October 30, 2016

"But what I'm hearing from everybody... The F.B.I. is in full revolt right now. The F.B.I. has been in full revolt since the decisions made last summer."

Said Audie Cornish on "Meet the Press" today, claiming "some sources in the F.B.I. and the former district attorney's." (Cornish is the host of NPR's "All Things Considered.")

The moderator, Chuck Todd, immediately pushed her back: "Not full revolt. There's been a lot. I mean it's--there are agents--Let's not say full revolt." Todd was very controlling of his guests today, interrupting a lot. I thought it made him seem desperate.

Cornish continued:
CORNISH: All right, a semi-full revolt. Because what I'm getting at is if Comey hadn't said what he said to Congress and the rest of the world, it would have leaked. It would have leaked. That whole building was ready to leak that they had discovered this new source with Weiner and Abedin. So, I don't think Comey had much chance [choice?] here. And I think the F.B.I. is badly divided.
I think that explains a lot about why Comey got his letter out. There was also this, from Pete Williams (the "Meet the Press" justice correspondent), who who was asked whether Comey would "provide more details before the election" (as both the Clinton and Trump campaigns have requested):
PETE WILLIAMS: [That's not going to happen] based on what I was told just in the last couple of hours. I don't think they plan to say anything further. They believe that they did the right thing by telling Congress about this development. And their logic goes something like this: that the fact of the discovery of these emails was going to leak. That if it had leaked it would come out in all sorts of different ways and be interpreted in all sorts of different ways, and that the best way to handle this was just to get out in front of it. And secondly, they thought that if they waited till after the election and then it was discovered that they had found these emails, that would play into this whole scenario about how the system is rigged.
AND: Mike Pence was also a guest on the show. (And Todd really interrupted the hell out of him, but Pence kept his relentlessly on-task, solemn demeanor.) Pence brought out a point that I hadn't seen elsewhere: "[T]he F.B.I. director is keeping his word to the Congress that if new pertinent information came forward that justified the reopening of the case, that he would alert the Congress." If that's correct, that's the answer to the question why Comey came forward when he did.

Picking up the idea that Comey was keeping his word, that he had no choice, but a duty, Todd asked: "Do you think think Director Comey has a duty, though, to share more information of what's known?" Pence, ever somber, came out with: "I think he has a duty to move forward professionally and in a timely way on this." So, basically, no, Comey doesn't need to say anything more. In fact, Pence added, why doesn't Huma Abedin just put her emails out? Why does the Hillary campaign think the missing information should come from the FBI? If they sincerely want transparency, why don't they get transparent?

56 comments:

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

Almost enough to restore confidence. No, not.

dreams said...

Who would want 4 years of this except crooked Democrats and crooked liberals.

mockturtle said...

'O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive'. W. Scott

JackWayne said...

Supposedly 650,000 emails. It will take months. Lynch was stone-walking and Comey lost his nerve. Best case for a guy like me? Clinton wins, gets inaugurated and then indicted. Good times! Then Progs get the guy they say they want right now. The Idiot Kaine.

dreams said...

It seems like a lot resignations.

"EXCLUSIVE: Resignation letters piling up from disaffected FBI agents, his wife urging him to admit he was wrong: Why Director Comey jumped at the chance to reopen Hillary investigation
James Comey revived the investigation of Clinton's email server as he could no longer resist mounting pressure by mutinous agents, sources say
The atmosphere at the FBI has been toxic ever since Jim announced last July that he wouldn't recommend an indictment against Hillary
He told his wife that he was depressed by the stack of resignation letters piling up on his desk from disaffected agents
Comes was also worried that Republicans would accuse him of granting Hillary political favoritism after the presidential election
When new emails allegedly linked to Hillary's personal server turned up in Abedin and Anthony Weiner's computer, Comey jumped at the excuse."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3886942/Resignation-letters-piling-disaffected-FBI-agents-wife-urging-admit-wrong-Director-Comey-jumped-chance-reopen-Hillary-investigation.html#ixzz4Obz720Ad
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MikeR said...

Personally, I'm sick of "sources" who tell me about how angry people in the FBI are and how they're almost ready to do ___. If they're really there, and they had any principles, they would have made a press conference the day after Comey did.

dreams said...

"Personally, I'm sick of "sources" who tell me about how angry people in the FBI are and how they're almost ready to do ___. If they're really there, and they had any principles, they would have made a press conference the day after Comey did."

