents conducted their investigations into this matter quietly .. as they did with their investigations into the suspicious actions of Trump’s campaign staff. They followed protocol.
So why did Comey speak out? I suspect because he thinks of himself as a hero, a maverick.
When Mr. Comey testified that the thought he might have influenced the election made him “mildly nauseous,” I thought “Darlin, you ought to be a whole lot sicker than that. Look where we are now.”
By this time Trump had fired James Comey, his October-surprise benefactor.
And now Comey’s hitting back, claiming his revenge, maligning Trump. At the same time, many influential Republicans have joined with (clearly guilty) Donald Trump in denouncing the entire FBI and claiming that it’s agents have long been biased in favor of Democrats.
Huh? Anybody recall 2016? Anybody check out the political affiliations of most high-ranking FBI administrators? (Republican.)
Dizzying ...
1
At least Comey, did not give into pressure to collude with Trump, in terminating investigations of Trump's campaign people colluding with the Russians. The plea deals that resulted from these investigations, that Trump tried but failed to stop, may end Trump's presidency prematurely. It may become the reason we will forgive Comey in the end, and even be grateful to him.
3
I believe we the voters were given a poor choice In the last presidential election. Nothing more needs to be said about Trump, other than that he is a mediocre, greedy, criminal demagogue who needs to be removed from office as soon as possible. Gerrymandering, racism, and our ridiculous electoral-college system played into his hands. Hillary was a decidedly uncharismatic campaigner who oozed entitlement. Better than Trump, yes, but that’s not saying much. The Democratic Machine’s use of super-delegates helped her to prevail over Bernie Sanders, who was clearly her superior in wisdom, communicative ability, and honesty. We need to get rid of a) the electoral college and b) Democratic super-delegates— both of which resulted in a poor choice.
141
Ralph, superdelegates were not a factor in Hillary winning the Democratic nomination:
www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jul/25/donald-trump/no-...
Perhaps she won the Democratic nomination because she was the only Democrat in the race.
I agree that she was "uncharismatic" in general campaigning, but in person she is a warm, genuine, thoughtful person. Not good enough in this current environment, alas. But I wonder, would you have said a man "oozed entitlement"? Or is that just because women and ambition are still an uncomfortable combination in many people's minds?
64
The desire for a candidate with "charisma" instead of a candidate with abilities and experience is how we got to Trump in the first place. Maybe our priorities in looking for the ideal candidate are misplaced?
56
Absolutely NOT buying the Bernie would have won nonsense and I voted for him in my primary.
33
It's easy, Charles. It's Monday morning and we weren't quarterbacking on Sunday, were we? We can criticize Comey in the Clinton affair, but there was classified, and sensitive as well, information on her private server. It is not according to any U.S. government policy. I voted for Hillary, but she mishandled information that had a secure location where it was supposed to reside. And then it leaked to Huma's machine. Bad. Very bad. Remember, I voted for and sent money to, Hillary.
What's Comey to do? Were he to have just let the investigation take its course without informing congress, Hillary would not have been elected. There are other influences such as Fox News, Cambridge Analytica-driven trolls, and a deep hatred of Hillary in the heartland. But they are too complex to ponder, so we could just attack Comey, were we players in the game. We're not.
I understand the work that shows a drop in Hillary's polling after Comey's testimony, but this is neither definitive nor does it predict the outcome of the election. Bannon was betting on getting 5 million more votes from the 29 million people who didn't vote in 2012. They weren't going to vote for Hillary. He used the CA analytics, not Comey.
So if Comey let it go, Hillary would not be elected anyway, and we'd be in a calmer state in regards to the email investigation. However, were she elected, it would all come out in her presidency. I'd like to see where you'd throw the ball on that play.
1
2016 was supposed to be the apotheosis of Bill Clinton. Unfortunately his wife Hillary thought she was above the law. That she could get away with using her own email server and mishandle secure communication. Then lie about it. Trump, of course, is even worse. Comey tried to whitewash Ms. Clinton's crimes but he couldn't just let her slide by, he had to characterize her unfathomably foolish and reckless behavior. Clinton then made the false claim that the Russians were Trump's best pals. Bannon's turn up the hate campaign was very successful while Clinton's proved ineffective.
The Electoral College did as much as Comey to elect Trump. And it's only going to get worse. As more people move to cities in blue states, the red states will gain unfair influence on presidential elections. Get ready to see more presidential candidates win the popular vote and lose the election.
4
Mr Blow has come to the same conclusion as many of us. But, while Comey's boy scout act is a tad tiresome, he has never shown any reason to doubt his loyalty to the country. Same cannot be said for the current occupant of the WH.
Also, to imagine that DT is all of a sudden concerned about the safety of Syrians is a stretch, but to be fair, this was not his unilateral decision.
130
So, what exactly has Trump done to justify questioning his loyalty to this country?
With a narrative like that, you wonder why Trump won, and the rest of us consider liberalism a disease.
1
Like you, there are many who cannot utter or write the words President followed by the name of that person who inhabits the WH. Yet it seems he is the constant uninvited intruder into our homes....keep that remote close by.
1
The current president is more loyal to America than any I have seen for over 40 years. He enables all to rise as the economy takes off and distributes the fruits of that economy to everyone. He loves America and it shows, (at least to those who are interested in finding out the truth). Comey is a lying, poseur out for his own self-aggrandizement and power. He did not indict Hillary because he "assumed by all the polls she would win". If that is playing politics, what is? Subvert the rule of law and justice because the person you are investigating might be the next president? Loathsome Comey just admitted he did what he did for purely political reason, not the rule of law.
In all honesty I had the same reaction as Blow; that Trump's decision to bomb Syria was motivated by distraction and not humanitarian instincts. Further I admit that I didn't have the facts Mr. Blow uses to support his conclusions yet we both wound up in the same place. But I'm not comfortable conflating Trump's Syria motives with Comey's e-mail statement just before the election. It's an over-simplification that drops more wood on a fire that's already burning out of control.
Among the many factors that played into the 2016 election, you left out the unsuitability of the Democratic candidate for high office, but good catch noting that about the Republican candidate. Each party did the public a grave disservice. That is the fault of no one but the parties.
3
Well said.
It is tragic that there no longer are any real "good guys" leading the federal government.
As a practical matter, the best that decent Americans can hope for is a resurgence of the Democratic Party.
Although Democrats are far more loyal Americans and decent people than are today's Russian-Republicans, both parties still genuflect to corporate plutocrats.
4
Comey is one of the few Republicans who has had the courage to speak out against Trump. His decision-making re. Clinton was improper, but at this time we need loud voices to speak out against Trump. The President's response, calling him a "slimeball," demonstrates how vital Comey's words were. We need a President with character and moral clarity, which is the opposite of our present President. Thank you Mr. Comey.
4
Says so well my own misgivings and contradictory opinions of Comey. What is rarely noted about his late October announcement is that not only did the polls shift for Clinton, it shifted Senate races. At least two Senate seats would likely have gone to Democrats. As a result we have a broken healthcare plan, Neil Gorsuch, a budget busting tax deal, and.....Chalk it up to a misjudgment on Comey's part, but is not the kind of mistake we can allow the head of the FBI.
6
It is important to keep Donald Trump off balance and distracted. It is also important to whittle away his support by Republicans in Congress. Whatever we might think of James B. Comey, he is helping to trim down Trump. Our ultimate weapon is the vote. In November of this year and in 2020, vote for every Democrat in sight. Vote the Republicans out!
5
I generally agree with you, but this time I am bothered by your analysis of Comey/Trump. The Clinton email story was already out there; the Russia probe had just begun and should not have been spoken of. The emails were fair game, if timing was misjudged. But let's face it, Hillary was a brilliantly prepared person, but a bad candidate. I am a life long Democrat but Hillary did not persuade me to vote for her. She may be personally warm and charming, but it didn't come across. I am 80 years old and was pro-Bernie; but at the polls I reluctantly did vote for Hillary. Except for the many women eager to see a woman President, much of the voter's feeling for her, like mine, was lukewarm at best. Trump needs no comment. We know what he is and Comey was absolutely correct in saying he is morally unfit to be President. I don't believe you were being fair.
6
I agree with your column but also think it is extremely important that Comey is publically saying the things that must be said about Trump while most of the people who should be rebuking him are silent. He is not without blame but for that he should be praised.
3
My opinion of the entire 2016 election is that it was a joke. Comey did affect the outcome whether he likes it or not. And Trump is not, as Comey stated, fit to be president of anything let alone POTUS. However, he's in office thanks to Clinton's and the Democrats mistakes during her campaign and Comey's October surprise.
While I dreaded Trump's being president I had hoped, just I had with W, that Trump would select good people to advise him and serve in his cabinet. I'd also hoped that he'd listen to them. I'd hoped that once he was in office he'd be president rather than being a toddler in the midst of a tantrum.
Comey was wrong in how he handled the newly discovered emails on the laptop. But voters were very wrong to believe that Trump or the GOP was going to change things for the better. The GOP has strayed quite far from what it was when Lincoln was president or when Eisenhower was president. They are as immature as the person in the White House and I, as an American, am ashamed that they are representing us to the world.
6
The only people that should be blamed for Trump's winning the WH are the people that voted for him. CNN released a poll result this morning. 34% believe Trump and not Comey. This is sad and frightening.
3
I sometimes think Mr Comey got confused with his FBI role of investigator vs his past role of prosecutor. The prosecutor role plays to his admitted self-righteous, ego, in love with his ideas side. The investigator side plays to his Eagle Scout, fairness side, just the facts follow the rules side. Between the two was his love and respect of the FBI as an institution.
The Email investigation was public. Clinton was slippery, never straightforward and she messed up, but not quite criminally. No one was going to call her on it, or he feared the AG wouldn’t, so he became the “scold”. And what he said was correct, but he as investigator wasn’t the one to say it. Once he did it, the wiener backup emails put him in a box that was tough to navigate.
The trump investigation never was public and he played that straight as an investigator.
It’s only becasuse he took on the wrong role does the trump investigation look suspicious.
Trump has been a pig, corrupt, criminal and morally bankrupt all his adult life. No surprises from Comey there. Though just because the electorate didn’t realize or care about it is no reason not to impeach b
6
Charles, and anyone out there thinking like Charles, do you honestly believe Comey wanted trump to win? What we've seen to date conclusively proves that idea to be false.
7
For gosh sakes, Mr. Blow, in listing the factors responsible for Hillary Clinton losing the election, you are not alone in ignoring the most important one of all: she ran a self-centered campaign that radiated entitlement. She gave the impression that she deserved to win the election, end of story. She did a terrible job of connecting with those people throughout the Rust Belt states who were losing their jobs and felt left behind by a system that cared nothing for them. Trump was and is a scoundrel of epic proportions, it's true, but he found a way to connect with them even if it was fake. He promised he would address their anxieties, their fears. He would not leave them behind, he said over and over again. Hillary did none of that. SHE was the main reason she lost, not the Russians or James Comey or anyone else.
