August 1, 2016

WaPo Fact Checker gives 4 Pinocchios to Hillary Clinton's claim that the FBI director said her answers (about the email) were "truthful."

"As we have seen repeatedly in Clinton’s explanations of the email controversy, she relies on excessively technical and legalistic answers to explain her actions," Glenn Kessler says. "While Comey did say there was no evidence she lied to the FBI, that is not the same as saying she told the truth to the American public — which was the point of Wallace’s question."

That is, Comey was saying: As long as he doesn't know that she knows what she's saying isn't true, he has "no evidence" that she's lying.

And, in Kessler's view, Hillary was lying when she said Comey said she told the truth.

But I want Kessler to do a fact check on whether Comey was lying when he said that there was "no evidence." Evidence is anything that gets you closer to knowing a fact in issue, and there is a basis to infer that Hillary knew what she was saying was false.

Otherwise, how does Kessler know that Hillary was lying when she said what she thought Comey said about her? Maybe she really believes it. Who can know?

78 comments:

Comanche Voter said...

The whole Fact Checking shtick is usually a way for lefties to say either that (a) those nasty Rethuglicans were lying; or (b) the latest Clinton whopper wasn't really all that bad.

That said sometimes a baldfaced lie is so bad that even the Fact Checkers have to take notice.

But as for me, a WaPo Fact Checker could tell me that sun really would come up in the East tomorrow morning, and I'd shine it on. Little boys playing with their poo poo in mud puddles. Nothing to see here, move on.

Unknown said...

Dumpty Trumpty sat on a WALL,
Dumpty Trumpty had a great fall.
All the Trumpkin's horses and all the Trumpkin's men
Couldn't put Dumpty together again.

rehajm said...

Fact Checker is an opinion column.

So says WaPo.

Nonapod said...

Maybe she really believes it

"Jerry, just remember. It's not a lie... if you believe it..." - George Costanza

The best liars are able to convince themselves that their own lies are true. While I'm uncertain how far Hillary has traveled down the path of self delusion, I don't doubt that given the sheer amount of falsehoods the Clinton's have told over the years it has probably become difficult to remember which is a lie and which is the truth. The only way to know would be "It is the truth if it could hurt us."

Paul Snively said...

On one hand, it's important to uphold the vital fact that, yes, "to lie" is to knowingly tell a falsehood. This is what always rankled about the "Bush lied!" meme during his portion of the war in Iraq: I never saw anyone present evidence that he knowingly told a falsehood. On the contrary, the more I dug, the more evidence I saw that it was Joe Wilson who was peddling known falsehoods, which made it into intelligence reports that President Bush relied on.

On the other hand, worrying overmuch about whether Hillary Clinton literally lied in this instance misses a different important legal point, which is that knowledge is not a precondition to guilt of gross negligence. Those of us who say Comey subverted the rule of law mean, specifically, that when he says Clinton was "extremely careless," he's simply saying "grossly negligent" in other words, and to fail to press charges of gross negligence is... well... I'd say gross negligence.

So in my mind, it's a twofer: I'm satisfied Clinton is lying (because I accept the evidence that she's a pathological liar) AND she's grossly negligent. The fact that she isn't behind bars, let alone is a credible candidate for President of the United States, really does sum up the cancer of the body politic we suffer from.

Original Mike said...

I watched the interview, and what incensed me more than Hillary saying Comey had called her truthful was when she blamed the people who emailed her for the classified material on her server. It was subtle, but she did it more than once.

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

I used to think she was just a pathological liar. Now I'm starting to think she's a delusional psychotic. Perhaps she should be required to undergo a psychological evaluation before continuing in the race.

n.n said...
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Matt Sablan said...

I thought the Costanza quote we'd be using would be: "Was that wrong? Should I have not done that? I tell you I gotta plead ingnorance on this thing..."

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Director Comey said my answers were truthful, and what I’ve said is consistent with what I have told the American people,

You have to wonder where she knows she's lying or thinks she is telling the truth?

Morally disqualified or mentally disqualifed either be deficiency or illness.

PS: Not covered in the WaPo, but was in the Wallace interview. I cringed when, in good Obama fashion, she threw the 300 people she corresponded to, right under the FBI bus when she said:

I was communicating with over 300 people in my e-mailing. They certainly did not believe and had no reason to believe that what they were sending was classified.

Anonymous said...

Bushy beat me, cause I went for the PS :)

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...
I used to think she was just a pathological liar. Now I'm starting to think she's a delusional psychotic.