Pensions, they don't want to lose their pensions and they have to provide for their families.

traditionalguy said...

Summed up: as soon as the internal polls showed a President Trump landslide, we FBI guys revoked our oath to the Clinton Crime Family and sent a message to the new Presidency that We Are With Him.

Michael K said...

My daughter was close mouthed this morning. Won't vote for Hillary but won't say anything else.

Pence was good on Stephanopolis this morning. George was trying to get him to back off but Pence just sat there and smiled.

The terrorist event has not yet happened.

gbarto said...

If Bill Clinton hadn't shown up in AG Lynch's plane, the whole farce about the FBI deciding could have been avoided and we wouldn't be talking about Comey. This is what happens when you play games to try to manipulate events to make it look like your quasi-exoneration is anything but yet another political act undertaken by political actors more concerned with their own position than the facts.

dreams said...

"Pence was good on Stephanopolis this morning. George was trying to get him to back off but Pence just sat there and smiled."

Pence was a great selection by Trump.

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

WSJ in Drudge linked article persists in referring to the Clinton Foundation as a charity.

Eric said...

Comey might have avoided this revolt if he hadn't said that the investigators were unanimous in their recommendation not to pursue. Unanimous. These people can't just win, it always has to be a blowout. The amazing thing is that they never learn.

hombre said...

Pence is the only adult in the field.

Sad.

Mark CA said...

And why did FBI sat on this since early October (according to WSJ): "The latest development began in early October when New York-based FBI officials notified Andrew McCabe, the bureau’s second-in-command, that while investigating Mr. Weiner for possibly sending sexually charged messages to a minor, they had recovered a laptop with 650,000 emails... At a meeting early last week of senior Justice Department and FBI officials, a member of the department’s senior national-security staff asked for an update on the Weiner laptop, the people familiar with the matter said. At that point, officials realized that no one had acted to obtain a warrant.."

They knew for a month, and now they are scrambling to get Huma's lawyers to let them review the emails without a subpoena. Slipshod.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

gbarto said...
If Bill Clinton hadn't shown up in AG Lynch's plane, the whole farce about the FBI deciding could have been avoided and we wouldn't be talking about Comey.


I agree with this. I think the blue team has some legitimate basis for complaint about Comey's unusual public statements so close to an election, but they only have themselves to blame for how we got to this point. Bill Clinton is a cancer on the blue team. They should have cut him loose a long time ago.

rcocean said...

Someone will have to explain to me, why the Democrats, the party of all the "smart" "Good" people in the USA, nominated a 70 y/o woman with a track record of being corrupt, dishonest, and disregarding the law to the point of criminality.

Had they nominated "Slow Joe" or any number of vanilla liberal democrats they'd be cake walking to victory.

But the Dems just wanted Hillary! so bad. And my question is Why?

rcocean said...

Comey is a hack who's in the bag for Clinton. He was forced to revel this. If he hadn't one of the lower level - HONEST - FBI agents would have.

If Trump gets elected, his first job should be to clean house at the FBI. We need a honest, non-political FBI.

Big Mike said...

Pence seems to have been the right man in the right place at the right time. With discipline and judgment.

If Trump wanted to present concrete proof of the system being rigged, the desperate efforts of the media to say "Nothing to see here, move along" seems pretty convincing.

mockturtle said...

Dreams said: Pence was a great selection by Trump.

Yes, he was. And I think that, if elected, Trump will pick good people to fill all the slots.

Clyde said...

People with nothing to hide have nothing to fear from transparency. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. Unless, of course, you're a vampire like Hillary, metaphorically speaking. Sunlight would cause her to expire, shrivel up and blow away in a cloud of dusty corruption.

The problem for Huma and Hillary is that since the computer is in the hands of the FBI, there's no way that they could release the 650,000 emails in some sort of perverse form of transparency. If they could, it would be like an octopus squirting out a big cloud of ink, figuring that there's no way that the needle of their criminality is likely to be found in the football-field-sized haystack of emails (most of which are probably banal) in the time before the election. Of course, the ratio of needles to haystack is probably much higher there than in most people's email.

Jon Ericson said...

What keyword queries would the curious apply to this database?

chickelit said...

A vote for Trump is a vote for Pence.