3
The One: tactless, unbalanced, vengeful, immoral, secretive, nepotistic, agitated, lying, reckless, over-coiffed and under read, covering his own behind.
The Other: statesmanlike bearing, duty-bound yet flawed, opportunistic, intelligent, self-possessed, covering his own behind.
Business as usual in D.C.
3
Comey is a self-promoting, holier than thou, fired employee, bloated with his own, as one NYT contributor wrote, “hubris.” He knew Hillary broke the law with her emails. But even if she did, she was the wife of an ex-president, past senator, a past Secretary of state, running for the presidency. Most important for him, he thought she would win. He gave her a pass. But as far as the investigation he carried out concerning Trump and Putin, he later testified that he could find nothing that indicated Trump colluded with Putin and furthermore he found no evidence that the Russians influenced in any way the results of the election. He got fired because he would not release information about his findings. After he was fired though, he contacted a friend to leak information to the NYT and waited until he could be broadcasted on national TV during his testimony to Congress. His own admissions, as Nate Silver was quoted tweeting, “cut against his image as an honorable, principled decision-maker. Instead, he was just being expedient and trying to save his own hide.” In this op-ed, Mr. Blow also somehow to wants bring up the 500,000 deaths in Syria when he mentions Trump. Trump was not president in 2012 when Putin come to Obama with a plan to bring the two sides together to form a government and Assad would be out. Obama refused to even consider it. At the time, approximately 7200 had died in the conflict. Whoever you want to blame for the other 492,000, it certainly wasn't Trump.
6
Blow mentions Cambridge Analytica. Let's not forget that Kushner was leading all digital strategies for the trump campaign, and worked hard with erik prince to set up a secure back channel with putin - i.e., secure from American intelligence.
3
Another factor: Sen. Bernie “The-First-Thing-We-Do-Is-Kill-All-The-Billionaires” Sanders and his cantankerous claims that the “system is rigged.” How many voters decided not to vote, not to vote for Clinton, or vote Republican because they loathe HRC and Wall Street? Extreme ideological shibboleths, left or right, undermine democracy.
9
I agree Comey may have demonstrated poor judgement in regard to the Clinton investigation, however, I truly believe he was attempting to do the right thing, but moreover, Comey has more integrity in his pinkie than Trump has in his entire body.
2
Thank you for reminding us of the details on how we got here. I knew Comey would get a book deal. So predictable. But, this soon? And, I agree that his timing during the election sucked. Yet, even President Obama’s is said to have known about Russia’s messing with the election. I feel strongly that all of this needs to be investigated. Right now. Because it sure feels like our Democracy is slipping away.
1
I am not a HRC fan. I am disgusted by DT. The moment that Mr. Comey made his statements about HRC that close to the election I knew she was done. It was too close. I would not have been happy if she were elected due to her history and character BUT, we would have been in a much more stable situation today. We would be leading the world with our allies still beside us. We would be leading in climate change, equal rights and the rich would not have been able to make such a huge power grab. We are so much worse off. Mr. Comey is responsible to a considerable degree in my mind. He pushed her off the ledge and propped up a dictator wanna be with his actions. He should be nauseous. He certainly made me so.
5
No need to pick sides?
That's like not voting in the Trump v Clinton election because both candidates are flawed. You may not like HRC, but the other candidate can destroy the nation.
You may have a bone or two to pick with Comey, (I do to). Trump is a divisive and destructive president. We can circle back and judge Comey in due time. Time is of the essence when dealing with Trump.
3
Say and think what you will about Comey, and there is a lot to be said about his rank political decisions that, in part, threw the election to trump, the fact remains that he had a change of heart. Trump lacks that organ and will never change.
Further, though Charles and I strongly dislike Comey for all that, it does not detract from the role he has lately taken on.
Comey made himself a Useful Tool to the Republicans. He was thrown under a bus for his efforts and he personally resents that. He now makes himself a Useful Tool to the resistance. There will be no redemption for him, but there is a small measure of ironic balance, for which I am fraught with schadenfreude.
1
In October and November of 2016, I blamed Comey for Hillary's loss. But in the last 17 months I have drawn different conclusions. Comey is an honest man. He was in an impossible position and yet he still had to make a decision. If he had decided not to act on the new emails in Weiner's laptop, Trump would have refused to concede the election - which he had already been threatening to do. Comey was in the crosshairs and he made what he felt was the most honest decision. Get over it, clinton supporters (and I was a Clinton supporter). If you truly placed yourself in Comey's shoes, I think you would have said what Chuck Schumer said to him.
Later, he had to deal with Trump the mob boss and all of his obstructive and unconstitutional directives. He refused to enable Trump and he got fired for it. Trump has made Comey pay a high price for his integrity, because there is nothing Trump hates more than an honest person who is - in Trump's mob mind -supposed to be covering for Trump. I admire Comey. I don't believe Charles Blow or any other American could have done a more honest job, given those circumstances and exigencies. People call him sanctimonious because he is telling the truth, and we're so used to hearing lies or whitewashed versions of lies that the truth seems"sanctimonious" or holier than thou to us. Comey is one of the few people who has spoken truth to the corrupt power of President Trump. He had a front row seat.
1
Thanks Charles. All points well taken. And great list of the reasons for Hilary's defeat. On voter suppression, don't forget the pernicious effect of the end of enforcement of the Voting Rights Act.
My top 10 reasons for the Trump debacle (and none of them have to do with the non-existent skills of Trump or the plaint of the so-called working class voter.)
1. Our 18th century electoral system that overrides majority vote. So much for one person, one vote.
2. The elimination of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. With all the outrages, this one is largely forgotten, but enabled states (and remind me again why states run national elections) to disenfranchise voters.
3. James Comey. Need I say more.
4. Fake news. And by that I mean Fox news and its ilk, spreading lies and disinformation.
5. Lies -- Trumps incessant lies (amplified by swooning coverage) (see number 6!)
6. Swooning uncritical coverage of Trump. Every Nuremberg type rally unadorned, covering every goosestep.
7. The Russians -- Bob Mueller will soon be saying more!
8. The headwinds of being the party in power for the last 8 years. There is a contrary nature to the American electorate, no matter how successful the in power party has been.
9. The contemptible failure of the Democrats to defend Obama over his 8 years. Running away from his incredibly great record in mid terms was shameful. Denied a wellspring of support for Democrats.
10. Prejudice and misogyny. How dare we have a woman after the black man!
6
While not condoning Director Comey's pre-election damaging Clinton statements and disclosures, Mr. Blow's column does not give any accounting of, nor reference to, the constant, inflammatory attacks being made at that tense time by Trump and his "scorched earth" campaign apparatus to the fundamental fairness of the electoral process, that it was "rigged", "fixed", "a joke", "crooked", etc. Like the Clinton campaign and Comey, Trump and his own campaign did not expect to be victorious. He and it were, however, cynically preparing their supporters for a mass, post-election questioning and undermining of the legitimacy of a Clinton victory. The stench for creating further anti-democratic mischief and harm was certainly in the air.
It is in this historical context that Director Comey's actions must be evaluated and judged. Had Clinton won and his statements and disclosures then belatedly seen the light of day, any reasonable person can imagine the pervasive disruptions and upheavals to the country that we would now be dealing with. And, let's also consider that Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin would have even broader smiles on their faces.
Reasonable minds can differ, so we can all determine whether to like or dislike Comey. What matters, looking forward, is whether we as individuals determine whether to practice our right to vote. In this sense, I believe that Comey's advice is worth following to rid ourselves of the pox known as Trump.
1
Comey's undeniable poor judgement during the campaign should not detract from our applauding the indispensable role he is now performing: asserting values and an ethical sense that must be defended if we are to redeem our role as a society striving, however imperfectly, to be fair and decent.
1
"While we may never be able to weigh the factors that contributed to Clinton’s defeat and Trump’s victory, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Comey’s actions were part of them."
Seems to me we weigh the factors each day, Charles.
1
Historians will not treat Hillary Clinton kindly. She enabled her predatory husband, favored every single war/military action/bombing, chuckled at Gaddafi's horrid death, faked 'sniper fire,' and stacked the deck against Bernie Sanders. Her private email system was poor judgment. She should have beaten Cadet Bone Spurs by 25%, but didn't. Why? Because every fault of Bone Spurs was mirrored by a fault in her husband.
There is more than one good reason why political families (dynasties?) are bad ideas. The Trumps make it all too obvious.
4
I have no doubt that Comey (as Hillary's people believe) tipped the election. Can you imagine the effect if he had done the reverse of what he did -- announced that the FBI was learning about suspicious contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia, while refraining from any more announcements about Clinton? Trump has to be the world's greatest ingrate (along with the greatest everything else, of course).
2
Well Said Sir. I concur completely.
This line explains 2016 election results Charles "Between Comey and Trump. I dislike the former, but I despise the latter."
But I am glad that Comey stooped to the level of Donald J. trump because no one else would.
No, I did not waste my time watching Comey`s interview on ABC or anywhere else.
Neither will I spend a dime buying the book .
Now because of Comey we have to put up with this serial liar trump and who knows for how long ?
Where is the backbone of Democrats who could challenge trump successfully in 2020 to stop him doing further damage to this Country?
1
Thank you, Charles, for saying what I've been thinking (but much more eloquently). I hold no love of Comey, and think he was instrumental (among other things) in putting IQ45 into office. I also think while he is telling the truth of events in his book, I also think he is trying to make himself look awfully righteous and free of any wrongdoing, and save his own reputation. On the other hand, I absolutely despise IQ45 and firmly believe that Comey is a hundred times more trustworthy than IQ45.
Comey did more than any other individual to put trump into the White House. His early public report closing (before he reopened) the weird investigation of her email server consisted of a speech that amounted of a partisan hatchet job against Hillary Clinton, totally inappropriate for an FBi Director. Remember, her single-user email server was never hacked, as were the emails ervers of the State Department and DNC, precisely because it was a single-user system and was not as susceptible to hacking -- they didn't need to worry about one out of thousands of users clicking on a malicious link.
Indeed, I believe that the invulnerability of her system is precisely why Republicans were so irrationally exercised about it. Nobody ever demonstrated a single improper thing she ever did with that system.
But Comey's reopening of that non-case so publicly was a heinous act, particularly in that he did not seem to recognize as his civic duty to reveal the ongoing investigations surrounding the Trump campaign.
And linking it to the disgraced Anthony Wiener was a particularly clever touch, ton't you think?
No, I think Comey is despicable, but DEFINITELY not as despicable as Donald Trump. At least Comey seems to stick largely to telling the truth, even if not the whole truth.