Mike Sylwester said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
n.n said...

Costanza quote: "Was that wrong? ...

Perfect!

Maybe she really believes it. Who can know?

So, the issue is one of framing akin to progressive wars or social justice actions, trial by jury or trial by sodomy session, individual diversity (i.e. individual dignity) or class diversity (e.g. skin color, race, sex), pro-immigrant or pro-native, gender or rather sex fluidity, evolution of human life from conception or spontaneous conception, clinical cannibalism (and trafficking) or planned parenthood, etc.

damikesc said...

What we're seeing is that Hillary learned no lessons and would do nothing differently.

Fans of open government, Hillary might be the worst candidate you could ever contemplate voting for.

Mike Sylwester said...

But I want Kessler to do a fact check on whether Comey was lying when he said that there was "no evidence." Evidence is anything that gets you closer to knowing a fact in issue, and there is a basis to infer that Hillary knew what she was saying was false. Otherwise, how does Kessler know that Hillary was lying when she said what she thought Comey said about her? Maybe she really believes it. Who can know?

You should be a professor of epistemo-logical philosophy.

(I inserted the hyphen so that your spell checker will stop "correcting" the word to entomological.)

Original Mike said...

Blogger damikesc said..."What we're seeing is that Hillary learned no lessons and would do nothing differently."

Oh, she learned a lesson all right. Or, rather, something she's known for a long time was reinforced.

Darrell said...

Hillary Clinton took an axe
And gave the Truth forty whacks
When she saw what she had done
She gave Justice forty-one.

Michael The Magnificent said...

She's lying, she knows she's lying, we know she's lying, and yet half of the voters will gladly vote for her anyway. Why would she start telling the truth now?

Hagar said...

Politicians lying to the American public is commonplace. Lying under oath to Congress is a different matter.

And the follow-up session with Comey that I referred to earlier was strictly about facts, not opinion.

Rep. Gowdy: Mrs. Clinton stated X; was that true?
Mr. Comey: It was not.

And so on for the full series of lies and misstatements she gave the committee.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

I cannot tell a lie - George Washington

I cannot tell a lie from the truth - Hillary Clinton

Bob Ellison said...

But the thing is, WaPo Fact Checker has been an ass for years.

Ignore what it says.

Ignore it even today, when it says what you want it to say.

lonetown said...

Why do they never insinuate she may be losing her mind if she thinks she did nothing wrong?

Maybe its not lying. Maybe its psychosis. Maybe the poor woman needs help.

YoungHegelian said...

@Bushman/SGT,

used to think she was just a pathological liar. Now I'm starting to think she's a delusional psychotic.

That is just so wrong.

She's a nacissistic sociopath.

Yancey Ward said...

William Safire was right- for Shelob, the lying is congenital. She does it shamelessly.

She knows she is lying. She is left with no choice now- the lying has to continue- to do otherwise requires an admission that she lied previously.

Lance said...

That is, Comey was saying: As long as he doesn't know that she knows what she's saying isn't true, he has "no evidence" that she's lying.

Or Comey meant that Clinton was perfectly forthright and candid in her FBI interview, acknowledging that she had sent and received classified email on unauthorized, unsecured devices, and therefore did not lie to the FBI.

Unknown said...

Of course, Emperor Trump never lies.

David Begley said...

Hillary's interview with the FBI was not transcribed and not under oath. Comey wasn't there. He read a report. We don't really know if she lied to the FBI.

Johnathan Birks said...

"I tell a lie every second of the day. My whole life is a sham." - G. Costanza

Unknown said...

In an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week.

Trump: “He’s not going into Ukraine, okay? Just so you understand. He’s not going to go into Ukraine, all right? You can mark it down. You can put it down. You can take it anywhere you want.”

George: “Well, he’s already there, isn’t he?”

Trump: “Okay, well, he’s there in a certain way.”

Trump the ignorant doofus.

Hagar said...

I suspect Hillary! never was "interviewed;" it was more of a conference about what Comey could say, stretching the meaning of "is" to the max, without actually perjuring himself.

DanTheMan said...

Captain Control-V strikes again!

Real American said...

Hillary said words out loud, thus you know she was lying.

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

@YH

She's a nacissistic sociopath.

Yep, that sounds about right. I stand corrected.