Tank said...


dreams said...
It seems like a lot resignations.

"EXCLUSIVE: Resignation letters piling up from disaffected FBI agents, his wife urging him to admit he was wrong: Why Director Comey jumped at the chance to reopen Hillary investigation
James Comey revived the investigation of Clinton's email server as he could no longer resist mounting pressure by mutinous agents, sources say
The atmosphere at the FBI has been toxic ever since Jim announced last July that he wouldn't recommend an indictment against Hillary
He told his wife that he was depressed by the stack of resignation letters piling up on his desk from disaffected agents
Comes was also worried that Republicans would accuse him of granting Hillary political favoritism after the presidential election
When new emails allegedly linked to Hillary's personal server turned up in Abedin and Anthony Weiner's computer, Comey jumped at the excuse."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3886942/Resignation-letters-piling-disaffected-FBI-agents-wife-urging-admit-wrong-Director-Comey-jumped-chance-reopen-Hillary-investigation.html#ixzz4Obz720Ad
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I made this argument previously: i.e. a ref makes one bad call, but later gets the chance to make up for it. Wiener's boner is his chance.

MayBee said...

Andrew McCabe

This is the guy whose wife ran for state senator and got $650,000 from Terry McAuliff.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

"But the Dems just wanted Hillary! so bad. And my question is Why? "

The Donks will gladly sell their souls in an effort to win (and win or lose, that's what they've done this time around) but I've seen scant evidence that, beyond the willfully clueless Boomer women, that they really want Hillary. She was foisted upon them by the DNC and their media lackeys and I bet that there would be much muted rejoicing in the Democrat party if Hillary stroked out-after they won the election.

Jon Ericson said...

one email = one dollar

Prosecutorial Indiscretion said...

A more enjoyable title for this post would be "How Hillary lost me."

Original Mike said...

"Todd was very controlling of his guests today, interrupting a lot. I thought it made him seem desperate."

I've lost all respect for Todd during this election cycle.

Larry J said...

"Blogger Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...
WSJ in Drudge linked article persists in referring to the Clinton Foundation as a charity.

10/30/16, 6:05 PM"

Oh, it's a charity, as in "charity begins at home." The biggest beneficiaries are the Clintons themselves.

PB said...

Yes, Todd was bordering on unprofessional today.

Bruce Hayden said...

I don't think that the Dem party really wanted Crooked Hillary all that much. But, she had gotten her people into key slots over the previous 16 years, and they were able to manipulate things enough that she had the inside track, which she ran with. And, with that being obvious to everyone interested, the only people who ran against her were an even older socialist from VT, and a failed governor of MD. But, then, who do they have on their bench? Pretty sparse. A lot of old white people, some old black people who are too extreme for most of us, and not much else. It comes from so many on the Dem side seeing elected office as a lifetime sinecure.

Looking back though, it would have been a humorous matchup between Slo Joe Biden and Trump. Biden has a long history of inappropriately touching women, and for telling a lot of tall tales. Would have been interesting.

tim in vermont said...

If they sincerely want transparency, why don't they get transparent?

To ask the question is to answer it. There are probably emails from the POTUS on there, classified stuff. Maybe more stuff that would get people killed, as her mention of the Iranian scientist sure seems to have gotten that guy hanged. She can't do it. She is huffing and bluffing.

tim in vermont said...

I don't think that the Dem party really wanted Crooked Hillary all that much. But, she had gotten her people into key slots over the previous 16 years

Not to mention that they kept most of Bill's political machine on the payroll at the Foundation, collecting huge bonuses while the "charity" pays out so little, it was put on a watch list.

Original Mike said...

"What keyword queries would the curious apply to this database?"

Watch Hillary release them as hard copies.

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

ARM: "I think the blue team has some legitimate basis for complaint about Comey's unusual public statements so close to an election..."

Sure, because the timing of an announcement that Candidate X is being investigated could influence the election - whereas the timing of an announcement that Candidate X is not under investigation could not influence the election.

Yeah. Got it.

Hagar said...

It is an unusual situation, but the Democrats have themselves to thank for it. It was the AG's job to decide whether to indict, and if they thought Loretta Lynch could handle it better than Comey, they should have made her do it.

mockturtle said...

Why did Lynch take the fifth? Does she believe she is culpable?

traditionalguy said...