1
Right on!
And neither Robert Mueller nor Paul Ryan nor Mitch McConelll are our likely saviors from the dislikable Comey nor despicable Trump.
All of these men are mere symptoms of the partisan political divide that has hardened the American people into governing gridlock. The Founding Father's intended this result in the absence of good faith negotiations and compromise. Peacefully preserving the status quo ante. With the exception of the Civil War it has worked.
We have the leaders we deserve. Unless and until we choose otherwise. Nations come and go.
1
Fair enough but I reserve an equal measure of dislike for Hillary Clinton for her email indiscretions for which she only offered a feeble apology and then vanished into the safe space of the donor class, relying on her status as royalty and the hope that Trump would punch himself out. Yes there are many factors in the 2016 election results. But let's not lose sight that the one that you trivialize as "Clinton campaign miscalculations" is the one that Democrats could control in knowingly presenting their least electable candidate tailor-made for Donald Trump.
My reaction is that Comey and Trump deserve each other. In their own particular ways they have brought our country down. But at this point, anything that inhibits Trump is good.
Time was a king, he had a jester
Now the jester has become the king!
1
I see Trumps’ use of force at this particular time as a way to deflect attention from the scandals swarming all around him. It’s a lame attempt to generate some positive news about himself amidst all the negative news coming out about him and his co-horts day after day. He is an immoral man playing a shell game.
Yes, Comey killed Hillary's chance to be POTUS, and if he hadn't done that, we would not be in most of the mess that we are in. Hillary would be right up there with Angela Merkel and Theresa May, leading a democracy and not trying to be a dictator or queen. That was Comey's huge mistake, and I hope he feels really bad about that.
However, maybe this book, combined with the Mueller investigation, and the revelation of Trump's tawdry affairs, and what is bound to be a mishandling of Syria and North Korea, and about 500 other big and little things, will at least prevent Trump from winning reelection. And if that is the best that we can accomplish, plus putting laws in a dozen places that will prevent this from ever happening again, then maybe that will have to be enough.
1
What I find interesting is the difference between a Parliamentary government and a government regulated by a Constitution. In a parliamentary system a buffoon can be elected but the opposition party makes the buffoons leadership so difficult that eventually his party looses the majority vote in parliament and has to either step down and call an election or resign. The fathers of of the US Constitution inserted the College clause thinking this would be a better means to avoid the election of a popular buffoon. One only has to read the NYT to figure this has backfired and come to the extraordinary conclusion that Corney is acting out the parliamentary system. That he is the defacto leader of the opposition. To put it more in stark focus Fox News is representing the majority party and what is unreal is that its roots are Australian. The reality is that the US should set up another Independence Hall and bring their 250 year old Constitution into the 20th century. I say this because South American Constitutions are a copy of the US Constitution and so all the Americas would benefit if Constitutions are brought up to date. Unfortunately the NYT latest editorial supports the existing US Constitution.
Mr Blow has said what I'd have hope more were thinking. Just because we concur with Mr Comey that the current president of the United States is a serial liar, a misogynist and an egomaniac, this does not mean we should switch off our critical faculties and lionise the man.
Comey, like the perjurer James Clapper, is an opportunist. I'd trust him more than Trump every day of the week. But that doesn't mean I take what he says at face value. The same goes for Robert Mueller - a man apparently so incredibly heroic, admired and flawless you'd be forgiven for thinking he came right out of a Marvel comic book.
So now we're to excuse Comey because he speaks more eloquently than Trump? How about we hold off on judgement until the justice dept. and internal investigations are completed? I don't like Trump, but I am not going to give anyone a pass because I dislike Trump more.
Actually, I blame Hillary for her loss. A miserable candidate, aided, and enabled, by the likes of people named Krugman and Blow, among others. Hillary may blame Comey for her loss, but Hillary should thank Comey for not prosecuting her. And Democrats should thank Krugman and Blow, among others, for having Hillary as their candidate instead of Bernie. Ironically, the entire Democratic Party is moving closer to Bernie's positions and away from Hillary's positions. If Comey, Krugman and Blow did not enable Hillary, we probably would have President Sanders instead of the vulgar barbarian.
2
Mr. Blow states that President Trump is randomly enforcing the red line against the use of chemical war fare. This is better than the prior administration which announced a red line and never enforced it.
3
Face it: Comey owed it to the nation to keep his fingers out of our election. Where were his superiors? Ought they have expected to be informed of his intent to "leak" the Hillary information as a matter of course?
You gave us Trump, Comey, and the voter snapped him up.
Comey's arrival on national television has been an optimal news cycle:
Trump's tantrum whisperer Kellyanne Conway said as to Comey:
“The president is very confounded that this person is always able to divert the spotlight to him.”
Conway also called Trump's election win into question by saying "this guy swung an election,” causing Hillary to lose the election 11 days out.
In effect, Conway admitted Trump should not have won the election, nor did her management effort help him.
She sounded like Jack Nicholson confessing to Tom Cruise in the movie about culpability "A Few Good Men."
Very interesting turn of events.
Come was between a rock & a hard place. Prosecutors find themselves in that predicament from time to time and how they handle it is quite telling of the integrity of the person.
I can't be as hard on Mr. Comey as Mr. Blow is. Yes, Comey violated his own Department rules in his press conference berating Hillary Clinton's use of her private email server and then announcing his re-opening of the email scandal. But I sympathize with Mr. Comey's explanation...I believe he had to announce he was re-opening the investigation...and Donald Trump and his backers are the reason why.
Trump & his backers have substantially diminished civility in the County generally and for elections, specifically. I believe there could easily have been a constitutional crises had Comey not made the announcement and Clinton had won. Clinton & Comey were both big losers.
Trump and his backers would not have been a gracious in defeat as Al Gore was...we'd probably still be reeling from the effects of a Clinton win and the denunciations of Clinton & Comey are the things that could have led to tremendous civil unrest given that many of Trump's supporters tout their right to keep & bare arms...and use them to protect the Country from those they see as trying to limit their 2nd Amendment rights in any way.
As hard as it is to condone & even appreciate Comey's violations of FBI rules, it's better that he did than didn't...hopefully, we still have 2 branches of government to protect us from Trump.
1
Of course it was distraction. My only fear is that when Mueller gets closer, the faux president will lash out with something really horrid and there will be no turning back. Someone needs to put a leash on little hands before he really runs amuck.
2
Nobody comes out clean from this total mess.
I disagree with Mr Blow's view about Comey; he has consistently tried to act without partisan bias. Though I completely agree with and am glad he has vocalized the thoroughly reprehensible logic between DJT's timing of the Syria attack.
With hindsight it is easy to criticize Comey's judgment on Clinton's email before the election. what if there was crucial negative information that came out after the election. Comey would be excoriated by the republicans if Clinton won. He was in no win situation.
3
Comey won't say it but he became partisan and helped Trump. I still want to see an investigation of the New York FBI office because they were obviously leaking information to Giuliani during the election.
2
"So why was an attack over the use of banned weapons so necessary right now, particularly since it was just earlier this month when Trump was saying he wanted to pull our troops out of Syria and since he campaigned on anti-interventionism?"
Very simple. Because video of this attack made it into western media.
As the kids say, 'photos, or it never happened'.
1
no doubt Mr. Comey is an honest and dedicated public servant. yet he admits to being a bit intimidated at times by Trump, as in agreeing at their dinner to be "honestly loyal" and agreeing to stay behind and meet with Trump alone in the absence of the Attorney General, etc. perhaps if he had been older and therefore wiser, he would have told the Creep to pound sand. maybe we should have a minimum age limit for FBI Director and other crucial, independent positions.
1
By admitting that his decision to release his letter to Congress about the Clinton e-mail investigation 10 days before the 2016 election(!) was influenced by polls showing that Clinton was going to win, so that presumably his assumption is that it wouldn't matter, was 100% a political decision. Not only that, but it was arguably the most blatantly political decision that an FBI director has EVER made publicly. Add to that the fact that he also knew about a non-publicly acknowledged investigation into the trump campaign's ties to Russia and chose NOT to make that public. An FBI directors first job is to leave politics to the politicians.
As far as I can tell, Comey's goal in life is to be liked or at least respected by everyone, but through his own need for adulation (sound familiar?) ends up being hated by everyone.
Possibly the best word to describe Comey is feckless.
4
The side we must pick as a nation is the side that stands for integrity, honesty, empathy for our fellow man, equality and a regard for the long term health of our nation. This seems in short supply in our government. We need change in November.
6
Thank you for a good piece. I think it is also important to note, however, that the polls were misinterpreted by James Comey, as well as Barack Obama and many others who played fateful roles in the disaster that is the election of Donald Trump. The best polls (soundest in terms of social scientific methodology) showed the race in a statistical tie. For Comey to still not acknowledge that is ridiculous. For him to decide that Clinton was going to win and he had to save face with his rank and file Republican FBI agents in the final days of the campaigns is unforgivable. He claims to have acted as he did in order to be non-partisan. That is laughable. And by the way, on what grounds did Comey opine and continue to suggest that Russian interference did not impact the election of Trump? And this is knowable how?
2
Acknowledging that there was a huge number of factors that influenced the election inappropriately, and we all know what they are, it still comes down to James Comey's grossly inappropriate revelations as the tipping point. How someone of his intelligence and knowledge of how Washington works couldn't believe that anything he said would not have a negative influence on Hillary Clinton's campaign, no matter how far out front she might have appeared to be, strikes me as willful naivete, especially surprising in a person of Comey's stature. Comey may be a rules guy, but sometimes rules impede what is right, and what is right must take precedence. It did not do so here; nor, while we're on the subject, did the Electoral College do its job, defy its rules, and stop the immoral would-be dictator in his tracks. I watched the entire interview and feel Comey's anguish, but I cannot forgive him for his mistake that caused it.
5
We are both on the same page, Mr. Blow.
And yes, not only are the bombings in Syria a distraction, the timing seemed to be a bit off.
Like Trump was waiting on getting the go-ahead from a 'higher source'.
Was this because they wanted to get the real ammo out of the way?
If there is such thing as the use of satellite imagery in real time, it would be nice to use to let us know what was going on in the hours before the bomb strikes.
4
"While we may never be able to weigh the factors that contributed to Clinton’s defeat and Trump’s victory, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Comey’s actions were part of them."
I would like to point out (again!) that Clinton's defeat/Trump's victory came about solely because we use an undemocratic process to elect our presidents...a system we use with no other elections anywhere in the United States: the Electoral College. Our country needs to change the presidential election process so that it conforms with all of our other elections—one person, one vote, and the victor is the person who receives the most votes. Also, we all vote on the same day so that all states have an equal say in who gets elected. The fact that by the time California votes the decision is generally already made is insane.