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

Interesting:

Julian Assange: So, those Hillary Clinton emails, they connect together with the cables that we have published of Hillary Clinton, creating a rich picture of how Hillary Clinton performs in office, but, more broadly, how the U.S. Department of State operates. So, for example, the disastrous, absolutely disastrous intervention in Libya, the destruction of the Gaddafi government, which led to the occupation of ISIS of large segments of that country, weapons flows going over to Syria, being pushed by Hillary Clinton, into jihadists within Syria, including ISIS, that’s there in those emails. There’s more than 1,700 emails in Hillary Clinton’s collection, that we have released, just about Libya alone.

Sebastian said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sebastian said...

@AA: "But I want Kessler to do a fact check on whether Comey was lying when he said that there was "no evidence."" Yeah, you want. What "facts" do you propose he uses? That transcript of the FBI interview, for example. Sorry. Doesn't exist. Interviews with agents? Sorry, they had to sign non-disclosure statements. And so on.

@OriginalMike: "what incensed me more than Hillary saying Comey had called her truthful was when she blamed the people who emailed her for the classified material on her server. It was subtle, but she did it more than once." It's not blame, or throwing people under the bus, she's putting people on notice: protect me, or else. Prez Hill might go after snitches. (Not that it makes any real difference at this point, of course.)

320Busdriver said...

Worse was the way she so elegantly refers to the Benghazi Moms as liars for saying that they heard her tell them "it was all because of a disgusting video" as the caskets processed in front of them. Pure evil

Bob Boyd said...

Was Comey lying by omission when he didn't say "Hillary is lying sack of shit?"

Bob Boyd said...

A recording of the interview would have been Hillary repeating, "I'm sorry, I can't recall." over and over.
Before agreeing to an interview, Hillary's lawyers would certainly have insisted that no such tape or transcript would exist.

Rick said...

Bob Boyd said...
Was Comey lying by omission when he didn't say "Hillary is lying sack of shit?"


It is much more effective to show someone lied rather than merely assert it. In this case doubly so since it has driven so many Hillary shills to claim she didn't lie when the proof is right in front of everyone.

Bad Lieutenant said...

You have to admit Hillary Clinton is not incapable of learning from the mistakes of others. She certainly learned one lesson that has singlehandedly got her where she is today:

Dick, you shoulda burned the tapes.

MadisonMan said...

In HillaryWorld, if it's not proven absolutely that you're telling a bald-faced lie, then you're telling the truth.

In the Real World, if Hillary is talking, she's lying.

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

Based on her interview this weekend, even when it's proven she's telling a bold-faced lie, she pretends she's telling the truth.

You really have to wonder what kind of bubble she inhabits. Have we ever had a candidate so venal and corrupt? I don't think even Bill comes close.

Tyrone Slothrop said...

I admit this is hardly an original thought, but it bears repeating.

Republicans know she's lying and think it abominable.

Democrats know she's lying and applaud her for it.

There is a moral gulf between Republicans and Democrats-- Republicans know that a desirable end is not sufficient justification for all culpable acts.

Sam L. said...

For once, I think Kessler got one right.

eric said...

Blogger tim in vermont said...
Traditional Republicans will vote for Clinton but will not tell anyone their true intentions including pollsters


This is why trump has gained so much traction and why NeverTump, the media, and Democrats are so confused.

For as long as I can remember, the media has been playing this game where they pretend they don't understand what the Republican just told them. The Democrats gleefully play along. This year, it's no coincidence that NeverTrump, made up mostly of Republicans in the media, are also playing along.

If Trump wins, I hope Republicans take a card from this deck.

Stop believing and following what the media and Dems pretend is true.

The rest of us can see past the BS.

Levi Starks said...

Looks like we're going to need more Pinocchios

Unknown said...

I second Bob Ellison on ignoring the WAPO Fact Checker. Just because they got this one right doesn't mean they deserve any credit which ignores their past misdeeds. My concern is that none of the commenters notes how Chris Wallace sold out to Hillary in order to land the interview. His whole purpose for being there is to hold her feet to the fire in order that we, the viewers, get the truth. How many hours did it take Wallace to work out the Kabuki script he used to allow her to dance through the tulips on this black and white issue? Disgraceful. I give him four yellow-bellies.

Levi Starks said...

In Hillary's world...
I'm not going to prison = I've never told a lie in my life.

tim in vermont said...

Hillary lied to the FBI and lied to Congress. But Unknown does not care, because Unknown thinks that Hillary would never lie to her. She should read Christopher Hitchen's No One Left to Lie To for a left of center take on the Clintons.

tim in vermont said...