My wife loves Pence. No, she worships him, But she is on again and off again with that Self Centered Asshole, Trump. But today she is all in for Trump, for whom she already voted but with lots of buyer's remorse whenever Trump brags on himself.

I tell her Trump is exactly like Pence. Trump is the big city, Bronx smart aleck while Pence humbly uses an Indiana humble schtick, but they are both great communicators with perfect verbal timing.

Gahrie said...

I think the blue team has some legitimate basis for complaint about Comey's unusual public statements so close to an election

Tell that to Stevens and Perry.

Gretchen said...

Obviously they need to go through them to make sure they are not classified.

Clearly Comey has something big, or several big things, not just Huma committed perjury. This is something on Hillary beyond lying to the FBI.

MikeR said...

"Pensions, they don't want to lose their pensions and they have to provide for their families." Sorry, that doesn't do it for me. We have soldiers risking their lives and losing them in Iraq and Afghanistan. I think we have the right to expect people on the FBI to take their oaths seriously. That's if the FBI deserves our respect, which I thought it did.

Big Mike said...

@Althouse, have you ever considered a "Hillary is like Nixon" tag?

mockturtle said...

Trad guy says: I tell her Trump is exactly like Pence. Trump is the big city, Bronx smart aleck while Pence humbly uses an Indiana humble schtick, but they are both great communicators with perfect verbal timing.

Most significantly, they are not Clinton/Kaine.

I voted for Trump/Pence last week--no remorse.

Known Unknown said...

Maybe she's waiting for a "Hillary IS Nixon" tag.

Tim said...

"Todd was very controlling of his guests today, interrupting a lot. I thought it made him seem desperate."

I've lost all respect for Todd during this election cycle.

You had respect for Todd??? Ever??

grimson said...

Mark CA said...
And why did FBI sat on this since early October (according to WSJ)

Hopefully one of the reasons was to make lots of backups stored in separate, secure, undisclosed locations.

dreams said...

"@Althouse, have you ever considered a "Hillary is like Nixon" tag?"

Nixon was a much more honorable person than crooked Hillary.

320Busdriver said...

This gave me a chill


Democrats should ask Clinton to step aside

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/kass/ct-hillary-clinton-emails-kass-1030-20161028-column.html

Yancey Ward said...

I found the morning programs fascinating, too. My takeaway was this- it is becoming nearly impossible for Clinton's media lickspittles to defend her other than trying to shut down any critic who appears on the show, but this doesn't work if the critic is patient and doesn't take the bait. I don't know how Trump found Pence, but it was a brilliant or lucky find.

TBlakely said...

As flawed as Trump is he is a much, much better choice than an incompetent, utterly corrupt, criminal Hillary but that isn't saying much. While my knowledge of past presidential candidates is meager, I can't believe there was ever a worse pair than what we have today.

While there is plenty of culpability for our current mess in the political establishment and media, the bulk of the blame lays with ourselves. We put these people in power and kept them there. They didn't hold a gun to our head and force us, we did it because of laziness and utter stupidity.

Maybe I'm getting crotchety in my old age but I don't see an easy way out of this mess. Things are so effed up that I fear a collapse is inevitable and soon. It's just a question of how many will die when it occurs and how long the resulting dark age will be.

Yancey Ward said...

320Busdriver,

It is too late to dump a candidate, especially given you have a complete unknown like Kaine as the reserve. As bad as she is, Clinton running under her own name would still get more votes than Kaine would if she dropped out and he ran under hers on a ballot.

Brando said...

I don't see what else Comey could have done. If he'd waited a few weeks to disclose, and it got out that he had this info now, the GOP would have him up against a wall. Now, the Dems are after him for releasing this without any findings about the e-mails. But he's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.

tim in vermont said...

Wow, I could have written that Tribune article calling for Hillary to step aside myself. Stick the knife in more, is what I say! It is easily refuted in the comments though, because they called Trump the "orange Hitler." Isn't there a rule somewhere that says when you call somebody Hitler you automatically win? It's sort of like breaking the eight ball.

damikesc said...

Why did Lynch take the fifth? Does she believe she is culpable?

How can an A.G who takes the Fifth in an investigation be permitted to remain in office?

The "top law enforcement person in the country" shouldn't be relying on the Fifth to protect themselves.

Gahrie said...

It is too late to dump a candidate,

Tell that to Torricelli.