One person, one vote, one day to do it across the nation!
3
And that day should be a weekend or holiday so all people, or most, can get to the voting stations, even though Americans, especially those most in need, work 7 day weeks, don't have access to transportation, vote in crowded, dysfunctional places, and are often denied their right to vote by voter suppression. THAT is the greatest democracy in the world? Get woke people.
1
Run a bad campaign, add Russian interference and/ or collusion, and then Comey issues the coup de gras. That is the recipe for the election of the greatest threat to democracy this country has ever seen. I am angry at Comey and his ego and scared of Trump and his ego.
12
Even if the attack on Syria was a "distraction" as Mr. Blow claims, to divert attention from Mr. Trump's looming legal problems, why then did Britain and France join in? Are they part of the distraction plan?
Is your point Mr. Blow that as a mass murderer is a mass murderer, then why react because he or she is already a mass murderer?
Mr. Trump inherited Syria from Mr. Obama, red lines and bogus deals on chemical weapons.
Do not mix this into his domestic issues and worst.
4
The word that comes to mind about the timing and some of the content of Comey's book is unseemly. It is an old fashion word no doubt in an age of crassness that knows no bounds. But in some ways Comey is the flip side of Trump. He too has an outsize ego and more than a touch of narcissism . His breaking the sensible rules of his bureau because of a miscalculated attempt to seem "above the fray" was just cowardice writ large.
6
I dislike (the politics of) Douthat, Stephens and Brooks and I'm disappointed in (the politics of) Blow, Krugman and Kristoff.
The center left positions of the latter made it very clear that if Clinton had been elected they would have her back and not that of the targets of her neo-liberal policies and military mind set. So their arguments for her were not just pragmatic but much more complicit in the damage that likely would have been done if she were elected. If they had been more honest in their appraisals and less arrogant in their contempt for those who opposed her from the left I think people would feel more trust in them. While Clinton had one attitude towards the "deplorables" she had another for the rest of us. We were the disposables. So to vote for her to prevent the nightmare we are now faced with would be one thing. But to know that people like Blow would not be there as allies to resist the harm she very likely would have done was deeply disappointing and demoralizing.
4
Yet more 'whatabout-ism'..
So this means that you know absolutely how the center-left punditry would have reacted to a Clinton administration. That they would have been cheerleaders, or at least given her a pass on every action of hers.
Very convenient.
Mikeweb,
Clearly there is no way of knowing. But they kept doing that throughout the campaign.
I feel they genuinely want some measure of social justice as long as it remains well within bounds and doesn't disrupt corporate power too much. And there is nothing they have written since that gives me a sense that this still isn't the case. I don't think they are necessarily frozen in place. But for the time being it very much seems that way.
Unfortunately we are not talking about co-equals. One, shockingly, is the President of the United States. Comey is a side story to the nation's ongoing nightmare. Comey correctly states that POTUS is morally unfit to hold the office.
13
Never forget that Comey, like all senior FBI leadership, is a Republican. He acted against the precedents and policies of the FBI and politicized the Clinton email investigation, both with his excoriation of her recklessness and his last minute disclosure of a renewed investigation. Nate Silver places the impact in the range of 1 to 4 percent of the popular vote and believes it realistically could have cost her the election. So, given the fact that Comey cost Clinton the election, all of what's going on now is just distraction. This resembles nothing so much as a tag team wrestling event where everyone knows it's just for entertainment and the outcome is preordained.
8
My Mother had the tendency to mention foolish things we did sometimes 40 years after the fact when we were discussing the present. It took years to respond: Mom this is the Here and Now let's not get off track and find a resolution to issues we presently face.
This is a Here and Now moment which would be simplified by addressing the daily behavior of the President, those chosen for his Cabinet and the Republican Party.
My Mother used the adages: Actions have Consequences, Think before you speak. You are who you choose as friends and associates. Treat others as you would like to be treated. What you do reflects on the entire family. She drummed those principles into 7 children. A game of dominos visually taught how all actions are related.
Those basic lessons have been ignored by those in positions of power and hold the majority of wealth in America for they have seriously violated some or all of those basic principles. Sex scandals aside, the President is the most grievous violater, since he holds the fate of 320,099,000 citizens.
3
Thank you, Charles Blow. My sentiments exactly. I hold Comey responsible for singlehandedly destroying America's opportunity to have our first female President, a woman of intelligence, experience, integrity, and courage. He owes Hillary Clinton a profound public apology.
348
He owes ALL of us a profound public apology.
As for me, I would settle for his keeping his mouth shut about the whole matter for another year or two (including deleting his Twitter acct.) and having never published this book, which is only going to make Mueller's difficult job that much harder.
Also to possibly grow a beard, move to Alaska and take up wood working.
21
Lets not forget a $100 million for “public service”.
And protecting a President who dishonored the position with sexual misconduct with a young woman and then lied about it. Not too virtuous here.
8
I might take exception to the term "singlehandedly", but otherwise you've got it right, overall. There were others working very hard to keep Hillary Clinton out, but Comey's actions may have been the final straw.
28
Fair enough.
It may be that to surface in Washington, one needs a large measure of ruthless self-interest.
Comey, it seems, is comparable to Puritan jurist prosecuting witches, his hand on his heart; Trump is a small-bore gangster (who incites against refugees while ignoring this country's dominant role in producing them).
We don't need such heroes but could do with a few more honest, competent individuals courageous enough to stand up.
Comey should have obeyed the "60-day" prior to election unwritten rule, said nothing about either investigation, and retired when the next administration took over. I don't think he wanted to work with either candidate.
As for Trump and the Republicans, how can they stand there and claim that Comey is a "Liar and Leaker," even though 1) this claim of leaking is unjustified and has been proven wrong over and over again and 2) they're just going to walk away without paying a price for all of their own lies and corruption? It is detestable.
I just paid my taxes—and if you'd allow me to pay taxes to K-12 schools, I'd gladly pay more—however, this year, I paid more than in previous years (percentage wise). Guess I should have had another kid, or lived in a state with income tax. Meanwhile most of the retiring congressmen who passed this evil tax cut received a nice little bonus from the Koch brothers et al. after passing the bill so they could leave congress in the black.
I'm not in favor of electing a horde of ideological newbies to run the government, like the TEA partiers did years back; but I know who needs to leave power as soon as possible, for the sake of our future and there are plenty of responsible Democrats running in 2018. I hope you vote. If you need a ride to the polls, let someone you trust know.
5
James Comey seems to have a need for the public spotlight, which doesn’t set him that far apart from his nemesis, the 45th president. Comey needlessly scolded Secretary Clinton for being careless with her email situation, guaranteeing national exposure while appeasing angry Republicans who wanted the Secretary tarred and feathered.
Failing that, Comey changed the course of American history, as he knew he would, by announcing a re-opening of the Secretary’s email issues just days before the 2016 presidential election. Now, his new book seems to be a pent-up release of his frustrations with the president.
Comey may appear to be high minded but comes off little better than the president who baited Comey into a mud-slinging contest.
As for the attack on Syria, the president was not and is not concerned about the well-being of Muslims in that war-torn country, given his xenophobia towards Arabs and his hatred of Islam. The president is locked and loaded, but not against Syria. His target is Robert Mueller. That's the real danger to America.
4
The Comey - Trump - Clinton triangle is indeed a jumbled confusing riddle. The enemy of my friend is my enemy; the enemy of my enemy is my friend. This is the conundrum that most Democrats find themselves - we cheer on Comey for efforting to bring down The Donald - we vilify him for bringing down Clinton. Sometimes people like this out-think themselves - this is clearly the case - Comey was papering his cage for the time when Hillary became his boss by showing that he could be independent. The problem is that he forgot rule number one: the truth is the truth. Because he whiffed with the bases loaded, the truth has now become a subjective - to be held in the eyes of the beholder. Comey may go down in history next to Booth, Oswald, Ray, Sirhan as one who changed the course of our history for the worst.
3
And why the fuss over a chemical attack, and no fuss over other bombs?
"Assad drops almost 70,000 barrel bombs on Syria, study finds" ..?..
2
Neil Gorsuch sits on the Supreme Court now because of what Comey did, he helped prevent Democratic control of the high court for the first time since the 1960's...Though most of that blame rightfully goes to Mitch McConnell, whose deep sense of entitlement prevented Merrick Garland from being considered....
That said, i dislike Comey, but i viscerally HATE Donald Trump & Mitch McConnell...
11
It is not conceivable that it never occurred Jim "Inspector Clouseau" Comey and his team at the FBI to question Huma Abedin. Assuming they did, it's not conceivable that the devices she used weren't questioned.
If the number of devices Mrs. C used was under constant review, why weren't the devices used by her top staff?
More than four years after her position at the State Department had ended Ms. Abedin still had in her possession tens of thousands of secret and sensitive emails. Why?
Those messages were on an unsecured device that was shared with her disgraced husband, a man with no security clearance. It's safe to say, given what we know of Mr. Weiner's usage, the device was used in public and on open WiFi networks.
This negligence alone should merit charges filed against Abedin, Clinton and Weiner and the firing of any/all FBI investigators involved - including Mr. Comey.
Had Comey and his underlings at the FBI done their jobs in 2015 the October 28, 2016 disclosure would have never been necessary.
As to the Russian connection, here's what the did; they mined Facebook data to target ads to potential voters. That meant running ads on FB showing Jesus endorsing Trump and Satan endorsing Clinton.
Does anyone really think those ads swayed a significant number of voters?
If so, we need to seriously reconsider literacy tests and other restrictions on who is allowed to vote.
3
Fair comment, Charles. To the list of reasons HRC lost, do add the Electoral College and its bias in favor of states with small populations. Add the award of all the EC votes of each state to the winner in each state (with only two exceptions), no matter how slim the winning margin might be. Remember, too, that HRC was the subject of an unrelenting 30-year attack from the right wing: selling uranium to Russia, pedophile ring in DC, murder of Vince Foster, words taken out of context and twisted... In spite of that, she won the popular vote handily. As for Comey, a true American hero who doesn't know his knee from his elbow. And Trump is everything Comey says he is.
259
Looks like there might be an initiative on the California ballot to divide into 3 states. Not that I'm really for it OR that the rest of the country would allow it, but why should the Dakotas, lovely as they are, have 4 senators to represent less than 2 million residents in an area much less diverse in economy and population than California, with 36 million people? Not to mention Montana, Alaska and Delaware, which also have 2 Senators but only one Representative.
25
Stop with the Clinton apologia. The biggest reason Hillary lost is Hillary. As for complaints about the Electoral College, try playing the game as it is instead of bleating that you think it's unfair. A dose of reality is desperately needed all around in this country right now!
4
dems are their own worst enemies. They insist on levels of extremism in pre election times and speeches that no sane president would hold to in office.