So Trump mad an accurate observation about Islam and its subjugation of women and he gets excoriated for disrespecting the family of a fallen soldier, Hillary calls another's mother a liar, and "crickets..."

Will said...

I have two daughters and Hillary will NEVER be a role model for them. Instead she is a cautionary tale of what toxic personal ambition, lack of values and immorality can do to a person. She is Dorian Gray in person. Willing to say anything and do anything to become President.

My daughters are ten times the women Hillary, or Chelsea, will ever be. Shame on Hillary and shame on the half the country willing to overlook her blatant lies. There was a time in my life where someone like her would have been humiliated for her shamelessness.

Now she is looking to throw her own team under the bus. The team that she left no recourse but to contact her in an insecure manner. How can her bad choices be their fault? If Hillary had used the State Dept secure systems this self-created crisis wold not have happened.

Do we really want a President than can likely be blackmailed by whatever her own carelessness has exposed? This is why we need leaders with character beyond reproach. Hillary fails this character test and is completely unfit to serve.

Bill Peschel said...

Original Mike said, "when she blamed the people who emailed her for the classified material on her server. It was subtle, but she did it more than once."

A competent reporter there would have added it wouldn't have been a problem if she had followed the rules.

tim in vermont said...

You would think, with her famous experience and judgement, that she would recognize classified material when she saw it, with even the (C) in the margins as a hint, but our Hillary? Not too bright. Stupid is as stupid does.

Bruce Hayden said...

I think the absurdity is that she seems to think that the American people are stupid and ignorant. No one was surprised when those documents ultimately got classified. Or, shouldn't have been surprised. They were the types of documents that routinely get classified. Or, were already classified. They just mostly hadn't gotten classified yet, because the information was real time, or close to it, and the classification process hadn't caught up with it yet. The NDA that the all, including Crooked Hillary, had to sign should have helped. It didn't. The big problem was most likely that she was the person in the State Department whose authority controlled the classification of anything that originated in her department. She was one of 4 or 5 original classifiers in the federal govt. if she had formally declared that anything sent to her at her private server was not classified, she might have been ok. She apparently didn't, and should have been expecting documents classified under her authority under guidelines she could have changed to ultimately be classified. And ditto for all the underlings emailing her documents that would ultimately be classified under those guidelines.

Original Mike said...

"I think the absurdity is that she seems to think that the American people are stupid and ignorant."

Have you met Unknown?

Michael The Magnificent said...

Worse was the way she so elegantly refers to the Benghazi Moms as liars for saying that they heard her tell them "it was all because of a disgusting video" as the caskets processed in front of them. Pure evil

Who to believe. Hillary, or my lying eyes (money shot starting at the 6 minute mark).

Left Bank of the Charles said...

Let's look at the two statements that Comey testified were not true:

GOWDY: Secretary Clinton said there was nothing marked classified on her emails either sent or received. Was that true?
COMEY: That’s not true.

If someone copied material into her email that was marked classified but didn't copy the marking in a way that Hillary would have known the material was marked classified, Comey would be correct to say that's not true, but it would be wrong to infer that Hillary lied, or that Comey had said that she had lied.

GOWDY: Secretary Clinton said, “I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email. There is no classified material.” Was that true?
COMEY: There was classified material emailed.

If someone emailed classified material and Hillary replied to the email or forwarded it to someone else, and the text of the first email appeared below the reply or forwarding message that Hillary added, Comey would be correct to say there was classified material emailed, but Hillary would not be lying to say that she didn't email it.

It's been reported that 113 of 33,000 emails were afoul of Comey's standards - that still means that Hillary was 99.66% correct in her statements. The number marked classified has been reported as 3, or 99.99% correct.

Michael The Magnificent said...

It's been reported that 113 of 33,000 emails were afoul of Comey's standards...

So, you're in favor of Hillary being prosecuted for 113 counts of violating 18 U.S. Code § 793? I could live with that - Hillary being in prison for 1130 years.

18 U.S. Code § 793 - Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information

(e) Whoever having unauthorized possession of, access to, or control over any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note relating to the national defense, or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation, willfully communicates, delivers, transmits or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted, or attempts to communicate, deliver, transmit or cause to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted the same to any person not entitled to receive it, or willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it; or

(f) Whoever, being entrusted with or having lawful possession or control of any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, note, or information, relating to the national defense, (1) through gross negligence permits the same to be removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust, or to be lost, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, or (2) having knowledge that the same has been illegally removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of its trust, or lost, or stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, and fails to make prompt report of such loss, theft, abstraction, or destruction to his superior officer—

Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.

