Time correspondent Zeke Miller has leaked a critical document. It may not be classified Top Secret, but it should certainly be stamped Highly Embarrassing. It’s the official Republican talking points to be used in combating James Comey’s testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
As it turns out, there’s absolutely no need to have today’s hearing at all. In fact, the whole investigation can pack it in.
President Trump feels completely and totally vindicated by former FBI Director James Comey’s opening testimony and is eager to move forward.
To paraphrase, Angus King, what you feel isn’t relevant, Mr. Trump.
The Left and the Media are using the Russia investigation as means to obstruct the president’s agenda. They are refusing to talk about the real issues.
This, says the party that has complete control of the House, Senate, and White House, is the reason things aren’t getting done.
But the biggest theme, the one that the talking points play up as proof that Comey can’t be trusted, that Trump did nothing out of the ordinary, and that this is all just media gone wild, is an amazing blast from the recent past: Hillary Clinton’s email.
While investigating the Clinton email scandal, Director Comey succumbed to political pressure from the Obama White House — this is far worse than anything President Trump is rumored to have said.
Does that include the rumor that Trump said “Make sure you get some on that picture of Michelle?”
The real thrust of the talking points is to not just wave off the value of the Russia investigation, but call out Comey as an untrustworthy liar. To do this, the talking points do an amazing job of not just taking both sides of an issue, but creating two false narratives that are in absolute contradiction and arguing them both at once.
Remember how the first excuse for firing Comey that was put forward by Donald Trump’s motley crew of surrogates was that Comey was too mean to Hillary Clinton? That excuse lasted exactly as long as it took Trump to get his mug in front of a camera where he could eagerly let fly that he fired Comey for not dropping the Russia investigation. But now that excuse is back. ‘Comey can’t be trusted, just look how he screwed Hillary,’ is a major theme for Republicans out to devalue today’s testimony.
But that’s not all. The biggest item on the Comey can’t be trusted list? He’s Obama’s puppet. Seriously, after everything that’s happened, the GOP’s biggest attack against Comey is A) too mean to Clinton, B) too easy on Clinton, C) “But her email...”
The central claim of the GOP talking points actually is shocking, and seems to constitute new information that could turn the whole hearing on its head …
A short time after President Obama’s April comments about the lack of intent, Director Comey used that exact basis for unilaterally announcing that “no reasonable prosecutor” would charge Secretary Clinton ...
“A short time after” would be in July, more than three months after Obama used the phrase.
Still, President Obama was supposedly scrupulous about not talking directly with the FBI. So the claim that he made multiple statements directing Comey on how to handle the investigation would be real news. The bulk of the GOP “proof” that Comey was leaned on by Obama consists of three comments that President Obama made concerning Hillary Clinton’s pending case. Statements that were made to Comey … never. What the GOP has done is to go along and catalog every public statement President Obama made over the course of the investigation. Then they’ve claimed that these statements are worse than statements that Trump made directly to the FBI director. In other words, Obama saying that he was sure that Hillary “would never put America in any kind of jeopardy,” is much worse than Trump clearing the room, getting nose to nose with Comey, and starting off with “I want to talk about Mike Flynn.”
If this uneven line up isn’t bad enough, while they swept up the few things President Obama said over the course of years, the GOP fails to catalog even a single one of Trump’s many, many tweets and statements about the investigation. They scoured the record to find three occasions in which President Obama mentioned the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails. For Trump, that’s a standard morning session of bathroom tweets.
The bottom line is … that the bottom line of the talking points is ridiculous. It’s hard to believe that even Trump’s biggest fan or those neck-deep in residual Obama-hate is going to be satisfied with the idea that Obama mentioning in an interview that he had faith in Hillary, is worse than Donald Trump sitting knee-to-knee with Comey across a minuscule table and demanding loyalty.
But, hey, “her emails” worked for them in November. When Republicans have nothing else, they can’t be blamed for giving it another try.