This is a prime reason so few Democrats get elected-they are too too ramrod straight in whatever positions they hold. Not like Truman FDR or LBJ who catered speeches to the people they gave them to.
2
I hold Mr. Comey in higher respect than Mr Blow does, and I think history will consider him as one Trumps victims and a man of integrity.
2
"There were many factors that played into the 2016 election result." I agree but Mr. Blow, you failed to mention the national press being tone deaf to what was going on in the middle of the country.
193
I agree that the press also played a role in the election’s outcome, most likely by providing an immense amount of free publicity for Trump to the detriment of Hillary Clinton.
I disagree with the location you ascribe to their toned deafness, a mistake many people make. Election outcomes time and again in our country, including the election of Donald Trump, show that the difference lies in urban vs. rural, not coasts vs. middle.
My observations of this differential also come from my personal experience of having lived for many years both on the coasts and in the heartland.
21
It was the media that promoted Trump in the beginning. And the media was MSNBC with the likes ofJoe Scarborough and Mika Brazinski. It was all about ratings for them. Then when it went too far with their interviews of Trump, the media realized that they had made a mistake. However, that mistake led to the election of Donald Trump. At least now the newspapers, Washington Post and NY Times, are doing a great job of reporting on Trump and his minions. Let's hope it isn't too late to stop the incompetence of the Trump administration.
15
When by May 3, 2016 Bernie Sanders had won Democratic primaries in Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana I began to see Hilary Clinton as vulnerable. The national media, in my opinion, made a serious error in overlooking the indications that states in the midwest, even states generally as politically conservative as Indiana, were not enthusiastically supporting her as a candidate but instead supported Bernie Sanders.
Rage and seething only gives one an ulcer.
I don't despise anything and barely dislike anybody. I don't hate on people ( especially republicans ), but I do rail against they hypocritical stances, ideas and policies. I stand against the system ( as it is ) and the procedures that hides power and allows that manipulate it to stay in power.
Everything and everybody that are the sideshows are irrelevant. The entire republican party is irrelevant. The NRA is irrelevant.
Progressives and Liberal minded Americans are the vast majority ( by far ) of the voting electorate. All they have to do is get off their duff and show up at the polls.
Then all of this is over.
2
Charles Blow, a man generally sympathetic to the downtrodden, sneers that the economic struggles of working-class white Americans are nothing more than "Racism, xenophobia, misogyny and ethno- and religious hostility disguised as economic anxiety." But, since the Clinton era began in the 1990s, the Democratic Party has cast its lot with affluent, educated professionals, largely neglecting the interests of working-class Americans. In 2016, that quarter-century of neglect finally caught up with the party, and with Hillary Clinton. I distrust Comey and despise Trump, too. They surely contributed to Clinton's defeat. But any honest analysis of that defeat must begin with Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party. Yet Mr. Blow refuses to write about the real story. Like Mrs. Clinton, he blames everyone except for the person and the party at the center of the disaster that has befallen our country.
5
Agree Mr Rasmussen, The democrats have thrown their primary focus to affluent working class and less so to minority and poor - that is a symptom. That gets to the problem of money in politics. The rich (and corporations) have outsize influence and are the benefactors the politicians cater to, not their constituents. Remove that and you stop making laws that transfer wealth to the rich at the cost of the masses and start to focus on return on investment that serves the masses: health, education and a healthy environment (the things we need to sustain us and future generations).
Hillary lost to Trump because no matter how many times we are taught about the past, how many times we study things like the "southern strategy", racial dog whistles, etc. It still boils down to "us" falling for anyone who hates the same people we hate and blame the same people we blame.
People have said it was about economics and jobs...and yet fell head over heals for a guy famous for bankruptcy after bankruptcy, leaving "lesser" business people holding the bag and telling people they are fired. Hope that works out for you!
9
Come on, Mr Blow. Equating these two is tantamount to saying there were good people on both sides of the Charlottesville March. This kind of thinking is what will give us 4 more years of trump.
9
Mr.Blow isn't objective in the least. Thank YOU for your comment.
Count me in as little dumbfounded too, dead is dead whether it is the result of being blown to pieces by conventional weapons or suffocating by a chemical weapon. I get the abhorrence that chemical weapons brings out but on a purely intellectual level it's just another form of violence and death.
Syria is and has been for a long time a disaster of biblical proportions, that can only be solved by the full community of nations acting together. Not a chance of that happening with Trump in charge, no other nation should or will trust anything he says or agrees to.
1
Comey made a mistake.even though he calculated correctly that if Clinton won, and then it came out she was being investigated it would have been a nasty mess. Remember trump thought he would lose too, and was whipping up his supporters to call the vote rigged. Ironically , Comey's. hubris in thinking he could go against the time honored rules of his own department compromised his integrity and helped elect trump.
1
what a tragedy no one will talk about the role of Global Climate Change in the turmoil in Syria.
2
Comey seems nothing other than a taller, thinner Mike Pence. Full of cocksure righteousness and convinced of their moral superiority, this is the archetype of the modern, nominally conservative politician. As always, when dealing with those wearing their moral religiosity on their sleeves, hang on to your wallet.
4
As with us all we are flawed humans but I get a feeling of fundamental decency with James Comey. The other guy not so much.
3
agree with Charles Blow. Our daily news is contaminated with lurid stories about Donald Trump and his son. SICK OF IT. What can we believe about the chemical attack in Syria, ie, who was responsible? sounds like 1979 and WMD when Rumsfeld and Cheney were so positive. Our nation has a history of supporting the wrong side. Wake up everyone and contact our Congress people.
1
Comey's wife voted for Clinton and she took her daughters to the women's march in DC. Sounds like a family of Democrats to me. While Comey's explanation seemed confused his pointing out that there was no winning hand seems true. And Comey does not appear to be a liar. Does he get any points for standing up to Trump? How many high up officials can you name who have done the same?
3
Sometimes silence is golden - this is one of those times.
Comey's public attacks on Trump do nothing to enhance what we all know - Trump is morally and ethically unfit to be President. Instead, Comey's attack is doing a disservice to those who have opposed this president since his supposed election: generating guttural support from Trump's defenders that will result in a greater turn-out of his Republican voters.
My humble opinion. Come should shut up and let Mueller do his job.
3
Of course the attack was callous and self serving. Trump isn’t that interested in that business and Jared is taking care of the Middle East. What is wrong is giving Trump any form credit for acting. He was dragged into it by the French and British. Trump’s forte is insulting and threatening and getting someone else to take action.
1
I think you need to look at a person's whole life. If you do that, I'm not sure if you 'dislike' Comey. I think he's lived an pretty honorable life. He's not perfect, but I've yet to meet anyone that is.
Now, Trump is a much different story. These two really don't compare. Trump has been the selfish, greedy, bully, adulterer, draft-dodger, tax avoider, woman grabber for his whole life. I've heard Republicans speak of how moral and religious they are, for years, but now, look at who they follow: the money-changer, the charlatan, the fake moralist.
Trump avoids war many times, goes on the nasty Howard Stern show and denigrates women and says that was 'his Vietnam'. Then he says McCain and other POW's are really his kind of 'heroes'. He likes the ones that weren't captured.
So, Democrats, speak clearly. Say that we believe in a healthy and compassionate society, and that we must help citizens have good and decent lives. We cannot let the rich continue to run our government for their own craving (how many millions did Trump 'save' with the latest tax cut?).
The Republicans cut taxes for the rich. They explode the deficit and blame it on the poor. They are the immorality of today, and their leader is just a reflection of who they really are.
2
I agree that James’s Comey comments about Hilary Clinton’s before the election is inexcusable. That fact that it came from a person with a sound body and healthy mind makes it even worse. Comey apparently knew that Russian was up to something before the election yet he did nothing about that.
To a lay person such as myself it appears that Trump is delusional and that he may have difficulty distinguishing between what’s real and what’s not. He appears to be deteriorating minute by minute yet a lot of people like Paul Ryan and Mitch Mcconnell seem to not notice.
James Comey stands to make a huge profit off his book and he’s bravely standing up to the person who is probably the most powerful person in the world. I think Donald Trump is a disaster both as a person and as a president and he’s getting worse. Which person is worse Comey who definitely should have known better or Donald Trump who probably had no clue about what he’s doing?
1
After Hillary won the Iowa caucus I worked very hard to try and help Hillary to win the nomination and general election. I was at the Cedar Rapids rally for Hillary the day Comey's October 2016 letter came out.
Do I wish Comey had not written the letter due to the emails on Anthony Weiner's lap top? Of course I do, every single day! However let's not forget Hillary would NEVER have been in this position had she not so arrogantly and foolishly decided to not use an official SOS email while SOS and instead have a private server and personal email account for 100% of her official SOS emailing. This would be wrong in any situation, however during the 2007-08 presidential campaign Hillary repeatedly claimed Dick Cheney had shredded the Constitution because he used his RNC email account in the emails concerning Valerie Plame, which the RNC lost/destroyed, making Hillary's decision both hypocritical and indefensible!
However even with Hillary's horrible lapse of judgment in deciding to use a private email for 100% of her SOS emailing she was the better choice for POTUS over Trump by a factor of a billion! Voting for and campaigning for Hillary was easy. But please let us not rewrite history, Hillary's decision to use a private email account was inexcusable and that was not James Comey's fault, that was the fault of Hillary and Hillary alone!
2
The ONLY thing useful that any of us normal citizens can do now is vote.
VOTE.
And vote for a LEGITIMATE candidate. No so called Green Party or Libertarian cranks.
3
I too do not like Comey. I will read his book, but he comes across in the excerpts as sanctimonious and righteous and he stoops to Trumps gross level. They deserve each other. I can’t forgive him for announcing the relooking into Clinton’s emails days before the election. Both Comey and Trump have dangerous egos.
Comey's decision to announce, just before the election, that the FBI was reopening its investigation of Clinton had devastating impact. Not just on Clinton whose lead plunged, but on America; it gave Trump the election and condemned America to cruel and unusual punishment -- a sadistic warden in the White House and his jailers in charge of our Congress.
But is there a difference between Comey and Trump? For certain.
Comey is "a man of honorable service and flashes of horrendous judgment." Comey is a good, but flawed man. His mistakes diminish his reputation.
Trump? He is not a man. He is an aged child. But not just an emotionally arrested child. He is a psychologically damaged child. A child-man who savors tormenting people...even those who serve him.
So there is a distinction.
Beyond that, we need to escape our torture chamber before America is irreparably damaged. Let us pledge to overthrow the jailers. They are covered in the slime of their master. Who among them deserves our respect, our forgiveness?
Then we move on to Trump. He is abusing our Constitution while using it to hide from Justice. Mr. Mueller may bring him down, if not we, The People, must do it.
