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It’s been said that Americans don’t have many moments that we experience collectively, as a nation, at this point. Like, there’s no one TV show that every single person watches all at the same time anymore. But I bet most Americans watched or listened to some or even all of James Comey’s testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday. His appearance was hyped to the extreme for two weeks. Everyone was waiting for Comey’s first public appearance since he was sh-tcanned by Donald Trump one month ago. When I say “hyped,” I mean it. It felt like people expected Comey to walk into the room and drop a pile of receipts and walk away. That didn’t happen. What happened was more nuanced and thought-provoking, and it turns out that Comey really did have some sh-t to say.
Here’s my issue: while I trust James Comey more than Emperor Baby Fists, that’s setting the bar pretty low. I still don’t buy his “I had to torpedo Hillary Clinton’s campaign, because Loretta Lynch spoke to Bill Clinton, BUT HER EMAILS” defense. I still don’t get why he lied under oath about Huma Abedin (something he was not asked about). I still don’t know why Democrats are falling all over themselves to insist that Comey is a good guy, because they can make the argument for impeachment and obstruction of justice without needing to lionize Comey. I still don’t know why Comey holds himself to such a different set of standards than he held Loretta Lynch, or even Sally Yates, who comes across as a person with bigger stones than James Comey any day of the week.
Everybody had different reactions to what Comey said and what he meant and what it all meant for Emperor Bigly. My take was that Comey was trying to calmly lay down his case for Trump’s (blatant) obstruction of justice, and Comey’s perception that Trump was “directing” him to close down the investigation into Mike Flynn. I also think Comey was also throwing some fascinating details about Jeff Sessions’ role in all of this, and that Comey truly believes that Sessions does not have clean hands in any of this.
The Republican analysis of Comey’s testimony is… convoluted. Trump’s lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, made a statement following Comey’s appearance. Kasowitz claimed that Trump was feeling vindicated because Comey said he (Trump) wasn’t being investigated. Kasowitz also claimed that Comey directed “unauthorized leaks” of “privileged communications with the president.” Except that’s total bullsh–t – Comey directed a few leaks in retaliation to Emperor Baby Fists’ character assassination (telling the Russian ambassador that Comey was a “nut job”) and in retaliation to the Trump tweet that Comey better hope that there weren’t “tapes” of their conversations. As I said, it’s convoluted. Comey kept memos of his conversations with Trump because, as he told the committee, he thought there was a good chance Trump would lie about their meetings. Which is exactly what happened.
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Source: celebitchy.com
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