James Pawlak said...

The gave her hour---Because their rating system does not allow 1,257,007.64

buwaya said...

"If someone emailed classified material and Hillary replied to the email or forwarded it to someone else,"

This is why you need to use an official, secure email system. If you require, or permit, people to send you potentially classified information (or information that may be subsequently classified, as much of the comms to/from the Secretary of State(!)) and forward it, etc., it is gross negligence to let this data be sent to or archived on an unofficial, insecure system. Even non-classified communications are not appropriately exposed on private systems.

This is why private firms under regulatory controls permit NO company business over private email, regardless of sensitivity of the communication. I have seen senior executives terminated for violations of this and similar protocols.

Rick said...

Left Bank of the Charles said...
It's been reported that 113 of 33,000 emails were afoul of Comey's standards


If true this means 113 of Hillary's emails violate Hillary's standards. Many, many more of her emails violate classified information standards (there is no "Comey" standard). It's hard to tell if this person doesn't know enough to understand the difference or if he knows but is repeating the line most favorable to Clinton even though he knows it's wrong.

hombre said...

Left Bank: "It's been reported that 113 of 33,000 emails were afoul of Comey's standards - that still means that Hillary was 99.66% correct in her statements."

In other words Hillary was only "incorrect" about 113 potential felony counts. A small matter in the world of the amoral left and even smaller in the world of the Clinton's, who are above the law.

tim in vermont said...

Think of all of the women Bill didn't rape!

tim in vermont said...

GOWDY: Secretary Clinton said there was nothing marked classified on her emails either sent or received. Was that true?
COMEY: That’s not true.


This is the stuff that Hillary supporters are pushing? Yeesh!

tim in vermont said...

Director Comey said my answers were truthful, and what I’ve said is consistent with what I have told the American people, - Hillary Clinton

GOWDY: Secretary Clinton said there was nothing marked classified on her emails either sent or received. Was that true?
COMEY: That’s not true.

Tyrone Slothrop said...

Omar Mateen spared 99.9999849% of the US population, because he was such a great guy.

rcocean said...

Does anyone read the WaPo except liberal Democrats and George Will?

But i apologize, I'm repeating myself.

Michael Fitzgerald said...

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...
Interesting:

Julian Assange: ...There’s more than 1,700 emails in Hillary Clinton’s collection, that we have released, just about Libya alone.

8/1/16, 12:44 PM

Yoga routines, recipes for chocolate chip cookies, chat about the kids, just personal stuff...

Dan Hossley said...

Kessler knew she was lying because her lips were moving.

Guildofcannonballs said...

"Think of all of the women Bill didn't rape!

8/1/16, 5:43 PM"

Perfect.

Original Mike said...

"Julian Assange: ...There’s more than 1,700 emails in Hillary Clinton’s collection, that we have released, just about Libya alone."

If there are government related emails amongst the emails Hillary deleted I can't imagine anyone would not want them published.

Paul said...

If you want to be a successful LIAR, you have to believe your own lies.

And Hillary believes them. Might have took her a few days of repeating them before she started believing them, but she does. Self hypnosis.

damikesc said...

If there are government related emails amongst the emails Hillary deleted I can't imagine anyone would not want them published.

The government and media seem irritated that somebody is offering to do so.

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

Politifact has a better rating system. They awarded her "Granny pants on fire" for her lies.

Bruce Hayden said...

Talking Crooked Hillary and her email - apparently during her four years as Sec of State, neither she, nor her personal aide, Huma, ever took a security class or briefing, and two other close aides only took one, despite being a yearly requirement. This is the woman who was one of 4 or 5 original classifiers in the federal govt at the time. No wonder she was able to say with a straight face what she did about not essentially realizing that a number of emails on her private, insecure, server would be ultimately classified. Call it willful ignorance (as well as feeling supremely entitled). But wouldn't such willful ignorance, in the face of yearly requirements for security briefings and classes, constitute gross negligence, all on its own? More to me the extreme indifference you find in depraved heart/mind second degree murder charges and definitions, where the negligence is so gross and egregious that it constitutes the required general intent.

walter said...

I can imagine George Costanza using the "Wipe? Like with a cloth?" response. Try it.