2
Both men have weaknesses, but Mr. Trump's are by far the worst and the most dangerous. Mr. Comey may be a bit arrogant and aloof, but he is not likely to lead us into a nuclear war with Iran or North Korea or China or Russia. Nobody can say that of Trump who is still trying to get us to forget that he was a draft dodger in our war against North Vietnam.
Your analysis is spot on. I would add that Bill Clinton and Loretta Lynch did not help things as far as Comey and Trump go. As for Syria, given that Trump, May and Macron all said this attack was not intended to affect the Syrian Civil War or positions on the ground, that is an admission that it was a political stunt. Of the more than 400,000 killed in the war, only a tiny minority have died from chemical weapons. It was a feel good piece of propoganda for three feckless leaders.
1
Mr. Blow is absolutely correct. Comey is a manipulative agent always acting in his own best interests instead of the interests of his office or the interests of the Constitution of the United States of America. There is no evidence that Comey has honored his oath of office. He is the singular most repulsive force that manipulated the results of the 2016 election in favor of Donald Trump.
No, I don’t buy your reasons. Comey was in a spot where he could not; not make a decision. He has justified his actions and he remains honorable in my eyes.
1
Thank you Charles for today’s 15 minutes of anti Trump rage scream therapy. By this time next week, the public will have moved on to a new outrage. James Comey will soon be forgotten and his book will end up on the 75% off table at Barnes and Noble next to “What Happened”. The reason this will happen is because he has told us nothing new. Much of the public sees this as a self serving publicity stunt and an opportunistic media trying to juice up their ratings. In the end, everyone involved, the President, James Comey and the sycophantic media will be seen as degrading themselves a little more in the eyes of the public.
1
If the choice is between self-deluded sanctimony and narcissistic amorality, I agree that the former has a slight edge over the latter, but my real choice is none of the above.
1
Very well said: neither Comey nor, frankly, anyone with real investigative resources, has ever looked closely at the possibility that Comet got played and manipulated into making his announcements just before the election. It's not clear to me that the press really wants to find out.
Rage and seething only gives one an ulcer. I don't despise anything and barely dislike anybody. I don't hate on people ( especially republicans ), but I do rail against they hypocritical stances, ideas and policies. I stand against the system ( as it is ) and the procedures that hides power and allows that manipulate it to stay in power. Everything and everybody that are the sideshows are irrelevant. The entire republican party is irrelevant. The NRA is irrelevant. Progressives and Liberal minded Americans are the vast majority ( by far ) of the voting electorate. All they have to do is get off their duff and show up at the polls. Then all of this is over.
1
I agree. I cannot forgive Comey for his announcement about Hillary right before the election. He holds some responsibility for the disgraceful election of Trump. Terrible lapse in judgement, unforgivable in my book.(And I won’t buy his book)
Truth and trust are the only factors that need our consideration, as regards Comey vs Trump and as regards the Syrian missile attack. Character really does count. The Republican Party gave its nomination to a candidate with no consideration for his character, which was plain long before he rode down that gold-plated escalator. Then Republican voters and the electoral college gave him the presidency knowing he was morally and ethically unfit to lead and represent our great country. He has been lying about things small and large ever since. We can't trust him. Can we trust Comey? There is no evidence over his career that he is a liar. Regardless of his motives or judgement, he wins that case. As for Syria, because high-level foreign relations, military and intelligence operations are always classified, we can't know the whole truth about the Syrian chemical weapons and the missile attack. We have to trust our president to tell us the truth. But we can't, because we know he's a liar and people who work for him will repeat and defend his lies. When 40% of Americans believe a liar or don't care if he lies, what happens in Syria is the least of our troubles.
1
Comey’s assessment of Trump is just another drop in the bucket. Trump is entirely a distraction. The real issues are who is really running the country, what do they have in mind, and what can be done about it? With dolts in the White House and vassals in Congress, I hope the press can do more to lay bare the realities, rather than focus upon flim-flam and staging.
2
Rage and seething only gives one an ulcer.
I don't despise anything and barely dislike anybody. I don't hate on people ( especially republicans ), but I do rail against they hypocritical stances, ideas and policies. I stand against the system ( as it is ) and the procedures that hides power and allows that manipulate it to stay in power.
Everything and everybody that are the sideshows are irrelevant. The entire republican party is irrelevant. The NRA is irrelevant.
Progressives and Liberal minded Americans are the vast majority ( by far ) of the voting electorate. All they have to do is get off their duff and show up at the polls.
Then all of this is over.
Mr. Blow ends his piece about the war in Syria. It prompts a few more thoughts.
Modern wars were waged by elites who spilled the blood of the masses. But we have now moved into the age of post-modern war where there’s often an asymmetrical power equation. All are now in the cross-hairs of weapons of mass destruction—not just nuclear-tipped missiles but weapons of war that find their way into once-sacred public spaces.
Syria is the latest example of the uselessness of post-modern war where asymmetrical weapons create hundreds of thousands of dead bodies and millions of refugees. Just because Assad wants to remain in power, he wields cluster bombs and chemical weapons against his own citizens. He’s aided and abetted by outsiders who see him as their proxy. He’s opposed by another set of powers using another set of groups as proxies for their wars against [fill in the blanks here because it keeps shifting].
Trump’s contribution to the mayhem is to add a few dozen missiles to make a statement. Only a statement. His generals recognize that to head in any deeper as a combatant will suck us into yet another asymmetrical post-modern war.
In the meantime, the carnage continues with children as targets. We must find a way to break the cycle. As Trump rages over Comey and Comey responds, precious little attention will be given to matters that really matter.
Whilst I too dislike Comeys actions and think his ego is enormous- I have no reason to disbelieve him. As far as I can tell the man has never knowingly lied to the public (though he has for sure been wrong on multiple occasions). Trump on the other hand..
2
I too dislike Comey and despise Trump but I think of it as the enemy of my enemy is my friend. But I won't buy his book.
Rage and seething only gives one an ulcer. I don't despise anything and barely dislike anybody. I don't hate on people ( especially republicans ), but I do rail against they hypocritical stances, ideas and policies. I stand against the system ( as it is ) and the procedures that hides power and allows that manipulate it to stay in power. Everything and everybody that are the sideshows are irrelevant. The entire republican party is irrelevant. The NRA is irrelevant. Progressives and Liberal minded Americans are the vast majority ( by far ) of the voting electorate. All they have to do is get off their duff and show up at the polls. Then all of this is over.
So we have two "men" disliked and despised for all the right reasons who are America's headline for Monday morning. Why? Because they are conducting an insult fest consuming our media like schoolyard kids taunting each other. And there appears to be no adult in the entire country who is willing to stand up and shut these two juveniles down.
Our country divided into camps that will argue the reasons for the 2016 election outcome for decades. Nothing in this current spat will help bring clarity to the discussion.
Comey is free to peddle his book but I wish he would not indulge the twitter tyrant.
This entire episode points out the complete lack of leadership in America today. The leadership of an adult who respects truth, small 'd' democracy, wisdom, education, advice, The Constitution and rule of law. Trump is POTUS and embodies none of these qualities and habits. Come seems to have forgotten some at the present.
Our Congress has abandoned good sound leadership. They have abdicated their role choosing instead mute supplication. We are told there will be no new business conducted in Congress this year because they are too busy running campaigns for the midterm elections. Multi-tasking not being their strong suit?
Americans are being shafted. None of us are getting the government we deserve and is required. Our Congress just exacerbates the failures of the Trump administration by doing nothing.
We need leaders to heal the great divide within us.
Another irony, Comey will make a bundle from his book, much more than he would ever make as FBI director and the more Trump reviles him the more money he will make. I don't begrudge him this because writing is often hard work.
Further, Trump will never read Comey's book as he thinks he knows everything already and knowing stuff only brings up ethical issues, something Trump thinks is fake news.
2
Comey made a terrible mistake in releasing information on the new investigation into Huma Abedin's laptop and more emails. If he is telling the truth, he jumped ahead of the facts at the last minute in his announcement of the investigation. He also failed to disclose the investigation into Trump. Whether Clinton was ahead in the polls was irrelevant. His finger was on the scale. Mr. Blow is right to remind us of this.
I am sorry Trump is disrespecting and verbally assaulting Comey and the F.B.I.
Neither deserve it however he bears some blame for the current state of "Presidential leadership."
1
I agree Mr Blow.
Mr Comey may fault Trump for his demands of loyalty to him over Country.
But I would argue Mr Comey seems to have demanded loyalty to the FBI over Country.
To large egos on different sides of the fence.
I feel the same way. Trump's amoral and unprincipled. Comey's self-righteous. Comey decided, in violation of Justice Department policy, to talk about a case in which his recommendation was that no charges should be filed. That set an entire chain in motion. What did Clinton do? She violated email policy, not laws. For that great transgression we got high dudgeon from Comey.
We also got Trump and this president cares nothing for the rule of law. Comey's going to sell a lot of books, but he's no hero.
.
Charles,
Thank you for stating in logical and persuasive language my exact sentiments concerning the two men. They both have damaged our country, although Trump's culpability is many times that of Comey's malfeasance, with no end in sight.
To pin the blame for the GOP's war on HRC on Comey is to commit 2 injustices:
(1) It requires closing our eyes to the vicious, malevolent & utterly calculated role played by Russian criminals in coordinating a massive & massively successful effort at hijacking our political contest in the run-up to the 2016 vote, changing its content, trajectory, tenor & tone;
(2) It removes any shadow of responsibility from those Americans who, like the corrupt Broidy, or Michael Cohen, or RNC chief Priebus, or Newt Gingrich, or Giuliani, cast all ethical obligations aside in order to embrace, promote & assist a candidate they knew to be a self-serving, fundamentally dishonest transgressor who scoffed at laws & countenanced unambiguously hate-filled ideologies that trampled upon the rights of other human beings.
Trump is a hypocrite. Comey is consistent.
Comey is now being attacked in the same shrill, unhinged manner as the Clintons were attacked, by people who feel their privileges will slip away under the effect of Comey's frankness.
Mr. Blow: it is a legacy of slavery, and not just in America, that human beings obsess with owning others as property, seeking to control their behavior, beliefs & utterances. Respect for human rights -- respect, not contempt -- requires allowing another person to act or think differently from the way we act/think. So long as they comply with laws that exist to protect everyone's rights, FBI folks (Comey, McCabe too) are also citizens, with rights.
As I recall, the 'rogue' NY FBI office was going to leak the fact of Weiner's laptop and some new inquiry, and that Comey went public to get ahead of that. Whatever happened to that story line?
1
What Comey has said about Trump rings as true as can true can be. He corroborates what we have seen and heard from Trump with our own eyes and ears: the 24/7 lies, the galactic vanity, the Mob Boss modus operandi, the certifiable narsicism, etc.
But to call Comey “deeply flawed” is simply too mild. Comey has an ego so huge that Euripides would, no doubt, have written a play about it if he’d lived in our time.
The Comey-Trump Battle of the Egos is, ultimately, a Greek Tragedy writ large. And our country, at its center, appears to be in the process of committing suicide.
I watched the interview in its entirety. I keep going back to the whole campaign, the debates, the rallies, and like Comey said, "I'm mildly nauseas".....I feel more than nauseas that I was smug and delighted in the fact that the polls showed Hillary leading in the 2016 election. I feel some betrayal by being so mislead by the polls. So, I can fully appreciate Mr. Comey's mindset. He clearly thought like I did....that she was going to be our next President.
I found it interesting that he revealed his wife and daughters had marched the day after the Inauguration and that they were all on board for Hillary. That casual admission surely won't help his cause or garner any sympathy for his cause.
Like Mr. Blow, I dislike Comey and will forever abhor Trump.
1
Rage and seething only gives one an ulcer. I don't despise anything and barely dislike anybody. I don't hate on people ( especially republicans ), but I do rail against they hypocritical stances, ideas and policies. I stand against the system ( as it is ) and the procedures that hides power and allows that manipulate it to stay in power. Everything and everybody that are the sideshows are irrelevant. The entire republican party is irrelevant. The NRA is irrelevant. Progressives and Liberal minded Americans are the vast majority ( by far ) of the voting electorate. All they have to do is get off their duff and show up at the polls. Then all of this is over.
I strongly believe that James Comey had nothing to do with Hilary Clinton's loss. It was the connection between the Trump Family and the Russian intelligence network. Most of us overlooked the Cambridge Analitica and Russian spies.
1
Once again I'm amazing how Charles Blow takes the facts and comments and actions floating around my head about an issue and lays them out in a coherent way ordering up so well the order that makes it possible to deal with two people, neither of whom is admirable, but one is despicable while the other is vile and heinous and dangerous. I do hope Trump does not serve out this year, though that's probably a dream wish that won't come true. What's far more disheartening is how this election played out, the failure of the electoral college now having handed the election to two people who did not win the majority vote and worse, that there are so many angry, disaffected people who vote that needed someone to blame, didn't think about who and what that should be and elected the most corrupt human being who has ever run for president. That right there makes me sick and angry every single day this monster occupies the White House.
1
I fully understand your points for your opinion piece but when Mr. Comey talks about Trump being morally unfit to be President to me that is the bottom line, the absolute truth.
Mr. Trump on the other hand seems to have lost the need for truth on any subject if it servers his purpose.
Not respecting someone for bad judgement is one thing but the difference between bad judgement and pathological lying is no contest.
Everyone has flaws but not everyone is President and as the saying now goes the job does NOT make the man.
2
Your dislike of Comey and despising of Trump, Mr. Blow, both of which are defensible, gives the impression that there is an equivalency between the two, and I am sure you didn’t intend that.
Comey has without doubt made some hugely unwise decisions, but they come from a deeply patriotic, well read and thinking American.
Putting Comey in the same category as the embarrassment that purports to be our President is what I am sure Trump will welcome. I am willing to wager my considerable fortune ($1.75 last time I looked) that he will not read Comey’s book or even the Cliff notes. He doesn’t read books.
2
The difference is one is the democratically elected President of the United States. You may not like it but you need to respect our democracy.
A very shallow interpretation of events doesn't lead from the lesser of two evils to a matter of mere ego.
I think you need to look at a person's whole life. If you do that, I'm not sure if you 'dislike' Comey. I think he's lived an pretty honorable life. He's not perfect, but I've yet to meet anyone that is. Now, Trump is a much different story. These two really don't compare. Trump has been the selfish, greedy, bully, adulterer, draft-dodger, tax avoider, woman grabber for his whole life. I've heard Republicans speak of how moral and religious they are, for years, but now, look at who they follow: the money-changer, the charlatan, the fake moralist. Trump avoids war many times, goes on the nasty Howard Stern show and denigrates women and says that avoiding venereal disease 'his Vietnam'. As if that's funny.
Then he says McCain and other POW's aren't really his kind of 'heroes'. He likes the ones that weren't captured. So, Democrats, speak clearly. Say that we believe in a healthy and compassionate society, and that we must help citizens have good and decent lives. We cannot let the rich continue to run our government for their own craving (how many millions did Trump 'save' with the latest tax cut?). The Republicans cut taxes for the rich. They explode the deficit and blame it on the poor. They are the immorality of today, and their leader is just a reflection of who they really are.
3
James Comey did what he thought was for the best. He did not cause Hillary Clinton to lose the election - she did that. Democrats did that. All we had to do was pick a person who could beat Donald Trump and we failed.
James Comey did his job. It's democrats who failed to do theirs.
1
Anne: And YET.....she won by nearly 3 million votes. How can the loser still win by that large a margin? If she had won by only a few hundred, then the claim that it was he fault might have some validity, but 3 million? Think Electoral College.
1
I still see what all the hoopla is about the book.
Are we really going to learn much more than we already know about our lying train wreck of a president?
1
Comey and Trump are both playing the American people for their own ends. I don't like Comey--he doth protest too much. I too despise Trump--it's hard to respect a mob boss who somehow finagled his way into the White House. I also agree that the Syria bombing was intended as a distraction--and I don't expect to hear much more about that in the future. I also wonder what Trump will be up to this week as he golfs in Florida. Planning some firings maybe? He's certainly not working on hiring for the many positions that are still unfilled in his administration. Unfit, incompetent, dishonest. Sad indeed and dangerous to the future of America.
as much as I dislike Trump, I think he did
the right thing in the targeted bombing
of Syrian chemical weapons facilities.
if he is proven to have obstructed justice,
then he should be put out of office,
but I don't think one thing has anything to do with the other.when President Clinton
bombed an aspirin factory in Libya to distract attention from the Lewinsky scandal,almost no liberal columnists
condemned him(perish the thought!)
I think Trump ,for all his horrors,acted
decisively in attacking the amoral monster
Assad.as much as it pains me to say it,
credit where credit is due.
1
Attacking Hillary Clinton was the blood sport everyone, and I mean everyone, had to participate in. One of the most shameful spectacles in American political history. Comey had to join the blood bath. Hillary was going to win and every good Republican had to do his or her share to weaken clinton’s presidency. We know trump was setting himself to make big money attacking her after the election. Russia was working for republicans so why should they care.
Little did anyone know Hillary could not sustain herself against the most vicious national and international attack on any presidential candidate in American history.
We got Trump, the pinnacle of Republican thought and tradition.
The President of the United States fires a guy, then the guy whines about it in book because he is no longer employed in order to make a few bucks. Sounds more like an "epic failure" than an epic battle.
In Comey v. Trump you have two enormous egos. One is carrying the grudge of righteous indignation and moral superiority; the other the fury of a massive narcissistic wound and the need to destroy all who attack him. Both by their public actions are obstructing justice. Comey in publishing his book and attacking Donald Trump has severely damaged his own credibility. And, of course, Trump by his own words to Lester Holt and the Russian ambassador has already seriously eroded any credibility he ever had. Two men who "acted out" to the detriment of our Constitutional democracy. One who placed himself above the law by violating important norms about non-interference in presidential elections; the other intent on destroying the law for his own venal purposes. The end result has been a democracy that has been gravely wounded.
Camey vacillated between a shy overgrown Boy Scout, and a man who was way over his head when he was appointed head of the FBI. He reminded me of a Walt Disney character trying to pull the sword of truth that was hidden in the Oval Office. Hindsight is $2020, 2020,20.
1
Comey has a huge ego, and yes, that ego has done our country enormous harm.
But Trump IS THE HARM.
There's no comparison.
2
Wrong Charles. I almost always feel you are spot on balanced fair clear insightful and often courageous and learned.
This framing of Comey worthy of contempt is just plain sad. And worse gives comfort to all who are to willful ignorant or deceived to see he was in an impossible situation with a authoritarian manipulative malignant narcissist.
It has been said it is always easier to remain manipulated than to tear off our blind
Spots and see it.
I ask you to do this here
A friend
1
The headline of this piece tells you all you need to know about the NYT and today's unrepentant elites. I happen to think the trump moment will continue until the elite in the news and entertainments personalities come to grips with just how obvious and repugnant their privilege and sense of entitlement is (Really? Chris Cuomo earned that job?!?)and disabuse themselves that they somehow should be telling Americans how to think and how to vote (which is inevitably in the Elite's interest). For my part, I will Dislike Trump and Despise Comey, thank you very much.
I predicted Trump would win the election. It had nothing whatsoever to do with Comey, on anything except my logic which was that certain stable governments' initiatives were being defeated, one leaving the EU in the UK, the other being the Country of Columbia whose citizens voted down the government's arrangements with FARC to end their long war, the reason being not giving the FARC's serious enough punishment, In both cases going against the 'obvious' winners. The other decision came as a result of conversations I had with 2 women living in the Retirement community I do. Both are well educated, women of means and outspoken in their support of Trump. They are what would not be expected to vote for such as Trump. I was actually quite stunned but what tipped me over in predicting Trump's election.
People I knew were sick of the status quo and sick of the Clintons.
Comey was not an issue although I thought he was a 'snake '.
Carolyn DeCoster, Ft. Myers
I wonder if Mr. Blow (and Nate Silver) remember their Shakespeare. Sometimes the best of motives may yield dreadful results. Unless they Mr. Blow knows Comey personally, he cannot know if Comey re-opened the investigation into Clinton’s emails out of concern for his own future or out of concern for the country. Given Comey’s noble actions before that time and since, I think we owe him the benefit of the doubt.
The finally question for me is what did the Russians get when they hacked the RNC. Everyone knows they did hit WikiLeaks never posted any of those emails. The GOP fell in line pretty quickly with a guy that everyone thought would lose. Why is that?
Comey will prove to be an interesting sidebar to the real story of collusion and graft between Russia and Trump.
As far back as the late 80’s Trump has allied with Russian oligarchs, gangsters and spies in an effort to expand his wealth in Russian and the U.S.
Trump, being the terrible businessman that he is, has required an almost constant stream of dark money to bail him our and/or finance new investments. This required hundreds of millions of dollars in a vast web of shell companies and offshore accounts.
It’s fair to ask why anyone would invest in a Trump venture? The answer is two fold from the Russian perspective; to launder hundreds of millions and or course develop Trump as an asset of the Putin regime.
Trump is as they say in the popular vernacular of today a “gangsta” who is working diligently to solidify his position as America’s Godfather.
Here's another factor in Hillary Clinton's defeat, Charles. People despised her so much and trusted her so little, that they took a chance that (even) Donald Trump might be better. Next time, try nominating someone who does not have to destroy thousands records to hide her (criminal?) misconduct.
I'm as critical of Comey for his recklessly inappropriate disclosures about the Clinton email investigation, as I am of voters who used that episode to idiotically shift their vote rightward. Seems to me the latter is the real problem in America these days.
224
Like and dislike are irrelevant. I'd buy a house sight unseen based on Comey's representations and count my fingers after shaking Trump's hand.
Will someone please remind me what was in those 30,000 missing emails of Hillary's? Was there proof of payoffs to the Clinton Foundation that were clearly campaign contributions and illegal? I believe there were, and that Comey was justified in revealing his doubts at election time. But with the cascade of disgusting Trump moments since then, I seem to have amnesia about the import of those emails.
seems to have struck just when I should be remembering and understanding Comey's action.
I wish I shared your amnesia but in those 30,000 emails not one mention of Hillary or the Foundation. Seven years of Huma and her hubby, those disgusting moments I am sorry to say. Cultivate your garden Candide said during his perilous times
sounds like false equivalence.
Comey would need to to be able to convincingly lie to himself to be equivalent.
I shared my low opinion of Comey in a letter published April 12. His actions toward Clinton displayed reprehensible judgment. Instead of appropriately saying he recommended no indictment and why, he delivered inappropriate, scathing personal opinions that amounted to an attack -- one from "The FBI Director." His late October hubris sent Clinton's polls reeling and, again, put her in the politically impossible position of debating a chief law enforcement official who had no right to inject himself into the election. But for Comey's arrogance, Clinton would be president, 100 court vacancies wouldnt be filled by right wing extremists, and the Senate would most likely be in Dem hands. Comey changed history. Out of sheer ignorance and hubris.
310
Comey’s lasting travesty may well be he utterly savaged the reputation of our FBI whose virtues have long been duty for country and honor above all.
5
Oh yes, Hillary was just a poor victim who lost two elections in a row.
4
It's bad enough that Comey speaks only to God. What's worse is that he thinks God speaks back. On the other hand, Trump thinks he is God. Not much of a choice.
3
I agree with Mr. Blow. There is not much to like about Mr. Comey. Although I have no doubt that almost everything Mr. Comey says about Trump is true, Mr. Comey's public vindictiveness plays right into the narrative that the FBI is biased against Trump. Of course the FBI is comprised of human beings with opinions but whether active or forcibly retired, they need to remember the words of Sgt. Joe Friday--"Just the facts" and keep their opinions to themselves.
I can't quite agree with Nate Silver's opinion, in which you concur, that Comey's revelation of October 28 was merely a matter of saving his own hide.
A President Hillary Clinton would have been beset by a host of enemies, including a Republican Congress. The right-wing propaganda media would have been pounding her in a way that would make Trump's experience with the genuine news media look mild. If it had come to light that she had been under renewed investigation by the FBI at the time of the election and this fact had been "covered up" (as the right would have played it), that narrative would have overwhelmed the fact of her vindication.
The subsequent campaign to de-legitimize her presidency could easily have been paralytic. I think we should credit Comey with having worried about that, as I think he has said he did.
2
I’ve always felt Comey released those emails days before the election because he did indeed feel Clinton was going to win. In short, he was saving his skin from any backlash post election. Especially Trump screaming about how everything was “fixed.”
213
I have to disagree that Comey was merely saving his own skin...to have not re-opened the email investigation & Clinton had won, there could have been an even more serious crisis...Trump's ignorant lies, Tweets and venom would have worked his base into such a lather, who knows if they would not have tried to start an armed rebellion.
5
In a contest involving he-said vs he-said, the sniff test is essential for revealing the truth. For me, Comey rises far above Trump’s hucksterism and strong pattern of lies.
7
The election was Clinton’s to lose. It was uninspiring and irresponsible. With all that was at stake, the Democratic Party and Hilary campaign should have run with more depth, outreach and intelligence. Can’t blame that on Comey.
9
What exactly does that mean?
She had comprehensive plans for EVERY issue facing American voters, from JOBS programs, to infrastructure programs, to poverty programs.
The media REFUSED to air any of her campaign rallies, while at the same time airing Trumps empty podium while waiting for him to arrive to his rallies.
She was very inspiring to a LOT of people, but.. the media kept claiming the opposite.... repeating daily that she was too disliked, failing to mention that Hillary not only RESTORED Americans reputation in the world after the disaster that was Bush... Hillary left the State Department with a 69% Approval rating. Hillary was clearly doing something right.
Look up Hillary's campaign launch rally in NY, and see the many 10's of thousands of people who were VERY excited for Hillary, then go to her page and look at the various plans she had for tackling many of our problems from Jobs, education to health care... you will see that you are very wrong.
2
Excellent retort.
Comey alone did not tank the Clinton campaign. Back pedaling in TPP, failure to discuss the email, failure to challenge Trump. and in all this - ignored by the media - except for occasional criticism. Trump engaged in every offensive behavior and the the Republican darling.
5
Can we please stop relitigating the 2016 election Charles? There is no reason to believe that Hillary would have won absent Comey's injection of himself into the electoral process. There is reason to believe that without Comey's perceived credibility we may never oust Trump and that should be focus of our attention now.
9
If she lost by million, I would agree, but... she not only received far more votes than Trump, she only lost by roughly 70,000 votes between 3 states, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, which was also less than 1%.
Margins that slim, it is very clear that Comey's letter had a huge effect.
Hillary lost by 38 Electoral Votes
___________________________________
Wisconsin - Number of Electoral Votes = 10
**** Hillary lost by = .7%
___________________________________
Pennsylvania - Number of Electoral Votes = 20
**** Hillary lost by = .7%
___________________________________
Michigan- Number of Electoral Votes = 16
**** Hillary lost by = .3%
___________________________________
Florida- Number of Electoral Votes = 29
**** Hillary lost by = 1.2%
___________________________________
totalling 75 Electoral Votes.
And will resurrecting the past make a difference now? There are more than a few reasons as to why Hillary lost and when Democrats channel anger at Comey, they play right into the Trump's hands
I hold Comey partly responsible for Trump, I was visiting friends in Australia when he announced that the email affair was reopened. I told them that all bets were off at that point because it just played into the Trump narrative of crooked Hillary and might encourage Bernie supporters who wanted to punish Clinton and the democrats to stay home or vote 3rd Party.
I think most likely minutes after his first briefing of Trump and crew he knew what massive mistake that had been.
188
You seem to forget about the rejoinder by Bernie Sanders at one of the early debates, "... the American people are sick and tired about hearing about your damn emails". No. There were other issues that were more important to his supporters. It was Clinton's own hubris and cozy relationship with special interests and with Wall Street. The easy money that she made shortly before running making puffball speeches were more their concern.
Sanders gave solid backing to her in the end, and his primary supporters voted overwhelmingly for Clinton. They were, in fact, far more loyal to her than her primary supporters had been to Barack Obama 8 years earlier. The numbers vary depending on the analysis, but the percentage of Democratic to Republican crossover voters were about half in 2016 (10% to 12%) from what they were in 2008 (15% to 25%).
So it seems that Comey thought his actions wouldn't flip the election to Trump. Oops! Now he wants us to think that he is a man of principle while he cashes in on our shared misery. I surely won't be buying his book.
5
I despise Trump. I respect Comey. Luckily for all of us, Comey does not need to justify his decisions. They are consistent with the proper moral character. That should be enough. He has nothing to prove. That is up to Mr. Mueller and the Congress.
4
No Mark! Comey made a terrible decision re the Clinton emails and,even now, on his huckster book tour, his justification of his action on the emails rings totally false. Also, he had two or three opportunities to face Trump and say no I will only be loyal to the truth and the constitution, he didn't. He should have left the White House when he saw he would be having dinner alone with president. He should have left the room when Trump sent out Sessions and Pence. For a man of 6 feet 8 inches he did not and does not stand very tall.
I agree that Comey's second letter of investigation of Clinton may have cost her the election. So why would an FBI Director bungle an investigation to that degree?
I think the answer is because it would have determined the election. In the first investigation, the FBI "found" that Clinton violated federal law by using private servers for government purposeses.
But Comey announced that there would be no indictment becasue there was no intent to deceive by Clinton.
First, this violated DOJ procedures. The FBI doesn't get to make those decisions. And secondly, the issue of intent is usually left for a jury to determine.
Choir boy Comey may have been faced with an internal revolt by the FBI personell who conducted the investigation and saw thier work being disregared for political purposes.
To keep the lid on, and possibly to keep his job, Comey then annouces the second investigation, which was spurious at best, but was a way of placating his agents who saw him fold under the political pressure from the first investigation.
Ultimately Comey served no one well, except himself. And the fact that ABC did five hours of interviews and never pressed this issue is a sad testimoney to the state of journalism today.
2
There is no truth to this statement:
"In the first investigation, the FBI "found" that Clinton violated federal law by using private servers for government purposeses." [sic]
There is NO Federal Law banning cabinet members from using a private email.
There are rules, guidelines and policies at each level of government.. but that is not the same as federal laws, and nothing Hillary did rose to the level of a firing offense nor did she break the law.
BY the way, there are MANY Trump officials who are using private emails, and they are not even keeping them for government records, which is one of the most important aspects of the Hillary case... she did keep her emails, and she turned over all her work emails, as all government employees are mandated to do.
The email thing was a RUSE, a ruse to tank Hillary's poll numbers, so the GOP could win.
1
In a country where people decide a presidential election on whether they like the candidate or not vs the issues is interesting that we are debating who is telling the truth. With the future of democracy hanging in the balance I don't want to like anyone but know what the truth is. Mr. Comey has shown the man behind the curtain. A man with all of his warts who wants to destroy the democracy we have had in this country. Yes our democracy is not perfect at all but Comey made a statement last night stating that Trump knows exactly what he is doing. Giving money to the rich, taking everything from the poor thriving on hate and racial divide. not bringing real jobs back, health care. With the curtain open now the president is only for himself, his corrupt family and the Russians. His pardon of Scooter Libby was another act to support corruption at all cost. Like Dick Cheney never served a day in the military so he doesn't care whether other peoples children are slaughtered when there is no strategy for ending a war. Keep talking and sharing what you can so Comey just keep on getting up and trying to help this country because we need to hold onto democracy no matter what.
159
Mr. Blow - How I appreciated your thoughts today. I certainly agree with you about the timing and the shameless appearance of a distraction tool. Thank you, once again, for at least allowing me the chance to understand that I am not alone in my thoughts, feelings, and conclusions regarding this national nightmare. I'm with you and I hope everyday that we are closer to righting the many egregious wrongs in Syria. It is beyond comprehension what that country endures. To use it as a tool of distraction - well, there are no words I can find.
1
The cashing out involved in this entire fiasco gives me pause as well. There are no heros.
2